The Punch newspaper tabloid, in it’s famously clever but always vague manner, has called attention to an amazing property deal which has highlighted the recent spree of unusual (read crooked) land sales in the Family islands.
Copies of papers from the Registrar General’s Office show that the land sale was signed and recorded by the law office of two senior politicians. The law office of another senior politician is also caught up in several unusual land sales.
The papers reveal that a company that is supposed to be 60% Bahamian owned – but has nothing filed to that effect – has bought a large piece of land on a Family Island for an unbelievable $64 an acre. It is impossible to find land for that price anywhere in the Bahamas.
So, the Public Treasury has been defrauded of stamp tax as the price was clearly faked. What’s more, the same land was allegedly sold before. Therefore, the title is no good. And now, the company that bought the big piece of land is selling parcelsof the property (which it may not even own) for almost $100,000 an acre. There is no exchange control permission or subdivision approvals.
Harald Fuhrmann and other valid critics of The Bahamas legal profession, and those cognisant of the incredible corruption and crime that occurs in the Government of The Bahamas, will have a field day on the Internet as foreign buyers begin to reveal how they were cheated on the island. A Florida-based Bahamian lawyer, who has vigorously defended the corrupt Bahamian legal mafia on Internet message boards, is behind the land sales scam.
