By: Candia Dames

22 December 2005


Fredric Bourke, who was indicted in the United States along with Bahamas permanent resident, Viktor Kozeny, filed an “unusual motion” in a U.S. district court in New York alleging that he has lost “every penny of his investment” as a result of Kozeny’s criminal conduct.

In the court document, Bourke, who owns the handbag brand Dooney & Bourke, alleges that in the late 1990s, he was lured by Kozeny into investing millions of dollars of his own money into an investment opportunity relating to the privatization of state-owned businesses in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Bourke steadfastly maintains his innocence and states that he intends to mount a compelling defense at his trial.

The document also says that evidence will show that Bourke went to great lengths to document and expose Kozeny’s wrongdoing and that Bourke’s actions are entirely inconsistent with those of a person engaged in the crimes charged, who would seek to conceal, rather than publicize, allegedly illicit activities.

In October, U.S. officials indicted Kozeny, Bourke and David Pinkerton, an executive at insurance firm AIG, charging them with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it a crime to offer to pay, or to pay, foreign government officials in order to obtain or retain business.

They were also charged with violating the Travel Act and money laundering.

U.S. officials alleged that they sought to ensure that the officials in Azerbaijan would privatize the state oil company (SOCAR) and allow them to share in the anticipated profits arising from the privatization.

Kozeny is being held at Her Majesty’s Prison in Fox Hill awaiting a court to set a date for his extradition proceedings. On Tuesday, Magistrate Carolita denied him bail when he appeared in her court.

An extradition hearing is set for January 30.

The US government alleges that Kozeny – a Czech born Lyford Cay resident – hatched a plan in the late 1990s to make a fortune when the state oil company was privatized.

According to the government, Kozeny intended to acquire for himself and co-conspirators sufficient vouchers and options to purchase at auction a controlling interest in Azerbaijan’s lucrative oil and gas industry.

It is alleged that Kozeny established two investment entities, Oily Rock Group, Inc., and Minaret Group Ltd. to achieve this plan.

Bourke’s attorneys say they will show through "compelling, corroborated evidence" that while Bourke was told in early 1998 that Azeri officials had numerous vouchers and might participate in Oily Rock, he reasonably believed that this participation would be through "legitimate investment, not any corrupt payments."

The court document also says that Bourke will also present irrefutable evidence that at the very time when he was allegedly conspiring with Kozeny in an unlawful scheme, he had begun to suspect that Kozeny was using Oily Rock and Minaret to engage in a criminal enterprise, which involved defrauding the Azeri people and the investors.

Kozeny’s co-defendant also alleges that he went to great lengths to collect evidence proving the fraud that Kozeny was perpetrating on the investors.

That evidence, according to Bourke’s attorneys, was compiled in a document called the "Book", the central purpose of which was to persuade law enforcement to investigate and prosecute Kozeny.

According to the attorneys, the Book – a centerpiece of Bourke’s defense – is comprised of a memorandum and hundreds of pages of detailed supporting documents, which provide a step-by-step account of Kozeny’s alleged criminal conduct.

The court document further alleges that Bourke even went to Azerbaijan and presented the Book to the president of Azerbaijan in an effort to thwart Kozeny’s criminal actions.

"It is simply not credible that if, as set forth in the indictment, Mr. Bourke was involved in criminal activity with Aliyev (the president) he would have gone to Azerbaijan – where President Aliyev had unfettered authority – to confront Aliyev with clear documentary evidence that, under the government’s theory, Mr. Bourke allegedly believed implicated Aliyev," the document states.

"To so threaten the Azeri leader, a de facto dictator and a former general in the KGB, would have put Mr. Bourke at considerable risk."

The document says Bourke’s defense will be presented through numerous witnesses, many of whom are or were leaders in the legal, business and diplomatic communities.

It said there is also "extensive exculpatory documentary evidence" including the Book, detailed financial records, corporate records and spreadsheets.

"Together this evidence will show that Mr. Bourke was among the many victimized innocent investors who lost their entire investment totaling more than $100 million to the duplicity of Kozeny and [his cohorts]," the document states.

The purpose of Bourke’s motion, which was field November 15 in the U.S. District Court in New York was an attempt to consolidated all the charges the men face before one judge. But The Aspen Times, in Colorado, where Bourke is a part-time resident, reported that the motion was denied earlier this month.

23 December 2005

By Candia Dames


Hundreds of Bahamians seeking to confirm the paternity of children have reportedly been taking DNA tests at a local facility, but an official in the Ministry of Health said on Thursday that the operation should be licensed, but is operating illegally.

However, an analyst at Masterscan said the operation has a business license and has been legally advised that it does not need to be licensed by health regulators.

"They want to call [it] a laboratory, but where is the equipment?" asked Garvin Gibson, who told The Bahama Journal that he’s a trained genetic researcher. "All we do is lick stamps and mail envelopes."

Mr. Gibson said officials at Masterscan take saliva swabs of "alleged" fathers and children then mail them to Lapcorp, a lab in the United States, so the samples can be analysed. The fee is $450 per test, which he said is reasonable given that Masterscan "sells truth".

Within two weeks, Mr. Gibson said, clients get results they can trust.

According to Lapcorp’s website, the company’s main address is in North Carolina.

"This company pricks and prods for profit," the website says. "Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) is one of the top providers of clinical laboratory services in the world. LabCorp performs more than 4,000 types of tests for clients such as hospital, pharmaceutical firms, physicians, HMOs, government agencies, and employers."

The website also says its services include clinical research, paternity and forensics tests, and predictive testing for breast and ovarian cancer.

"The doctors in the States do all of the laboratory work and they basically provide me with finished documents detailing their findings," explained Mr. Gibson, who showed the Journal a sample report from LabCorp.

"The report is done by the lab and the doctor reviews their work and then signs off on it if everything is done properly."

But Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health Dr. Merceline Dahl-Regis said the Ministry of Health knows nothing about the work of Masterscan.

"There are many concerns this raises, including false results, informed consent and who has access to the data," Dr. Dahl-Regis said.

Mr. Gibson said his operation would only fall under the purview of health authorities if it drew blood and he explained that only saliva samples are taken.

In fact, he explained that the clients are really the ones taking their own samples as they put the Q-tips in their mouths and seal the samples "in my presence".

"Then I mail it," Mr. Gibson said.

An official at the Healthcare Facilities Board also confirmed on Thursday that Masterscan is not licensed with the regulatory body to conduct DNA testing.

But Mr. Gibson explained to The Bahama Journal that the operation is a legitimate one because there are medical doctors involved.

"There’s nothing that covers [the taking of saliva] under the health department," he said. "We’re standing on our grounds as far as Masterscan Ltd. is concerned. We use licensed doctors who have health certificates."

Mr. Gibson said clients seeking paternity tests have been filing into the Robinson Road facility, which operates in affiliation with Complete Family Practice, a clinic run by Dr. Brian Tynes.

However, Dr. Dahl-Regis said if Masterscan is taking saliva samples, then that’s a medical procedure that does fall under the purview of health regulators.

Mr. Gibson, meanwhile, said he is responsible for ensuring that all samples are accounted for and he indicated that Masterscan is providing a crucial service to the Bahamian community.

He said that while most clients are adults trying to confirm the paternity of children for the purposes of child support, there have been cases of adults also trying to confirm who their fathers are, or were.

Mr. Gibson said in one instance, a body was exhumed to determine whether a deceased man really was the father of the client.

In another case, he said, a woman found out that she was not the biological mother of a child because nurses at a Florida hospital reportedly made a mistake. According to Mr. Gibson, the woman was eventually united with her biological child because of the service of Masterscan.

"DNA testing for paternity issues, I would say is vital," he said. "Primarily persons work during their adult life usually for their future and the future of their children, their families…and that [child] is likely to be the greatest investment of that person’s life. I advise people that if there is a question in your mind, $450 isn’t much to pay."

Since it started operating in early 2003, Mr. Gibson said Masterscan has had more than 300 clients. In February, he said the company conducted free testing and more than 110 families from New Providence and the Family Islands.

"It’s growing every day," said Mr. Gibson, who claimed that clients have included religious leaders, government officials and "everyday" people.

"This [service] is almost on the borderline of life and death. Your kids are everything…To find out that you’ve been raising these kids all this time and one of them or none of them is yours, that’s almost a waste of your life."

By: Candia Dames

22 December 2005



Chalk’s Ocean Airways voluntarily grounded its four remaining aircraft for inspection two days after an horrific plane crash off Miami Beach killed 20 people, including 11 Biminites, an official at the airline’s Paradise Island office told The Bahama Journal on Wednesday.

This revelation came after Mark Rosenker, acing chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States, said there were cracks in the main support beam of the wing that fell off the doomed Chalk’s aircraft.

Mr. Rosenker strongly intimated that the cracks may have been the reason for the deadly accident, which left residents on the tiny Bahamian island devastated.

The wing fell off the aircraft – which had been headed to Bimini – before it plunged into the water, according to officials.

"The examination of the wing root has found indications of a fatigue crack in the wing spar," Mr. Rosenker said at a news conference in Miami Beach

"This crack appears to extend through the majority of the spar at the location of the separation. I suspect had they known that there was a deep or a serious fatigue crack, and they would have learned that through a series of inspections, they would have repaired it and we wouldn’t be here today. I don’t think they knew it."

He added, "We don't know why that fatigue appeared. That is what we are trying to determine."

Mr. Rosenker also indicated that the plane’s age could have been a factor in the cracking. The seaplane that crashed was 58 years old.

Chalk’s has operated between Miami and the Bahamas since 1919.

Monday’s crash was the first Chalk’s accident involving passengers, according to the airline. In 1994, one of its aircraft crashed after taking off from Key West, killing two pilots.

On Wednesday, investigators pulled the mangled aircraft involved in the latest crash out the water as they continued their probe into the deadly crash, which Prime Minister Perry Christie described a day earlier as the greatest tragedy in Bimini’s history in living memory.

They used a crane aboard a barge to get the wreck out the water. The propeller and engine were still attached to the plane, which plummeted in 35 feet of water in Government Cut, just off the southern tip of Miami Beach.

Mr. Rosenker told reporters that inspectors will closely examine the wreck, particularly the cracking. They have reportedly already started interviewing Chalk’s employees.

He said in the 1980s the aircraft was retrofitted with more powerful engines, but it remained unclear whether this had a role in the cracking.

Mr. Rosenker said the NTSB will carefully examine Chalk’s maintenance and flight records to determine whether there had been any repairs made to the cracked wing.

The NTSB plans to transport the wing to its Washington lab for close examination.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the airline, which flies between Florida and The Bahamas, has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.

Data from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics show that in 2002, Chalk's Ocean Airways had net losses of $244,000 on operating revenues of over $5 million, AP reported.

By: Candia Dames

19 December 2005



After reportedly becoming frustrated by years of waiting for the government to make a decision on its liquefied natural gas proposal for The Bahamas, an energy company that had been pushing a plan for Grand Bahama has decided to pursue other options.

International press reports over the weekend said Suez (formally Tractebel) plans to build an LNG terminal in the ocean about 10 miles off Fort Lauderdale.

The company reportedly plans to import natural gas from Trinidad, Algeria and Egypt and would carry out its operation strictly in U.S. territory and not in The Bahamas as it had been proposing.

However, The Bahama Journal learnt on Sunday that Suez has not completely written off its plans for The Bahamas as the Grand Bahama Port Authority remains hopeful that the government would eventually approve the company’s proposal for Grand Bahama.

It has been no secret that Port officials are high on the plan as they seek to foster continued economic diversification in the nation’s second largest economy.

But The Bahamas Environment Science and Technology Commission (BEST) determined that the proposal to build an LNG facility in the Freeport Harbour was unacceptable, which left the company in search of another location on Grand Bahama for its project.

The Port had even recommended to the government that the cruise ship port be relocated on the island to accommodate the LNG project, but Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller said recently that no final decision had been made in this regard.

Former Port Co-chairman Sir Albert Miller told The Bahama Journal that the Port was still interested in the plan and he viewed it as the best solution to the concerns about an LNG plant in the harbour.

But it now appears that plan may never materialize unless the government moves swiftly to provide the necessary approvals to Suez.

The Sun Sentinel in Florida described Suez’s new LNG plan as an "outgrowth" of a previous plan for an undersea pipeline to bring in natural gas from The Bahamas.

The report said, "Suez was one of three companies to pursue such a plan, but the Bahamian government hasn’t given final approval to any of them. Tired of waiting, Suez is proposing an alternative that would place the project entirely in U.S. jurisdiction."

The other two companies waiting for the government to announce a decision on their LNG proposals are the AES Corporation and El Paso Corporation.

The Sentinel also said Suez, based in Paris, expects to file an application with the Coast Guard in the next few months to build a complex of buoys, anchors, cables and pipes to allow tankers to unload natural gas at sea.

The gas would go via pipeline to power plants, most likely in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, the report said.

Having applied more than four years ago under the previous administration, the energy companies have been waiting for the Christie Administration to make a decision on the matter.

An official at one of the companies told The Bahama Journal that the wait has been a frustrating one and no company can wait many years for a government to make up its mind.

The officials said his company had already spent millions of dollars doing preparation work for the project.

Some officials within the various companies have reportedly become more frustrated by the fact that Prime Minister Perry Christie and Minister Miller have been setting timelines for LNG approvals which never materialize.

For instance, at the beginning of this year, Prime Minister Christie said on a local talk show that his government would approve the AES project by the end of January 2005. But again, no such decision has been made.

That project calls for a plant to be built on tiny Ocean Cay near Cat Cay and Bimini in the northern Bahamas and for an LNG pipeline to be laid to South Florida to meet that state’s growing demand for energy.

While in Grand Bahama for the Ginn development signing week before last, the prime minister explained to The Bahama Journal that he was concerned that having LNG projects in The Bahamas would spoil this country’s image as a premier tourist destination, but he said circumstances had led the government to decide that it would approve the AES project "shortly".

"I think the new revelations of energy problems and the need for The Bahamas to take advantage of its proximity to the United States of America have given us a different perspective and a different value to that process," he told The Journal.

"Provided – as we have had – environmental impact assessments say that it is safe and that [there would be] very, very, very minimal implications to the environment then we, I believe, would go ahead in the very near future."

As reported in the Journal last week, Minister Miller said he wanted to steer clear of timelines, but he too said that the government is very likely to "soon" approve an LNG project.

"I think there’s a strong, strong possibility that very shortly the government will be giving the final approval for the AES Corporation to construct their terminal at Ocean Cay, off Bimini," Minister Miller said.

By Candia Dames

15 December 2005



After facing international outrage from animal activists over its plan to import a pod of dolphins from the Solomon Islands, Kerzner International has finalised a deal to bring in the beloved mammals from a Mississippi facility.

Bahamian law prohibits the capture of dolphins from Bahamian waters. Kerzner International’s Chief Marine Officer Frank Murru told The Bahama Journal on Wednesday that the company has been looking all over the world for dolphins.

The 17 dolphins who were made homeless when Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in late August, will be imported for Kerzner’s dolphin facility on Paradise Island, which is being developed as part of the billion-dollar Atlantis Phase III development.

Kerzner said in a release on Wednesday that Jill, Kelly, Jacki, Michelle, Tamra, Toni, Noah, Elijah, Tessi, Cherie, Brewer, Katelyn, Johnah, Wee Tee, Echo, Sasha and Naia have been separated since the storm.

Prior to the storm, they lived at the Marine Life Oceanarium, which was also home to 24 sea lions, and 22 exotic birds.

Kerzner said that since the storm, the tale of the dolphins has been told the world over. Some of the mammals reportedly weathered the storm in a hotel swimming pool, while others were swept into the Mississippi Sound.

Officials said while the dolphins are being cared for now, cold weather and the effects of separation could take their toll.

"There is an immediate need to move the dolphins to a permanent location," Kerzner International said.

Mr. Muru said once the dolphins arrive at their new home, they will be given complete medical evaluations, husbandry training, and ongoing behavioural evaluations and will be cared for in an acclimation/training habitat on the Atlantis property where pools and operational areas such as a state-of-the-art medical laboratory and food preparation facilities have been designed for the dolphins’ comfort and complete care.

"Obviously, the animals really do need to come to a new home and as you know we have been working on the construction of a new dolphin facility here at Atlantis so we couldn’t be more happy and excited about these animals coming to live here," he told The Bahama Journal.

Don Jacobs, who is the majority owner of Marine Life Oceanarium, said the best thing for the dolphins right now is to be reunited.

"Atlantis has established empathy for our animals, our people and efforts to rebuild the community," Mr. Jacobs said in the press release.

"They are committed to participating in these efforts by establishing a ‘Katrinia Kids’ program with us which will sponsor trips for Mississippi Gulf Coast school children to visit the resort and the dolphins."

The eleven-acre lagoon located on Atlantis grounds, designed to exceed facility regulations set forth by the United States and the world, will contain three interactive coves in a tropical setting complete with sandy beaches and is one of the largest manmade, inland dolphin habitats, Kerzner International said.

In addition to the interactive coves, the dolphins will live in seven interconnected resident pools, with more than six million gallons of crystal clear seawater.

The company also said that 250,000 gallons of water will be provided for each animal, more than 10 times the amount required by United States regulations. The facility will also serve as the first marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation facilities in The Bahamas. A permanent medical pool and six additional pools will be available for examinations and for quarantine, should the need arise.

The 45-member marine mammal staff will offer the dolphins round-the-clock veterinary care and is noted in the field for their high standards of marine-life stewardship, Kerzner said.

The company added that the team of trainers who have worked with the dolphins over the past few years will be asked to provide manpower assistance for the transport and move with the dolphins to their new home to facilitate acclimation.

Kerzner plans to open its dolphin attraction in January 2007.

Kerzner, meanwhile, has faced a setback in its plan to import a pod of 40 dolphins from the Solomon Islands as the World Society for the Protection of Animals claimed that the export would have been illegal.

"We have been talking to a great many people all over the world and the Solomon Islands were one of those places that we were talking to and they are still in the throes of working out the export logistics of animals coming from there so at this point in time…we’re just waiting at this point to see what’s going to happen there," Mr. Murru said.

"In the meantime we continue to pursue all of the other avenues that we have in the works."

He said the facility is capable of handling "many, many dolphins".