Workers Party asks FNM for help in forcing resignation of Gibson:





Claims treasury has been denied $90,000 by non-collection of stamp duty on Eastern Road Anna Nicole Smith property.
In Photo: Workers Party Leader Rodney Moncur>>>



The Tribune:
Nassau Bahamas -


THE Workers Party is asking the FNM’s help in forcing Immigration Minister Shane Gibson to resign.

The fringe party believes Mr. Gibson ignored an important principle in fast tracking the residency of Anna Nicole Smith before stamp tax was paid on a property she was supposed to be buying as a basis for her application. The party claims Mr. Gibson’s ministry failed to do due diligence in Ms Smith’s residency claim - and denied the treasury $90,000 by not insisting on stamp duty being paid for the $900,000 Eastern Road property before her application was approved.

Ms Smith and her former lover Mr. Ben Thompson, a South Carolina businessman, are locked in litigation over ownership of the house, Horizons, the former home of hotelier Ron Kelly. Mr. Thompson says he advanced the money for Ms Smith to buy the house, but only on the understanding that a mortgage would be executed for its repayment. At a press conference last week, Mr. Thompson said Ms Smith “double-crossed” him by reneging on the loan arrangement after she had moved into the house.

He said he had possibly been ‘set up’. Now he is trying to evict her and establish his ownership of the property through the courts.

In a letter to FNM leader Hubert Ingraham, Workers Party leader Rodney Moncur claims Mr. Gibson failed to “ensure the protection of the public purse” by granting Ms Smith residency without stamp tax being paid on the property conveyance “The whole purpose behind this policy of granting economic residency was to ensure that a foreigner invested in the Bahamas a minimum of $500,000 and for the government to derive any economic benefits there from, including the collection of all stamp taxes before the permit is granted.” Mr. Moncur alleges that “because of the friendship of Mr. Gibson and Anna Nicole Smith, the minister failed to protect the people’s interest. Shane Gibson must therefore be forced to resign.”

Demands

The Workers Party has also written to Prime Minister Perry Christie demanding the “immediate dismissal” of Mr. Gibson.

It claims that the only money collected by the treasury so far in this transaction is the $10,000 for the residency permit.

“Had Mr. Gibson not become personally involved in the processing of Anna Nicole Smith’s application...he would not have been in this mess,” the party says.

A big question mark now hangs over Mr. Gibson’s ministerial position because of the Anna Nicole controversy.

He is at loggerheads with Callenders, a prominent local law firm, after denying a young attorney’s claim that he personally received the $10,000 cheque from her at Ms Smith’s home.

Mr. Gibson categorically and publicly denied this claim, but the attorney - Ms Tracy Ferguson - and her employers are standing firmly by her story.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2006, PAGE 3

bahamian politics