THE SHAMEFUL COLLAPSE OF PETER TURNQUEST

The dramatis personae in the scandal of the collapse of Peter Turnquest and Sky Bahamas.

The rumours have abounded for the past year that there was going to be a big scandal in connection with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest and the collapse of Sky Bahamas, the airline that he owned with Randy Butler and behind the scenes the financier being Fred Kaiser. The bomb dropped on Thursday 19 November 2020 when a writ was laid in Parliament by the Opposition’s Leader there Senator Fred Mitchell and a set of Parliamentary questions asked:

To the Leader of the Government

Sen Hon. Carl Bethel

19 November 2020

1.

Is the Government aware of the writ issued in the Supreme Court CLE 101128 in which one Kevin Peter Turnquest is therein named in an allegation as a conspirator to fraud in sums amounting to 20,680,337.33 dollars in connection with Sky Bahamas?

2 Is the Government able to confirm that this is the same Kevin Peter Turnquest who is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance?

3.

If so does the Government plan to make a formal statement with regard to this matter in the public interest?

The Government’s leader did not have an answer except to say that he was personally unaware of it.

There was silence for the whole day in response to it and then late on the night of the 18 November 2020, the Deputy Prime Minister issued a statement in which he said that he could not understand why his ex-partners were getting him involved in a fight between themselves. He was angry that his reputation was being sullied but he would continue to do his work.  Translation, he intended to go nowhere.

But hang on  here.  Who was the  Attorney for the other side again?  None other than Michael Scott Q C who was given the Q C after dissing Hubert Minnis as Opposition Leader but after crying for it like a spoilt child after the general election, Dr. Minnis conferred it upon him. Mr. Scott is also the Chairman of the Hotel Corporation, appointed by the Prime Minister to sell the Grand Lucayan Hotel. So this was no PLP conspiracy or plot.  This was FNMs fighting amongst each other.

But more importantly two Government officers calling one another liars.  There are conflicts of interest which affect them both between their private duties and their public offices. The PLP called for them all to go.

But don’t look for it any time soon. The Cabinet met on Friday 20 November 2020 to consider the matter and they are all sticking by the Deputy Prime Minister. Guess what though?  This means that they have all adopted the wrongdoing and will all go down with the ship when Peter Turnquest as he inevitably must go down.