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Following the arrest of former Turks and Caicos Islands premier Michael Misick in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday, British authorities will be seeking his extradition to the TCI to answer questions in at least eleven criminal investigations.

According to the 265-page final report of the Turks and Caicos Islands 2008-9 Commission of Inquiry into possible corruption and/or other serious dishonesty on the part of former Cabinet ministers and other elected members of the legislature, in relation to Misick, the Commission recommended criminal investigation into the following and other similar matters in recent years:

-- Misick may have abused his position as premier and as leader of the Progressive National Party (PNP) by using PNP funds for his own purposes;

-- Misick accepted and failed to declare many gifts of money via the client account of his brother and attorney, Chal Misick, which were not, and could not reasonably be interpreted as being political in nature, and which he appears to have applied to his personal expenditure;

-- The payment of $500,000 by Dr Cem Kinay, through his company, Turks Ltd, to Misick was a possibly corrupt payment;

-- The receipt by Misick of $250,000, purportedly by way of loan from Inazio & Gataen Caltagirone, via the client account of Chal Misick, was possibly a corrupt payment;

-- Undocumented and unrepaid loans to Misick, collectively amounting to about $350,000 from Jeffrey Hall, Floyd Hall or his brother and Lillian Boyce or her brother were possibly corrupt payments to him for favours given in relation to a transaction engendering the money to facilitate such payments;

-- Misick in recent years accepted and failed to declare to the Registrar of Interests many gifts or purported loans of money via the client account of his brother and attorney, Chal Misick, which were possibly corrupt on account of possible favours given by him in his capacity as premier;

-- Misick promoted the abuse of the Crown Land Policy on a number of occasions, and benefited personally from that abuse;

-- Misick behaved in a possibly corrupt manner and/or in misfeasance of his public duty, by securing highly paid advertising contracts for his wife with the TCI Tourist Board and with Kerwin Communications purportedly acting on behalf of the Tourist Board, thereby potentially abusing his power with a view to enriching his wife and himself;

-- Misick behaved in a potentially seriously dishonest manner, including misfeasance in public office and dishonest misappropriation of public funds, by his possible misuse of government funds and facilities for his personal purposes in his use of aircraft chartered or leased by the government for official purposes;

-- A possibility of corruption and/or other serious dishonesty, including misfeasance in public office, in relation Misick in the chain of events leading to the eventual disposal of land at Joe Grant Cay at well below market price to a consortium led by Dr Cem Kinay, following the secret payment by Kinay of $500,000 to him in January 2007, followed by the approval by Cabinet on 16 May 2007, to which Misick was a party;

-- Possible corrupt and/or otherwise seriously dishonest involvement, including misfeasance in public office, of Misick in relation to the government’s transactions with Mario Hoffmann of DEVCO for the development of Salt Cay;

Other findings by the Commission in relation to Misick in respect of which no recommendations were made are as follows:

-- Misick failed repeatedly throughout his period of membership of the Legislature of the TCI to make full and accurate declarations of his interests;

-- Misick failed in several important respects to make adequate disclosures in response to the Commission’s requests, pursuant to its powers under the Commissions of Inquiry Ordinance, for full and accurate disclosure of his financial interests.

In November last year, Chal Misick was charged with money laundering in the amount of $2.7 million on behalf of his brother, Michael Misick. he is also reported to be facing additional money laundering charges totalling some $14 million.

In July of this year, an international arrest warrant – a Red Notice – was issued by Interpol for Kinay’s arrest in relation to the ongoing corruption investigation in the TCI.

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