According to sources within the Progressive National Party (PNP), top party faithful are networking to decide how to reorganise the party in the wake of pending criminal prosecutions of party leader Clayton Greene, four former ministers and one former backbench member.
Former cabinet ministers Floyd Hall, Jeffrey Hall, Lillian Boyce and McAllister Hanchell have been arrested and released on bail. Former backbench member and Boyce’s ex-husband, Samuel Been has also been charged and released on bail. Boyce is currently married to editor in chief of the TCI Sun newspaper, Hayden Boyce.
When Greene, the former Speaker of the House of Assembly, was first arrested and interviewed by the special investigation and prosecution team (SIPT), he released a public statement asserting his innocence in relation to the accusations of money laundering in question, but also acknowledged that, if and when he was charged, the PNP could possibly decide to replace him.
Now that Greene has been formally charged and arraigned, PNP members are said to be reviewing their options, which is complicated by the fact that, for well over a year, the party has not had a deputy leader since it rejected Greene’s choice of Albray Butterfield Jr.
Previous contenders for leadership included E.J. Saunders, who heads the Digicel operation in the TCI; attorney Carlos Simons; and former premier Michael Misick, who is now reported to be living in the Dominican Republic.
Simons, who was initially appointed by former Governor Gordon Wetherell to chair the Consultative Forum but resigned this post to run for the PNP leadership, also represented Devco, the firm planning to develop Salt Cay.
Other PNP members and associates that have also been arrested and charged are attorney Chal Misick (Michael Misick’s brother); Lisa Hall, wife of Floyd Hall; Earl Robinson, brother of Lillian Boyce; and Quinton Hall, brother of Floyd Hall.
PNP leaders and insiders not implicated to date include Washington Misick, who during his brother Michael’s administration directed the operations of the TCI Bank, which went bankrupt within three years of commencing operations, taking with it millions of depositors’ dollars along with over $23 million in government pension funds.
Other sources outside the political arena claim that certain employees and directors of the TCI Bank may also be under investigation.
Along with EJ Saunders is his father, former Chief Minister Norman Saunders Sr., a backbench member during the Misick administration, who in the mid eighties was jailed by US authorities for drug trafficking.
Former MPs Karen Delancy and Don Hue Gardiner, as well as Phillip Misick, who is said to head the failed St Charles Place Development, remain proclaimed PNP members, as does former elected MP now talk show host Robert Hall and radio station owner Devon Williams. However, Williams’ radio station Blaze Radio currently appears to be out of service,
Royal Robinson, who won the North Caicos seat from his brother Clarence Selver in the 2007 election and who served briefly as deputy premier, remains an outspoken senior PNP member, having published numerous lengthy articles critical of the Interim Administration. Robinson, a former surveyor, was reported to have put up his extensive land holdings as collateral for monies borrowed for PNP election campaign funding in 2007. Robinson also made news as the beneficiary of thousands of dollars in honorariums connected with the hospital and health care contract. Robinson was the PNP-appointed liaison officer for the hospital construction and clean up of the Provo dump site, which remains an unsolved problem.
Former PNP minister and short term premier Galmo Williams has not been heard from recently except for his role in a bar brawl involving other PNP members last year. Sources have reported that his wife’s travel agency operation relative to overseas medical travel during the PNP years is being looked into by the SIPT.
Another possible contender for the PNP leadership is the recently resigned director of medical services, Dr Rufus Ewing, whose largely unexplained resignation coincided with those of other PNP supporters that resigned important government positions. Ewing’s father is Hilly Ewing, a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM).
The SIPT has said they will be active in the TCI for three years, leaving the public to speculate on who or what organization may be targeted next.
While this was not confirmed by sources within the PNP, there may however be a tentative decision not to act on the leadership issue until the election date has been announced and when the prosecutions may be further along.
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