The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A well-known realtor has slammed several attorneys for “jerking me around” over his $220,000 commission for the sale of a prominent East Bay Street building, telling Tribune Business: “They’re treating me like a step child.”

William Wong, an ex-Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA) president, said he had “not got one red cent” from the sale of 700 Bay Street, a property formerly owned by financier Derek Guise Turner.

This, he alleged, was despite being appointed as the exclusive realtor to sell the property by a group of Mr Turner’s former Bahamian clients, who were seeking to recover their money as the financier served a US jail term following his ‘guilty plea’ to wire fraud.

Mr Wong, in particular, blamed FNM Senator and ex-Cabinet Minister Carl Bethel, whose law firm - under the terms of a June 25, 2013, court/Order settlement agreement between Mr Turner’s former client - was charged with raising money to settle his outstanding commission.

That Order, a copy of which has been obtained by Tribune Business, requires Michael Foulkes, an associate in Mr Bethel’s law firm (and also the Free National Movement’s secretary-general), to sell Mr Turner’s remaining assets “and to pay over the net proceeds of such realised funds towards the reduction of the claim of William Wong, as maybe hereafter mutually agreed”.

However, recalling a conversation with Mr Bethel, Mr Wong told Tribune Business: “I asked Carl, and Carl said: ‘What money?’ I said: ‘The money Justice [Stephen] Isaacs said would be paid to us’. He said he didn’t know, and would have to ask Michael Foulkes about it.

“These guys have been jerking me around since the day this sale was finalised. Craig Butler was the attorney who gave me the exclusive on the building.”

The 700 Bay Street property, previously the headquarters for Mohammed Harajchi’s now-infamous Suisse Security Bank & Trust, was subsequently sold to Mr Turner. Following his legal ‘run in’ with the US authorities, it was eventually acquired by Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis’s law firm, Davis & Company.

The deal happened while Mr Davis was in Opposition, and Mr Wong said: “I showed ‘Brave’ Davis and those the building, and next thing I know they’re dealing with [attorney] Paul Knowles over the sale of the building, completely excluding me.

“Paul Knowles wants to offer me $50,000. I said no, I want my full commission of around $220,000.”

Mr Bethel, though, told Tribune Business that “no one is doing Mr Wong off”, and said the former Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA) president merely had to be “patient” while efforts were made to sell Mr Turner’s remaining assets.

Effectively acknowledging that Mr Wong has a legitimate claim, but disputing the realtor’s claim that he is being messed around, Mr Bethel said: “We’re working on that.

“Mr Wong had an arrangement with one group [of Mr Turner’s creditors], not the whole group. Notwithstanding that, we are accommodating Mr Wong. His interests are covered within the Order made, and we have to realise some assets.”

These assets include Bahamas-based vehicles formerly belonging to Mr Turner, and Mr Bethel said one needed to be repaired while another required a key to be sent from Germany.

“It’s just getting things in order to get the best price,” Mr Bethel said of the delay in compensating Mr Wong. “It’s no good selling a Mercedes without a key.

“The firm has been paying for that. Once we have these things all ready to be sold, he’ll [Mr Wong] be accommodated.

“Mr Wong has to be patient. There are some things beyond our control. His interests are taken care of in the Order. We are co-operating in trying to realise existing and other assets, and no one is doing Mr Wong off.”

Mr Bethel was unhappy that the realtor had ‘gone public’ over a legal matter, adding that attorneys were already representing his interests.

But, while praising Mr Butler for helping look after his interests, Mr Wong told Tribune Business that the attorneys and their clients had already helped themselves to the $8.165 million raised from selling Mr Turner’s Bahamian assets and ignored him.

This newspaper, too, has seen evidence that suggests some of the parties in the 700 Bay Street purchase may have been trying to cut Mr Wong, as ‘middleman’, out of the deal despite him being the ‘exclusive realtor’.

A March 14, 2008, letter from Mr Butler to Philip McKenzie, attorney and partner at Davis & Co, while thanking the latter for his $3.5 million offer, says “the only way it can be accepted in the present state” is on “a net basis”.

This, Mr Butler added, would require Davis & Co to pay all the legal fees and realtor commissions. He continues by saying that while another realtor, Peter Galanos, had contacted him over the purchase, “you should be aware that William Wong & Associates is the exclusive realtor in relation to this property”.

But, picking up the narrative, Mr Wong said he had to hire the law firm of Braynen and Symonette to get him on the list of Mr Turner’s creditors.

With the sale to Davis & Co completed several years ago, Mr Wong added: “To this day I’ve not got one red penny. In the meantime, they’ve [Turner clients and their attorneys] got their money, and said when they sell this stuff I’ll get a couple of dollars.

“They’re treating me like a step child. I haven’t got one red penny from these guys, and they’ve hung me out to dry. When the building was sold they went directly to Paul Knowles, and circumvented me until I found out what happened. The guy responsible for selling the building is left holding the bag.”

Mr Bethel and Mr Butler represented different clients of Mr Turner’s, the latter acting for the late Franklyn Butler’s family and companies. Other Turner creditors include FNM deputy leader, Loretta Butler-Turner and her husband, Edward.

While no one has seen the ‘settlement agreement’ apart from the parties privy to it, documents filed with the Supreme Court by Mr Turner himself within the last six weeks “estimate” that the late Mr Butler and his companies may have received $1.945 million of the $8.165 million, while Mrs Butler-Turner and her husband gained $80.500. Bethel, Moss & Co, by Mr Turner’s calculations, gained $195,000 in legal fees, while Edward Turner & Co received $9,950.

Mr Wong, though, said he should have been treated the same as the Turner client attorneys and received his commission “off the top”.

Arguing that, like them, he provided a service, Mr Wong said he was not one of Mr Turner’s former clients, and his commission should have been treated as a legitimate business expense.

“I don’t have the funds to sue these guys. It will take another 10 years,” Mr Wong told Tribune Business. “I‘ve been fighting these guys, and I’m so tired. At this point, I need the money.

“It’s put me in an untenable position. I’ve been waiting for this money for so long. I’m very insignificant in this whole thing. The lawyers got their money, and to go to court you’ve got to hire a lawyer, and they don’t come cheap. It’s frustrating, really frustrating.”