The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The ‘Panama Papers’ fall-out should deter the Government from contributing to the “self-destruction” of the Bahamian financial services industry through further data leaks, a Queen’s Counsel (QC) said yesterday.

Fred Smith, legal director for Save the Bays, the non-profit environmental organisation whose private e-mails were disclosed in Parliament, said the Panamanian breach must be a “wake-up” for the Government.

The repercussions flowing from the 11.5 million documents obtained from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, he added, highlighted the negative consequences for the Bahamas and its financial services industry if Cabinet ministers and MPs disclosed confidential information belonging to private citizens.

However, Mr Smith said that in the Bahamas’ case, it was doing the damage to itself.

And he accused Cabinet ministers and MPs of sacrificing the Bahamas’ national interests at the expense of protecting Canadian fashion designer, Peter Nygard, simply because he was a major financial donor to the governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).

“The catastrophic meltdown that is going to result to the Panama financial services industry from this breach is the same thing that’s going to happen in the Bahamas,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business yesterday.

“Except that we’re shooting ourselves in or own foot, or cutting of our own financial nose to spite Save the Bays.”

The controversy surrounding the decision by two Cabinet ministers and one MP to disclose Save the Bay’s private e-mails shows no sign of abating, especially given that two of the three remain unrepentant over their actions.

Both Jerome Fitzgerald, minister of education, science and technology, and Tall Pines MP, this week threatened to ‘double down’ by releasing further Save the Bays-related information.

Mr Smith warned that such a move would only exacerbate the anxieties of jittery investors and financial services clients, already spooked by the ‘Panama Papers’ leaks, which threaten to undermine legitimate desires for privacy and confidentiality.

“It’s time for our MPs, Mitchell, Fitzgerald and Miller, to wake up before they unwittingly contribute to the destruction of the Bahamian financial services industry and the confidentiality that exists in the Bahamas,” the Callenders & Co attorney and partner told Tribune Business.

“The desire to attack Save the Bays at all costs just to further the interests of Mr Peter Nygard, simply because he’s a financial contributor to the PLP, is really irresponsible as to the interests of the nation as a whole.”

Describing the threat of more Save the Bays leaks as “completely irresponsible”, Mr Smith added: “Mr Miller is threatening to feed more information to support the assertion that Save the Bays is seeking to destabilise the current administration.

“If he does that in the face of the international furore and anxiety being created by the Panama Papers leak, people will flee the Bahamas and the damage will be invisible. We won’t actually know what business is left.”

Save the Bays has been accused by Cabinet ministers of ‘hypocrisy’ for demanding a Freedom of Information Act on one hand, while seeking to prevent further leaks of its data on the other via Supreme Court injunctions.

Mr Smith, though, warned that any further leaks would undermine the client confidentiality and associated protections upon which the Bahamian financial services industry is founded.

“If our own Cabinet ministers are leaking the private and confidential information of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other private citizens in the Bahamas, under the cloak of Parliamentary protection, we are really going to sink as an international financial centre,” Mr Smith added.

“I call on the Government to stop being irresponsible, using our private and confidential information to make unfounded and spurious allegations of destabilisation against Save the Bays, and let the parties to the litigation duke it out in court.”

Mr Smith argued that the ‘Panama Papers’ provided a “teachable moment” on the need to protect confidentiality and client confidence, and what was needed to be recognised as a reputable international financial centre (IFC).

“We can either profit from the Panama Papers fiasco, or we can be the authors of our own destruction,” he said.

Save the Bays, which is funded by Mr Nygard’s arch-enemy, hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon, has launched a number of legal cases challenging the Government’s action - or inaction - over the Canadian fashion designer’s development activities at Nygard Cay.

The Judicial Review cases, which are all ongoing, were launched on suspicion that, in return for Mr Nygard’s campaign contribution, the Government was preparing to retroactively legalise his unpermitted Crown Land reclamation and Nygard Cay’s near-doubling in size.

However, the Government is arguing that Save the Bays is a political organisation operating under the guise of an environmental organisation. It is claiming that the group is waging a campaign to “destabilise” the Bahamian Government, financed by foreign money.

Mr Smith yesterday urged the Government to step back from the fray, and let Save the Bays, together with Mr Nygard and Mr Bacon, fight their private battles in the