The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

EXUMA & Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper said yesterday the government must explain why it entered into a heads of agreement with Oban Energies ahead of the company submitting an environmental impact assessment and evidence of adequate funding.

Mr Cooper said the Progressive Liberal Party, like much of the country, is working to grasp the basics of the arrangement the Minnis administration entered into this week.

Peter Krieger, Oban Energies’ non-executive chairman, has confirmed to The Tribune that he was one of three defendants who was accused of misappropriating more than $3.7m of investor monies by US government regulators.

That lawsuit, which was filed by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2005, was settled without going to trial some three years later. Mr Krieger, who challenged the allegations against him, paid a $110,000 civil penalty “without admitting or denying” the claims, and agreed to be bound from committing future securities law violations.

Addressing the revelation yesterday, Mr Cooper said the Minnis administration has many questions to answer and demanded it come clean to the Bahamian people.

“We do have some concerns,” the PLP deputy leader said. “We do have a lot of questions. We would like to understand the extent and the nature of the due diligence by the government to determine the fit and properness of the principles and the shareholders of Oban Energies.”

Mr Cooper added: “Certainly, we will also be interested in the financial due diligence that may have been carried out to give the government assurance that the project was ready to be in the heads of agreement phase.”

He continued: “(The government) must speak to the readiness of this project given what we heard in the recent press conference, that they intend to deliver a banking letter for funding; they intend to do an environmental study.”

Mr Cooper said the entire ordeal seems “curious” given that the project was nurtured by the Free National Movement since coming to office.

Press Secretary Anthony Newbold earlier this week stressed that the project satisfied government criteria for deals of this magnitude.

He stated: “Obviously to have gotten it to the stage where you got to yesterday (Monday) where government felt comfortable to sign the heads of agreement, you talk about due diligence, then yeah that must have been done to the point where all the technical people were comfortable.”

Mr Newbold later added: “I don’t know very many bankers or venture fund capitalists will just be giving out money because someone says ‘I have this wonderful project in the Bahamas, just give me $50m.’ Lots of things would have to happen, including something that would comfort a financier.”

Asked if the government is comfortable with the people involved in the project, Mr Newbold said: “Up to this point, I would say yes and had to be to sign that agreement (Monday).”