The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A senior Bahamian banker’s claim for wrongful/unfair dismissal over his dealings with a key figure in world soccer’s recent bribery scandal was this week rejected by the Supreme Court.

Justice Keith Thompson, in an April 26, 2021, verdict, found that Paul Major’s actions could potentially have cost BISX-listed CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) its banking licence after they were detailed in a US federal government indictment against that country’s top soccer executive.

He upheld the bank’s decision to dismiss Mr Major, then its head of international banking, for breaching its strict policies on dealing with US clients when he collected a $250,000 cheque from Charles “Chuck” Blazer, former general-secretary of soccer’s governing body for North and Central America, and the Caribbean, at New York’s JFK airport in late April/early May 2011.

Describing Mr Major’s behaviour as “evasive”, both when cross-examined at trial and earlier by CIBC FirstCaribbean investigators, Justice Thompson said “the critical display of dishonesty came” when the banker sought to argue that his employer’s policy on US clients - which prohibited collecting cheques on US soil - did not exist in 2011 when there was abundant evidence it had been in force from 2005.

“The possible consequences or fall-out of the actions of the plaintiff [Mr Major], in my opinion, had the potential of the defendant losing its banking licence altogether, thereby being prevented from carrying on the very purpose of its existence,” the judge ruled.

The verdict revealed that Blazer, who pled guilty in a US court to receiving more than $2m in bribes as part of the corruption scandal that engulfed soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, had been a CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) client since 2002.

Mr Major, who enjoyed a 23-year career with the bank prior to his dismissal, was Blazer’s relationship manager from that time and “handled small matter and large matters” for the American soccer executive.

However, prior to his New York trip to meet Mr Blazer and pick-up the fatal cheque, Justice Thompson said the evidence showed Mr Major was aware of an increasing number of media reports making allegations of corruption/bribery against his client and other members of the region’s governing soccer body. At one point he e-mailed Blazer suggesting he “stay out of the news”.

The New York rendezvous was detailed in the US government’s indictment against Blazer, the contents of which were reported by Tribune Business at the time. It described how a Bahamas banker from FirstCaribbean made a round-trip to New York to collect a $250,000 cheque from Blazer, which was part of a $10m bribe to influence voting on which nation would stage the 2010 soccer World Cup.

The banker then flew back to the Bahamas on May 3, 2011, and deposited the $250,000 into Blazer’s CIBC FirstCaribbean bank account in Nassau, which had been undeclared to the US tax authorities until the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began its FIFA bribery probe.

Mr Major, in his evidence, asserted: “When I collected the cheque from Blazer in May 2011 I had no knowledge at all of his criminal conduct. I had no reason to suspect that the cheque was anything other than what he said it was, that is, fees/commissions.”

Giving further details, he asserted: “I cannot recall the exact date, but on one of the days between April 27, 2011, and May 2, 2011, while on vacation in New York I received a telephone call from Blazer. He asked me where I was, and I told him I was in New York and departing on Monday, May 2.

“Blazer told me that he had a cheque to deposit to his current account. He told me that the cheque was from CONCACAF (soccer’s governing body for the Caribbean, including The Bahamas) and that it represented fees/commissions owed to him. He asked if I could stop by his office to collect the cheque and to take it for deposit to the current account.”

Mr Major said Blazer also voiced concern about the mortgage that was secured on a condo he owned at Atlantis’s Reef development, asserting that the condos were overvalued and that the cheque proceeds would be used to start paying off the loan.

The banker confirmed he endorsed the cheque and then deposited it to Blazer’s CIBC FirstCaribbean bank account on May 3, 2011. He later admitted, under questioning from CIBC FirstCaribbean investigators, that Blazer used to send his girlfriend and others to visit the bank’s Shirley Street branch and deposit funds to the account.

Blazer, as part of his subsequent guilty plea, agreed to forfeit 50 per cent of the $1m he had stashed away at CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas), admitting his “wilfull failure” to report its existence to the US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for income tax purposes.

Meanwhile, the Blazer indictment and the reference to the Bahamian CIBC banker, triggered alarm bells at the bank which engaged the international law firm, Mayer Brown, to initiate an investigation. The bank was especially concerned that its policies prohibiting dealing with US clients on American soil had been breached.

Bahamas-based financial institutions have to be ultra careful in dealing with US clients given the global reach of that country’s tax and legal system, and the extreme consequences they could suffer if they fall afoul of it - especially given their reliance on continuing access to the US financial system for clearing transactions.

Melissa Francis, one of the Mayer Brown investigators, provided testimony on their interview of Mr Major that Justice Thompson said was “critical” to the outcome of the case. When Mr Major was handed a copy of the indictment, she said there was “an extensive pause..... He then, unprompted, said: ‘Hmmmm.... wow’, and he appeared visibly worried and shaken.”

When asked if he was the person referred to, Mr Major replied: “I’ll have to look at my records.” Under further questioning, he admitted: “I suppose it’s possible it was me” and gave further vague answers when asked whether he frequently met Blazer in New York.

As the interview neared the end, Mr Major told the investigators: “This one I’m going to need some time on.” And his parting shot to them was: “You really know how to shake a person.”

Marie Rodland-Allen, the bank’s now former managing director, said the investigation’s outcome made clear that Mr Major had to be dismissed because his conduct in breaching the strict rules on dealings with US clients showed he posed “a real danger” and “a real risk”.

Mr Major, though, did not take his dismissal well. The minutes of that meeting, included in the court’s judgment, state: “Paul stood up slowly, took one to two steps and then collapsed on the floor in front of Marie Rodland-Allen’s closed office door and proceeded to cry.

“Antoinette Turnquest told him that while we understood this was hard, it was the bank’s decision which is final. She also explained to him that at that moment no one outside of the office wold be aware of what transpired, and he was asked to try and compose himself so as not to alert anyone to what had occurred prior to him being allowed to leave the premises.”