Former Exuma MP Elliot Lockhart, KC, is facing an application to send him to prison after he allegedly failed to refund more than $3m his client gave his firm to hold in escrow.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Editor
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
A FORMER member of parliament and Supreme Court judge is facing an application to send him to prison after he allegedly failed to refund more than $3m his client gave his firm to hold in escrow.
Court documents said Dr Paul Fuchs sent the firm of former Exuma MP Elliot Lockhart, KC, $3,033,453.80 to hold in escrow for proposed real estate transactions and ancillary applications –– but the money was not returned when the proposed deals were cancelled and abandoned.
Mr Lockhart and Patricia Bullard, the interim administration director of Lockhart & Co, are defendants.
Supreme Court Justice Denise Lewis-Johnson froze various accounts connected to them in September and ordered them to produce evidence of their worldwide assets exceeding $3m and their efforts to return their clients’ money.
Dr Fuchs’ lawyers applied to commit Mr Lockhart and Ms Bullard to prison in October, arguing they did not comply with Justice Lewis-Johnson’s September 13 order.
Dr Fuchs, a foreign national who owns a home in Exuma, claimed in his statement of claim that he hired Mr Lockhart’s firm for legal services around May 11, 2022, wiring money to that firm’s FirstCaribbean International Bank account.
When the real estate transactions didn’t materialise, he wrote to the defendants on April 27, 2023, to request a refund “and followed up this request with numerous emails, telephone calls and further requests”.
He said eventually, the defendants responded by letter on August 20, 2023, saying they believed the funds had been repaid in two separate transactions.
“It is averred that the defendants have refused to return the funds to the claimants and are unwilling or unable to do so,” Dr Fuchs’ statement said.
The defendants allegedly made two meaningful attempts to return the money, according to the statement. One, they reportedly sent a test wire around July 25, 2023, for $300 to the claimant’s account. Second, they allegedly sent a cheque to them with the wrong date, which was ultimately not honoured.
Dr Fuchs accused the defendants of negligence, breaching their fiduciary duty and breaching a contract.
Mr Lockhart, who could not be reached for comment up to press time, filed an affidavit on September 21 outlining his alleged efforts to refund the client.
He claimed he sent the claimant’s money on June 2, 2023, but the attempt was “truncated by the instruction of the client”.
He said a subsequent attempt was not processed and was eventually marked as a failure.
He said a cheque was drafted and sent to the claimant. He acknowledged the incorrect date on the cheque. “On receipt of the said cheque, the claimant, instead of requesting a new cheque, the claimant altered the date by ink, making the cheque appear tampered with,” he said. “That cheque was returned to the bank and a stop payment was placed on it.”
FirstCaribbean, in response to a court order, said they had “no record of any attempts by Lockhart & Co and/or Elliot B Lockhart KC to return the said amount”.
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