The Tribune

• None of year's budgeted $3.8m paid out

• Policyholders warn 'in dire need of funds'

• Gov't: 'You're not forgotten'; update soon

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government was yesterday urged to "make it a new day" for long-suffering CLICO (Bahamas) policyholders amid concerns that zero of the $3.8m compensation allocated in the 2022-2023 Budget has been paid out.

Bishop Simeon Hall, who was among those impacted by the life and health insurer’s 2009 implosion, told Tribune Business that too many Bahamians are stuck "in the wilderness" more than 14 years later and have yet to recover all - or any - of their life and retirement savings.

With much attention focused on FTX's collapse, and the impact on potentially millions of international clients, he argued it was "taking too long" to make CLICO's Bahamian victims whole and renewed calls for the Government to fulfill its promises to those who continue to die in increasing numbers without ever recovering their full investments.

Other former CLICO (Bahamas) policyholders and clients, speaking on condition of anonymity, also contacted Tribune Business to warn that they and other victims "are in dire need of our funds" while questioning whether the Government intends to make the remaining collective $10m payout.

Documents accompanying the 2023-2024 Budget reveal that, while some $3.8m was budgeted by the Davis administration to meet its "CLICO obligations" during the current 2022-2023 fiscal year, none of this sum had been paid out to former policyholders and clients as at end-March 2023.

One policyholder confirmed that they and other victims have yet to receive a single cent this fiscal year, with the last payout taking place in March 2022 when a total $2.17m was received. "Today is June 20, which leaves only ten days in this month of June 2023 [and entire fiscal year]," they said.

"So it leaves me and countless others to wonder if CLICO/ the Government will stick to its word and conduct another payout. Persons concerned with this matter are anxiously waiting to hear an update.... Persons are in dire need of their funds. I and many others have not given up on receiving the funds owed to us."

The Davis administration has allocated a further $3.8m for CLICO (Bahamas) payouts in its 2023-2024 Budget, and the same amount for the following two years through 2025-2026, despite the concern among some recipients over whether the Government intends to see a formula devised under the last Ingraham administration through to the end.

Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance's financial secretary, yesterday reassured the insolvent life and health insurer's former clients and policyholders that they are not being neglected by the Davis administration. He disclosed to Tribune Business that the payouts had slowed because the Government is hoping to "shortly make a major announcement on CLICO.

Declining to go into details on the basis it would be premature to do so, Mr Wilson said: "I think we should be in a position to make a major announcement on CLICO shortly. I just want to be cautious and not move prematurely. That's one of the reasons we've slowed down the payouts.

"The situation is evolving. I cannot go into details, but soon - hopefully in the next couple of weeks - there should be an announcement from the Government with regard to CLICO." Asked what he would say to policyholders, Mr Wilson replied: "We haven't forgotten the obligation. It's been a long, long process, but they've just got to wait. We cannot be premature with the announcement."

Craig A. ‘Tony’ Gomez, the Baker Tilly Gomez accountant and principal, remains gagged in his role as CLICO (Bahamas) liquidator and unable to speak publicly. However, Tribune Business confirmed yesterday that around $10m remains to be paid out collectively to CLICO (Bahamas) clients who have surrendered their life and other insurance/investment policies.

"I'm disappointed that so many persons are out in the wilderness," Bishop Hall told this newspaper yesterday of the CLICO (Bahamas) collapse. "I'm calling on the Prime Minister, who's doing a good job and seems to have good intent, that he needs to make it 'a new day' for the people of CLICO. Make it a new day for the people of CLICO.

"A friend of mine in Abaco, brother Pinder, he's lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I didn't know so many people were waylaid by this debacle. Every so often I meet people who say they have not recovered anything, and some who have not got all they put in. I got two-thirds of what I put in, and that was church money."

Had he recovered all his CLICO (Bahamas) investment, Bishop Hall said he would be "well on the way to buy a new kidney" rather than - as he is currently doing - paying $900 for dialysis three times per week. Many believe the Government was obligated to step in and make the payouts given that regulatory weakness at the then-Registrar of Insurance, and lack of supervisory oversight, has long been viewed as playing a major party in the insurer's insolvency.

"There should be some way that the average citizen is protected from these investments going belly up," Bishop Hall reiterated. "The Government is expected to protect people not only from robbers and thieves but those under the umbrella of investments and providing financial services. The poor man should be protected.

"I think the Bahamian people who are still waylaid by this should cry out to their MPs to bring a new day philosophy to resolving this thing that has been going on for 14 years. It's an affront to all that we say otherwise. The Bible says don't let your good works be over-simplified; don't let the bad overtake the good you do. The Government in this instance did an awful lot of good, but there are still some people waylaid.

"We should have been better protected. Will it happen again? It happened with that bank in Grand Bahama [Gulf Union] many years ago. CLICO shouldn't have happened in this environment where we seek to protect the investments people put into it. The people waylaid by this should cry out. I can't do it. I'm 76. I am a retired pastor with physical challenges," he continued.

"What are the regulatory things that can be done to protect people from this kind of debacle? I know people who died with money in CLICO and never got straight. Let us keep it alive until people recover their investment. What can we assure the public so that this doesn't happen again?

"I got something, but only because I made a lot of noise. What about those persons looking for something and not got a penny, and those who died and never got straight with this CLICO thing. It's taking too long, too long."

Another CLICO policyholder, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "When I called the office, they said they had prepared spread sheets and were just waiting" to receive the release of the promised funds from the Ministry of Finance.

"It's not that much but it's significant enough," they added of what remains due to them. "We did get something with the initial one, the annuities, and we're still waiting on some other funds. Just waiting. We have stuff that needs to be done that those funds will take care of. Outside of the ordinary day-to-day living it really impacts us. We have financial obligations.

"It's really myself and my mum, who is in her 80s. It impacts her more than myself. We don't know how much longer she has. She's healthy, but people are dropping down dead. Some persons are really hurting, more so than others, but everyone's in dire need of their funds. I would really like to hear something because we have not heard anything."

It is thought that a cumulative $75m may have been paid out by the Government to-date since the first payments were made in 2016 under the last Christie administration. For example, some $6.629m was paid in 2020-2021. The Government has effectively stepped in to pay CLICO (Bahamas) policyholders, and make them whole, given the length of time it is taking Mr Gomez to realise the insurer’s remaining assets through a complex multi-jurisdictional process.

Any assets he recovers will ultimately be used to reimburse the Government. Under the terms of the guarantee, all surrendered policies, death benefits and CLICO (Bahamas) staff pensions are to be paid in full. Annuity holders and pension beneficiaries were to receive a maximum $10,000, with the balance supported by a seven, ten or 15-year promissory note and interest paid on these quarterly.

Mr Gomez was appointed as liquidator after the insurer was placed in Supreme Court-supervised liquidation in April 2009 following the financial difficulties that engulfed its Trinidad-based parent, CL Financial, which was chaired by Lawrence Duprey.

Despite findings that CLICO (Bahamas) broke Bahamian exchange control laws, plus other rules and regulations, with its investments in the Wellington Preserve real estate project in Florida, nobody has been held accountable or responsible for a corporate failure that impacted the domestic economy and hundreds of lower and middle income earners.