The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

ArawakX’s president has branded as “just laughable” claims by its former chief financial officer that he was “browbeaten” into using a loan from its major investor to pay sums due to the Red Lobster franchise.

D’Arcy Rahming senior told Tribune Business that the allegations by Michael Turnquest, made in an April 19, 2023, interview with the Securities Commission were “silly” and “made no sense” to the extent it was difficult to respond to them.

He hit back after the record of Mr Turnquest’s interview was filed by the Securities Commission with the Supreme Court last Friday as part of its ongoing legal bid to have ArawakX wound-up and placed under the control of a provisional liquidator.

The former ArawakX financial chief said that, in signing off on the payment to Pinnacle Franchise Brands, the Red Lobster franchisee, he felt “jammed” between the demands of the crowd-funding platform’s major investor, James Campbell, who was loaning the required funds, and Mr Rahming senior and his son, D’Arcy junior.

Mr Turnquest, affirming that was one of two signatories with the “dual signing authority” necessary to release the funds, told Securities Commission officials: “And on that day - I call it a hostage day - I was grabbed, pulled into a room, told that I was untrustworthy. I was basically browbeaten.”

Alleging that the so-called “browbeating” came from the Rahmings, Mr Turnquest suggested he was caught between their demands and those of Mr Campbell, the former Colina Insurance Company president, who ultimately invested a combined $1.6m into ArawakX via a combination of capital injections and loans - for much of which there was an option to convert into a sizeable equity stake.

“Leading up to that point, Mr Campbell... was never convinced that things were as bad as they were,” Mr Turnquest, who is also Mr Campbell’s brother-in-law, told Securities Commission investigators. “I think he was always getting two channels of communication. I would tell him we are out of cash, and to hear him saying: ‘Hey, we have lots of cash’.

“I would go: ‘What are you talking about?’ And then I am thinking: ‘Oh my God’. Are they cleverly ignoring the fact that the cash is not ArawakX’s, and so truthfully saying we have lots of cash, just not meaning tat it’s our cash.”

Mr Turnquest alleged he informed Mr Campbell that they needed “dual control of the bank accounts” to act as a check and balance on the Rahmings. The former Colina chief, though, responded negatively. “He had told me to.. I guess he was thinking that I exceeded my authority or something, or flaunted my authority, so behave myself,” the former chief financial officer claimed.

“Follow directions was the admonishment from him, from Mr Campbell, yes. And then the next day, the very next day, I’m pulled in and told that I’m not trustworthy. That Mr Campbell is only an advisor. That he, being Mr Rahming senior, is the executive. And whereas they are grateful that I maintain these lines of communication with directors to help the situation they are in cash-wise I need to consider my career.

“So threats started. So in that moment, in that morning, it went from morning until afternoon. I was made to sit at the table while Rahming senior and Rahming junior made decisions on what to do with the money that Mr Campbell had just signed a loan agreement to give them. He told them what this was for and how it was to be spent.”

Mr Turnquest alleged that most of the capital injection by the ex-Colina president was intended to cover sums due to Pinnacle, the Red Lobster franchisee, representing monies raised from investors during its recent equity crowd-funding. He implied that ArawakX had been spending client/investor monies to meet its operational expenses - something it is forbidden from doing.

“Most of the money was for Pinnacle,” the former chief financial officer said of Mr Campbell’s loan proceeds. “At that point we had no cash. We had gone through all the company’s cash. We had gone through all the clients’ cash. The last bit of cash before we went to near-zero was for a trip to Boston or New York, or whatever the hell it was.”

ArawakX has previously vehemently denied it commingled client and investor monies with its own operating accounts. Mr Rahming senior, in responding to Mr Turnquest, contrasted the latter’s account with the sworn testimonies about the crowd-fund platform’s working environment from Winston Rolle, its head of equities, and Ken Donathan, acting chief financial officer.

“The guy is a CPA (certified public accountant),” Mr Rahming said of Mr Turnquest, denying that the latter was hired as part of Mr Campbell’s terms for providing financing. “He was qualified and that was part of his job. What can I say about that? It’s just silly. I don’t know if that even warrants a comment. We’re all professional people working in a professional environment.

“I don’t know what to say. I mean, browbeating. Does that make any sense to you? It’s just laughable.” However, Mr Turnquest alleged in his Securities Commission interview that the Rahmings were “doing all kind of gymnastics to reduce” the payment to Pinnacle, which ended up being $90,000. And Mr Campbell later told him “that’s not what you were supposed to do”.

“I should have gotten up. Gotten out. Called him right away and addressed it properly,” Mr Turnquest added. “I was the ‘B’ signatory [on the accounts] at that point, so I should have vetoed all of that bull that was presented to me. But the combination of the conflict of instructions didn’t ‘jive’ with me having this in signature authority at that point and time.

“The person who gave it to me said do what they say. The persons who should not have had single signing authority were saying: ‘We’re going to fire you if you do anything other than what we say’. I’m jammed. And, frankly, if they screwed each other, what can I do about that?”

Mr Turnquest earlier backed off an assertion that “some funny business” occurred with the Pinnacle crowd-fund capital raise as an estimated $900,000 of the $1.8m obtained was “held offshore” in the US and never made it to The Bahamas.

He added that this implied the monies were raised outside The Bahamas, and an agreement had to be reached with the Securities Commission on how to deal with it. Mr Turnquest’s memory later cleared, though, and he told investigators that the transaction was attributed to Pinnacle’s principal, the late Chris Mortimer, the former Galleria Cinemas principal and ex-DNA deputy leader.

Mr Rahming senior confirmed to Tribune Business that $1.5m of the Pinnacle raise came from a family office in the US. “All the proper paperwork was filed with the Securities Commission and accepted by the Securities Commission,” he added. “None of this is news to the Commission. We’re not accused of doing anything wrong by the Commission in relation to this.”