The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor 

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN insurer’s bid to enforce payment of an unpaid $132,000 mortgage debt owed by a former Cabinet minister has been rejected by the Supreme Court as “irregular and speculative”.

BAF Financial, whose principal owners include deputy prime minister, Chester Cooper, had sought what is known as a “third party debt Order” mandating that The Bahamas’ six commercial banks along with two credit unions pay it the sum allegedly owed by attorney and ex-PLP MP, Vincent Peet, and TR Management Ltd.

However, the move was emphatically dismissed by Jonathan Deal, the Supreme Court’s assistant registrar. He ruled that BAF Financial & Insurance (Bahamas), the former British American Insurance Company of The Bahamas, had supplied no evidence to prove any of the financial institutions held assets/ funds owned by Mr Peet and TR Management or that they themselves owed money to the former minister.

Mr Peet, who initially served as minister of labour and immigration in the first Christie administration from 2002-2007, before being switched to minister of financial services and investments, last night conceded to Tribune Business that “all efforts are being made” to settle the dispute and pay BAF Financial what it is due.

The former MP for North Andros and the Berry Islands told this newspaper: “That’s an outstanding mortgage that was taken out and partially paid. As you would have seen, there was a judgment for the balance of it. It would have been a residential mortgage.

“Plans are being made to settle that. Plans are being made to settle the whole matter. All efforts are being made to have it resolved. We know what we have to do.” The proposed settlement, though, does not appear to have been moving fast enough for BAF Financial given that it sought the “third party debt Order” against the banks and credit unions via “a without notice application” led on August 20, 2024.

The insurance company and financial services provider urged the Supreme Court to grant an Order that Scotiabank (Bahamas); RBC Royal Bank (Bahamas); CIBC Caribbean (Bahamas); Commonwealth Bank; Fidelity Bank (Bahamas); Bank of The Bahamas; and the National Co-Operative Credit Union and the Teachers and Salaried Workers Credit Union must pay to it the sum owed by Mr Peet plus interest.

BAF Financial said then-Justice Indra Charles had issued a judgment against Mr Peet and TR Management on November 8, 2022, mandating that they pay $113,160 in principal plus interest along with $4,000 in fixed costs. These sums related to an unpaid mortgage loan extended to the former MP on April 15, 2011, when he would still have been representing North Andros and the Berry Islands in the House of Assembly.

Alleging that Mr Peet and the company have “failed and/or refused to liquidate” the due debts, Sidwell Alleyne, a BAF Financial mortgage administrator, alleged in an August 20, 2024, af davit that then-jus- tice Charles’ judgment and order were “stayed” until March 8, 2023.

Two days before that deadline, Mr Peet allegedly paid $10,000 to BAF Finan- cial’s attorney on March 6, 2023. From that sum, $4,000 was retained by the lender’s attorney “to satisfy the court award” while the remaining $6,000 balance was applied to the mortgage debt.

Mr Alleyne alleged that, as at May 2, 2024, the former Cabinet minister and TR Management “are jointly and severally liable” for a combined $131,954 in principal and interest, with the latter accruing at the rate of $21.81 per day until settlement. He added that BAF Financial “is desirous of utilising all methods to enforce” then-justice Charles’ ruling, hence the bid to obtain the third-party debt Order.

The application, though, was shredded by the Supreme Court in a September 23, 2024, decision. Mr Deal, the assistant registrar, said Mr Alleyne’s affidavit provided no evidence to prove any of the financial institutions named owe funds to Mr Peet or TR Management, or that they hold any bank accounts, funds or assets that are beneficially owned by either of the defendants.

“The court will not grant speculative applications for third party debt orders,” Mr Deal concluded. “Third party debt orders cannot simply be there for the asking without any requirement for the judgment creditor to provide some basis for proceeding against the third party against whom it is sought for a third party debt order to be made.

“Such an approach would be open to abuse and would only serve to encourage judgment creditors to place the burden of locating a judgment debtor’s assets on third parties and, in particular, banks and credit unions. On the evidence filed in support of the applications, the application is irregular and speculative, and it is therefore dismissed.”

Mr Cooper teamed with John Wilson KC, now senior partner at the McKinney, Bancroft & Hughes law firm, to acquire the then-British American Insurance Company (Bahamas) in 2007 via what was a management-led buyout from its previous owner, Dawood Rawat. The company was subsequently renamed BAF Financial.

Upon entering front-line politics, Mr Cooper stepped back from BAF Financial and no longer has any role in its management or day-to-day decision-making processes.