“This is in addition to the time taken by the respective attorneys from the Department of Public Prosecutions”
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The government paid some $1.1 million in legal fees with foreign law firms in its failed prosecutions of former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) MPs Shane Gibson and Frank Smith, revealed Attorney General Ryan Pinder yesterday.
During a contribution in the Senate, Pinder noted that there were “several anomalies and questionable decisions” taken by the previous administration that have come to light in his seven weeks as AG.
He pointed to the “political prosecutions” of the PLP politicians, insisting that they were “more politics” than “justifiable accusations”.
Pinder revealed that the former administration spent $807,755.87 with foreign lawyers on the prosecution of Gibson, and $290,903.44 on the prosecution of Smith.
He noted that the total $1.1 million price tag is an astonishing 32 percent of all of the fees paid to the government’s primary foreign law firms over a four-year period on all matters.
“This is in addition to the time taken by the respective attorneys from the Department of Public Prosecutions, whose time clearly would have been better served prosecuting legitimate criminals in The Bahamas,” Pinder said.
In 2017, Smith was charged with abusing his Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) chairman position, after Barbara Hanna, the owner of Magic Touch Cleaning, was awarded a $516,000 contract to clean the Critical Care Unit of Princess Margaret Hospital.
Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt threw out Smith’s corruption case, ruling there was “not a scintilla of evidence to support the fact that there was a meeting between Barbara Hanna and the accused prior to the award of the contract”.
Prosecutors filed an appeal against the magistrate’s decision, but the Court of Appeal unanimously rebuked the application.
In the lead-up to the 2017 General Election, the Minnis administration ran on an anti-corruption platform.
Soon after coming into office, several former Cabinet ministers and senior government officials were hauled before the courts.
Gibson was found not guilty by a nine-member jury on all 15 counts of bribery brought against him.
He had been accused of receiving more than $250,000 from contractor Jonathan Ash to speed up around $1 million in payments the government owed to the contractor for cleanup work in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in October 2016.
Hours after the Gibson decision was announced, former Attorney General Carl Bethel confirmed the director of public prosecutions has no intention to appeal the acquittal.
Pinder indicated that between November 2017 and August 2021, the Office of the Attorney General spent some $3,457,688.18 in legal fees with its two primary foreign law firms in the United States and the United Kingdom.
He insisted that while the government has a need to source legal advice from all over the world, the amount of money used on the failed political prosecutions is alarming.
