Archive for August 11th, 2010
Fund director stole $19m
(CNS): Robert Christopher Girvan has pleaded guilty to 18 counts of theft and three counts of money laundering, which the crown said amounted to around $19 million. Girvan was a trader and fund director with four Cayman Islands Hedge Funds, known as the Grand Island Funds, which collapsed in 2008 as a result of major losses related to Girvan’s unauthorized trading. Girvan, who now faces a custodial sentence, was remanded in custody by Justice Charles Quin in court on Wednesday morning until his confiscation and sentencing hearing on 24 August. The court heard that Girvan stole millions of dollars from the funds, related financial companies and other bank accounts, a significant amount of which was used and lost in unauthorized trading.
However, Girvan also used some of the money for his own personal benefit, redirecting money to bank accounts outside the Cayman Islands as well as to purchase land in Crystal Harbour.
Revoking Girvan’s bail, Quin remanded the former fund director in custody as he said there was a serious flight risk now he had pleaded guilty and been convicted of significant charges which would certainly result in a lengthy sentence. The judge noted the seriousness of the offence and that huge amounts of money were involved that had caused significant losses to the third parties involved. Hefurther noted that the crime struck at the very heart of the country’s financial services industry.
The crown said that Girvan had been involved in a complex fraud and had stolen money from a number of different accounts and funds, which were redirected to his own bank accounts and those of his wife’s in the United States.
From the four Grand Island funds alone (Grand Island Commodity Trading fund, Grand Island Fund II, Grand Island Income fund and Grand island Master fund) Girvan admitted to stealing over $9million and well over $5million from Caribbean Commodities.
The crown is hoping to recoup some of the lost funds in its confiscation hearing on 24 August before Girvan is sentenced on the same day. Girvan, who is a Jamaican national, could be facing a lengthy sentence as the maximum for theft is ten years and money laundering 14 years.
Driver injured in one-car accident
(CNS): Police say a man was taken to hospital last night after his car overturned on Esterley Tibbetts Highway. About 11.00 pm Tuesday, 10 August, the 21 year-old man was driving his Honda Prelude on Esterley Tibbetts Highway close to the Ritz Carlton when the vehicle left the road and overturned in a ditch. No other vehicles were involved in the incident. The driver sustained slight head injuries and was taken to the Cayman Islands hospital. He was released following treatment. His four passengers were uninjured. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)
PC Doreen McDonald of the RCIPS Traffic Department is appealing for any witnesses to the incident to call her on 946-6254.
American states bet on casinos for budget shortfalls
(Reuters): State governments eager for paydays in hard times are doubling down on gambling even though America’s casino industry is still sliding from a peak reached three years ago. Desperate for revenue to ease budget shortfalls totalling an expected $127 billion or more this fiscal year alone, lawmakers and governors are championing casino deals and looking past flashing signs of distress. Atlantic City, which once had the only casinos on America’s densely populated East Coast, is losing so much business to rivals that New Jersey’s governor is pressing a plan for the state government to take over the faded seaside resort’s gambling area.
New ‘superbug’ found in UK hospitals
(BBC): A new superbug that is resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics has entered UK hospitals, experts warn. They say bacteria that make an enzyme called NDM-1 have travelled back with NHS patients who went abroad to countries like India and Pakistan for treatments such as cosmetic surgery. Although there have only been about 50 cases identified in the UK so far, scientists fear it will go global. Tight surveillance and new drugs are needed says Lancet Infectious Diseases.NDM-1 can exist inside different bacteria, like E.coli, and it makes them resistant to one of the most powerful groups of antibiotics – carbapenems. These are generally reserved for use in emergencies and to combat hard-to-treat infections caused by other multi-resistant bacteria.
UN launches $459m Pakistan flood appeal
(BBC): The UN has launched an appeal for $459m (£290m) to help victims of Pakistan’s flood disaster, which has affected at least 14 million people. UN humanitarian chief John Holmes made the announcement at the organisation’s headquarters in New York, saying the aid would cover the next 90 days. The disaster was "one of the most challenging that any country has faced in recent years", Mr Holmes said. So far, about 1,600 people have been killed by the monsoon floods. Mr Holmes said the funds would be used for food, clean water, shelter and medical supplies. The "emergency response plan" would be revised after 30 days as more information came in, he added.
(BBC): The UN has launched an appeal for $459m (£290m) to help victims of Pakistan’s flood disaster, which has affected at least 14 million people. UN humanitarian chief John Holmes made the announcement at the organisation’s headquarters in New York, saying the aid would cover the next 90 days. The disaster was "one of the most challenging that any country has faced in recent years", Mr Holmes said. So far, about 1,600 people have been killed by the monsoon floods. Mr Holmes said the funds would be used for food, clean water, shelter and medical supplies. The "emergency response plan" would be revised after 30 days as more information came in, he added.
iPhone owners get more sex than Blackberry users
(LA News): Does the smartphone you carry help you attract women? The answer is yes. According to research from dating site OKCupid.com, the iPhone users are having more sex than those who use BlackBerrys or Android phones. OKCupid polled 9,785 people with smartphones, and the surveyed showed that men with iPhones had an average of 10 sexual partners by age 30. Those with BlackBerrys came second with 8.1 partners, while Android-based smartphones owners get 6 partners. Among the women, iPhone owners had 12.3 partners. It is 8.8 partners for BlackBerry users and 6.1 for Android users. The results were part of an investigation started by OKCupid to know that what types of photographs got the most positive results on the website.
Violence threatens retiree economy in Jamaica
(WSJ): Two elderly pensioners in Comfort Castle joined hundreds of Jamaicans with a grisly fate: expatriates who spent their working lives abroad, then moved home only to be killed. Neighbors say they heard 84-year-old George Passley, a retired bus conductor from the UK, screaming last November as his home burned but couldn’t rescue him. Eight days later, Mavis White, an 80-year-old widow who also returned from Britain, died in a house fire a mile from Passley’s. Authorities are investigating both cases as arson. "Returned Residents" like Passley andWhite dreamed of retiring in their homeland, only to discover it wasn’t the Jamaica of their youth. The country they left behind was poor, but relatively safe. It is still poor, but shockingly violent.
Local building firm to shift scrap metal from dump
(CNS): According to the Central Tenders Committee website, the government contract to remove around 6,000 tonnes of the remaining scrap metal at the George Town landfill has gone to a local building company. The contract, which was worth just under $300,000, has gone to Island Builders Co. Ltd, which will now be expected to remove a variety of metal from the landfill over the coming months. Most of the top quality metal was removed by Matrix in 2007, and then more recently government received 300,000 from Cardinal D for six thousand tonnes of baled scrap metal, which was removed in April of this year, but government says a variety of metal still remains scattered throughout the landfill.
PPM won’t back 6th minister
(CNS): The opposition party has said that, after consideration, it believes the premier’s request to change the Constitution in order to allow a sixth elected minister into Cabinet cannot be seen as a minor change and would require a referendum. McKeeva Bush wrote to the leader of opposition and PPM, Kurt Tibbetts, on 3 August asking for his backing to amend the new Constitution in order to appoint a Cabinet member from his team of backbench MLAs to help cope with government’s workload. The premier said he had the backing of the UK to change the country’s highest law so long as the legislature agreed. The PPM has said that the change is too significant to allow government to just do so without consulting the people.(Photo Dennie WarrenJr)
Robbers hit fast food joints
(CNS): Both the Captain’s Bakery on West Bay Road and Subway Restaurant in Anderson Square, George Town, were robbed last night in two separate robberies that were around five minutes apart. Police have confirmed that a man who was about 5’5’ dressed in dark clothes wearing a dark cap entered the Captains Bakery at about 10.25pm on Tuesday and threatened staff with a silver handgun before making off with a sum of cash. Then five minutes later at 10:30pm another man about 5’7’also in dark clothes but with a scarf over his face and a handgun in his waistband demanded cash from staff at Subways and then made off with the money on foot. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)