Archive for December 5th, 2010
Howell wins first round in legal battle
(Jamaica Observer): Jamaican businessman Delroy Howell who is the lead principal of New Kingston’s Wyndham Hotel, has won the first skirmish in his legal battle to reclaim control of First Financial Trust Company of which Judith Wilchombe, a national of the Bahamas and a former employee of Howell’s, managed to secure a majority shareholding. In October of this year, she ousted the former majority shareholder Delroy Mitchell and board director Kenarthur Mitchell and accused both men of failing to account for US$13.9 million in assets. Wilchombe attempted to have both men’s assets frozen but Justice Patrick Brooks of the Supreme Court lifted the freezing order against Delroy Howell, Kenarthur Mitchell, First Financial Caribbean Holdings Limited and First Financial Caribbean International Group Limited.
Madoff trustee sues HSBC
(New York Times): The trustee seeking assets for victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s global Ponzi scheme filed a lawsuit on Sunday seeking $9 billion from a roster of defendants headed by HSBC, the London-based financial giant with hedge fund clients that fed piles of cash into the enormous fraud. According to the complaint, a hedge fund official dealing with HSBC once attributed Madoff’s stellar performance – which later turned out to be purely fictional – to a "magic formula" that no one else could replicate.The lawsuit is the third multibillion-dollar complaint the Madoff trustee, Irving H. Picard, has filed against major financial institutions in the last two weeks. Under federal bankruptcy law, the trustee must file all his recovery claims within two years of the initial bankruptcy filing.
That did not occur until Dec. 15, 2008, but the bankruptcy court has defined the filing date as Dec. 11, 2008, the day of Madoff’s arrest.
Boat struck reef, 7 on board
(CNS): Update 12:18pm – Four adults and three children are safe, the RCIPS has reported, following a search and rescue operation Saturday night, 4 December. The adults, aged 59, 42, 39 and 25, a 12-year old child and two children aged 10 were on board a 28-foot boat that struck the South Sound reef. Police received a report of the incident at around 7:25pm after one person on board the distressed vessel called 911 to alert emergency services and a joint operation involving the RCIPS Air Operations Unit and the Joint Marine Unit was launched. All seven occupants were taken on board the Marine Unit vessel Typhoon and transported to the South Sound dock where they were met by family members and medics.
Police said that they all appeared to be in good health but were checked by paramedics as a precautionary measure.