Charges laid in fund collapse

(CNS): A 48-year-old man has been charged with a number of fraud offences as part of an ongoing investigation by the Financial Crime Unit into the collapse of the ‘Grand Island Fund’. Robert Christopher Tom Girvan has been charged with three counts of forgery, obtaining a money transfer by deception and uttering a false document. Girvan will appear before magistrates this morning, Tuesday 12 May. In a statement following Girvan’s arrest in July 2007, the FCU said the collapse of the funds was thought to represent millions of dollars and that the FCU was unsure how many people were affected by its collapse.

It is thought that ‘Grand Island Fund’ relates to several or all of four interlinked funds: Grand Island Commodity Trading Fund I, Grand Island Commodity Trading Fund II, and Grand Island Income Fund, which were registered by CIMA in 2006, and Grand Island Master Fund, which is unregulated.

In the wake of the voluntary liquidation in June 2007, David Walker and Nicholas Freeland were appointed by the Joint Voluntary Liquidators (JVL) of all four funds, which were domiciled in the Cayman Islands. At least one was founded and directed by local businessman Naul Bodden, and CNS understands that Close Brothers (Cayman) Ltd were the Fund Administrators. Not only were the funds locally managed, a considerable number of local investors are also said to be involved and to have lost significant amounts of money.

PwC Corporate Finance & Recovery (Cayman) Ltd, wholly owned by PricewaterhouseCoopers Cayman Islands, was appointed as Receiver over various accounts held at ScotiaMcLeod in Canada, which are believed to be related to the funds. PwC said in July that this would facilitate the repatriation of monies currently held in accounts in Canada back to the Cayman Islands until the proper allocation is determined. The liquidators were expecting to have made an application to the Grand Court to have the funds placed under its supervision and heard this week.

Investigations are ongoing into the matter and detectives would like those with information or knowledge to come forward. Anyone who can assist should contact Detective Constable Richard Clarke on 949-8797.

Anyone with information about crime taking place in the Cayman Islands should
contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS). All persons calling
Crime Stoppers remain anonymous, and are eligible for a reward of up to $1000, should
their information lead to an arrest or recovery of property/drugs.