<<<Capain Jackson Ritchie, CEO GUL. Below is a photo of Prime Minister and minister of Finance Rt. Hon Hubert Ingraham.
Nassau, Bahamas: Captain Jackson Ritchie and the staff of Global United Limited appeal to Minister of Finance, The Right Honorable Prime Minister Hubert A. Ingraham to sit down with him and his legal advisors as the case might be, in order to work out an agreement that will benefit not only the Government, but the GUL staff but all the other local companies that are owed? These are unusual times and how we got to this point is now irrelevant, after the dust has cleared level heads must prevail and the parties should sit down and examine the FACTS and ensure that something like this does not happen again. As Minister Laing said in his comments on TV Global United situation is indeed “UNIQUE”, unique in that;
1) UNIQUE We are the only company being targeted Publicly in this way
2) UNIQUE in that while Hotels and Casinos collect millions of dollars in taxes when visitors check in or when they win at the casino many of these funds have not yet been paid into the Treasury and the Public Treasury has not sued them –is that because perhaps they have payment plans in place?.
3) UNIQUE in that many foreign companies have closed shop and left without paying Government or employees and it does not appear that the Government has filed legal action against any of them.
4) UNIQUE in that while the HEADLINES Scream “ Disastrous” Govt. revenue collection, the Government refuses to work out a payment plan with a Bahamian Company that wants to ensure they pay what is due the Public Treasury.
5) UNIQUE in that this whole fiasco was caused by uninformed employees at the Public Treasury who do not understand business, who do not understand that while the law may say one thing, what happens in practice is quite another thing. For example attached is letter from Mr. Mullings at the Treasury confirming that Departure taxes are to be paid within 10 days after they are collected? Well if that is truly enforced all Travel agencies and Cruise Lines would be indebted to the Public Treasury to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and like Global United should be served with Statutory demands by the AG. Whilst I am sure, just like Global United, all efforts are made to collect these taxes, companies are delinquent in remitting taxes to the government in a timely fashion. Just as these seemingly uninformed employees embarrassed the former Minister by launching an attack on GUL, they are now causing embarrassment to the current Minister by withholding facts.
6) UNIQUE in that after following established practice for years, GUL trade payables were called in instantly. GUL used to have over $125 million flowing through its accounts in a given year. Obviously with the Government being its largest vendor its largest trade payable would be to the Government, therefore to have these payables suddenly called would almost instantly destroy any company.
7) UNIQUE in that despite this unreasonable action, and because GUL could not determine when its vendors would pay it, GUL instead directed its clients to pay the Government directly. GUL did this and not the Government as alleged by the Prime Minister in the House of assemble on Wednesday.
8) UNIQUE in that we have made several offers to settle and all have been REJECTED or ignored. After the January 2008 proposal was REJECTED and Minister Laing in making what I perceive to be very damaging comments in April 2008, the Company sent in another proposal which our Bank agreed to guarantee IF Customs accepted the Proposal .Well in a classic catch 22 situation, Customs refused to accept the plan unless the bank guaranteed it in writing and the bank refused to guarantee the plan unless Customs accepted it in writing. This plan would have paid $400,000.00 a month and if accepted the balance would have been paid off by mid 2009. Instead the Government‘s next move was to file the 4 lawsuits.
9) UNIQUE in that the while the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister can meet with foreign investors at the drop of a hat, he does not seem to have either the time or interest to meet with a Bahamian who has served his country, a Bahamian who is striving to ensure that a part of our economy is held by locals, a son of the soil who employs hundreds of Bahamians., The Minister of Finance to our dismay would not even return phone calls, but instead preferred in a very demeaning way to leave Captain Ritchie waiting in the lobby of the Cecil Wallace Whitfield Centre for almost an hour before sending a message that he had no time to see him.
10) UNIQUE in that during the holidays The Right Honorable Prime Minister refused to discuss the matter with 3 individuals who went to see him on behalf of the Company, to let him know the Company had secured funding and wanted to ensure the government would accept a third Payment plan.
11) UNIQUE in that when the last Payment Plan was presented, which included a $500,000.00 upfront payment the Government responded by serving the Company with four Statutory Demands threatening to wind up the Company.
Captain Ritchie heard Minister Laing’s comments in the press where he said he would advise Mr. Ritchie to not pursue this current course of action! Having seemingly exhausted all efforts to bring resolution to this matter, Mr. Ritchie welcomes receiving the advice of Minister Laing as to what course of action in his view, Mr. Ritchie should take! Surely, returning a phone call or calling a meeting to discuss the issues would seem to be the reasonable and sensible thing to do!!
It seems like the United States has the vision that many Bahamians fail to admit in fixing companies that went under due to the incompetence, negligence or greed of the president/owner/CEO, like I suggested for the government to compel Ritchie to resign from GUL and to restructure the company if he wants the company to receive government assistance.
Yahoo headline this evening reads “GM CEO Wagoner to step down at White House request”. You can read it at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/gm_wagoner .
I guess Morehands has more vision and more smarts than most are only just admitting.
Jackson Ritchie responds to Larry Smith of Tough Call.
Larry Smith
On Mar 28, 2009, at 2:26 PM, Jackson Ritchie wrote:
1. why would a prime minister have to meet with a businessman who is delinquent in paying millions in taxes and fees?
JLR- That’s their spin on things, They tried to make this look like I was delinquent in paying taxes, that is a bunch of hogwash. What they did is call my “Trade Payables” Any one in business would know that at any one time a company owe vendors up to 30 or even 60 days and likewise customers would owe the Company for similar periods. As Customs was our largest vendor, they could as they did say “pay us all outstanding now” and of course unless we could get everyone who owed us to pay up immediately, we could not meet such a ridiculous demand. While it is true what they are now suing for has mostly been collected, what they do not tell you is that GUL has paid the Government MILLIONS of DOLLARS on behalf of various clients which we have not collected. After they damaged us so badly with this action, we had to write of millions in Bad debt at the end of 2008 which consisted mainly of funds we already paid the Government. Will they refund us what we have paid and not received?
If The Prime Minister and Minister of State for Finance does not know this then they should!
2. Are you unique in being the only company owing the government millions in taxes and fees for years?
JLR – See above,. I have the documents to prove this was about my “TRADE PAYABLES ” . They tried to make it look like this was going back years but that is not true. 98% of what they claim was for a short period in Mid 2007 when this whole thing s started, I have the supports.
3. Were you delinquent in paying millions of dollars in taxes and fees for years?
JLR – No absolutely Not. See # 1 & # 2
4. Did you offer as a candidate for the former governing party in order to avoid paying millions in taxes and fees?
JLR- ABSOLUTELY NOT. I was not seeking a nomination at all. In 2006 I was asked to look at Long Island possibility as an Independent. I looked and said no, I would rather not run if I had to run as an independent. When the Boundaries were cut the Party needed a candidate for Clifton, who they had in mind said no, so I was asked at the last minute. I agreed to give it a shot. At the time there was no undue pressure on me to pay my “TRADE PAYABLES” IMMEDIATELY.
5. Why didn’t the previous government demand that you pay millions in outstanding fees and taxes?
JLR Because there was no issue about this then. We were paying within a reasonable time. This only became an Issue when I became a Candidate.
6. Hasn’t this matter been dealt with by the courts?
JLR -Yes, but why wind up a company that wants to pay, no matter how long it takes? Who benefits? ( Maybe the reporters should investigate that angle). At the first sign of wind up proceedings starting the Bank will step in and take everything, Everybody else will lose including the Government. Didn’t they learn anything from the handling of the Clico matter?
Thanks
Jack
@Connie I totally agree with you. I think that Larry’s post on ‘PLP corruption’ is utter trash, and has no place in this setting.
I think that we all know that Hubiggety is quite capable of victimizing people. In this case however, I feel that the government is well within their right. This is not just money owed, this is money stolen. Ritchie should be thanking his maker that he is only facing ‘winding down’ and not criminal charges.
Ritchie cannot be vindicated by the fact that he is not the only one who raped the public treasury. We all know that there are others, but he must face the music for his part in it. Now that something is finally being done about this kind of behaviour, let’s force the government to go after the others as well, and if they don’t then let us expose them for ‘cherry picking.’
We the people run things in this country. General elections come around faster than you think. If it is made clear that the current administration is victimizing our people, then we all know what to do next time around. Injustice to one, is injustice to all. All I am saying is, prove the injustice and make it a matter of public knowledge.
@media
Why wait to see if the PM will sit with Ritchie. If you have information on another person that owes money to the Bahamian people, then make it public knowledge. Stop making everything political. Our treasury needs the money. I could care less whether it is collected from Ritchie,from another PLP crook or from one of the many FNM crooks.
@Joe Blow
Didn’t I correctly say (corrected my comments) in the second post? “The CLIENT of a Cabinet Minister supplied us with documents, which confirms that the LAWYER in the CABINET, did not pay the treasury.”
When I asked him to READ LARRY, I simply referred to his false charge that according to us, FirstCaribbean was to CLOSE. Bahamas Press NEVER POSTED OR SAID SUCH A THING. We asked a question of its position to terminate 160 workers in the country. And NO ONE CAN DENY THAT THE BANK INTENDED TO CUT STAFF. The Managing Director confirmed that the following Monday is a press conference as we noted will happen.
Bahamas Press/Editor
Media: “READ LARRY READ!!!” He responded to exactly what you wroteL “A STORY of TAX EVASION from a lawyer who is in the CABINET” Now that would indicate the Cabinet member, who is a lawyer, is prepared to release to you information about some unspecified tax evador. “supplied with copies of the notice where the client of the member” does suggest that it is the CLIENT who is the perpatrator. A simple change from “from to by” would have conveyed the meaning you wanted. YOU need to reread what you write and then edit your remarks so they convey what you really mean. EDIT! EDIT! EDIT!
@Larry
NO NO NO LARRY let’s get it RIGHT. The CLIENT of a Cabinet Minister supplied us with documents, which confirms that the LAWYER in the CABINET, did not pay the treasury.
Also if you carefully read our post on FirstCaribbean Bank, Bahamas Press NEVER EVER said the bank will close, BODIE SHOW made that claim. Our post distantly read, “IS FIRSTCARIBBEAN BANK ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE?” https://www.bahamaspress.com/?p=3253 . Our article posted a proposal by the bank to terminate 160 workers. We successfully stopped that. At least for now.
READ LARRY READ!!! THAT’S the PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY, YINNA DON’T READ!
Bahamas Press/Editor
So are u suggesting the cabinet minister or his client never paid the taxes; two completely different people. I don’t hold Brave Davis accountable for wannabe Ritchie Rich’s unpaid taxes.
And, oh yeah according to you guys First Caribbean Bank should have been closed like last month. Let’s just say I finished preschool which gives me enough knowledge to know to take something from you guys with a grain of salt.
@Larry
Larry all we say is this. If the government fails to sit with Ritchie, we want you to know and others who are following this story, Bahamas Press is prepared to BREAK A STORY of TAX EVASIONS from a lawyer who in the CABINET of the Bahamas.
Bahamas Press has been supplied with copies of the notice where the client of the member NEVER PAID TAXES TO THE STATE ON MILLIONS OF DOLLARS PAID ON TRANSACTIONS. Might we add to this date STILL NOTHING HAS BEEN PAID TO THE TREASURY BY THE MEMBER.
NO this is not Carl Bethel, Nor is it Dion Foulkes. But all we will say is this, The PRIME MINISTER IS FULLY AWARE OF THE ACTIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL!
AS WE SAID BEFORE, THIS WILL BACKFIRE! STAY TUNED!
Bahamas Press/Editor
Those employees should direct their outrage at the crook Mr. Ritchie who screwed them over all those years whilst he lived the luxurious life of ‘King Crook’ in the mole of his idol SLOP. In fact those employees should sue him, force him to put his lyford cay home and luxurious car on the market so they can pay their mortgages and other bills. Now that’s poetic justice
Connie, I AGREE with you. That is one of the most sensible statement made thus far on this issue. Forget Ritchie. Think about the families, the mortgages, etc.
The FNM crooks just haven’t been made public so lets not go there because this is a small town and there is mud to sling from both sides. Your post is quite immature and irrelevent to the precedent that is being set. Bring it into the 21st century man, if it happens to him it can happen to anyone. What about Mr. Ritchies employees, think man think, that hundreds more on the unemployment line to collect from the unemployment benefits that you and I have to contribute to. Take a while and think this is beyond politics because the country is being sacrificed for party, that should not be so
@JR
Don’t be the animal you look like. The point I was trying to make is that if BP wants GUL to stay open and it is obvious that the current head is not doing what he should, and wants to make a deal with the government, the best deal is for him to be out the company. Its Ritchie fault!
It is obvious that Ritchie’s practices has the 200 employees’ jobs in jeopardy. PLP or FNM, if he did what was supposed to be done by a businessman of morals, MOF would have not ever been in the picture. Its Ritchie fault!
The only way Ingraham should accept GUL’s offer is if Ritchie is no longer involved in the company. This is sound business practice. If Ritchie goes, everyone job is safe. UMMMMM? 200 jobs vs one man gluttony? Why doesn’t BP help his friend to put his workers first and stop being a selfish PIG. He has more than enough money in his account to start another business (not in shipping though). Its Ritchie fault!
But instead, this selfish greedy PIG chooses to have his friend use his blog as a channel to gain public sympathy.
RITCHIE our sympathy is with the workers and not you with you selfish, high-minded self. IF you publicly state that you are restructuring GUL and leaving the company, then maybe we might start listening. Otherwise, wipe the tears on your face, and offer me your property.
UNIQUE in that we expect a little more patriotism from “our own” to
understand that our COUNTRY is in dire need of its tax revenue.
UNIQUE in that the jobs of your hard working employees is being used as a bargaining chip to avoid paying taxes to the people of the Bahamas.
Please use your energy to fight Hon. Hurbert Ingraham & the FNM but SPARE YOUR EMPLOYEES THE DRAMA & PAY THE CUSTOMS DUTIES!
If F.Rolle’s comment is correct then Ritchie can settle this situation right from his bank account.
Why are so many people’s minds so unbusiness-minded? Let me put is as simple as possible:
1. GUL makes their money from freight, handling and brokering for customers.
2. Customers pay GUL for freight, handling and brokering. This is GUL’s EARNED money.
3. Customers also gave GUL their customs duty money to pay to government on their behalf. This is now GOVERNMENT money
4. For years GUL did not pay government the money that people gave them to pay to government but was greedy, took GUL money and government money. This is now STOLEN money.
5. For years GUL fail to pay any of the government money (with valid cheques). This is now OWED STOLEN money in the millions.
6. Now GUL wants to make payments he never made before on millions of STOLEN money plus the GOVERNMENT money that is daily customers are continually giving him. This is FANTASY money.
@JR At least Kelly’s was making payments. GUL made absolutely NONE.
This is not politics – this is business.
No matter which company MOF went after first, people would call it political. Everyone in this country is either an FNM or a PLP. Connie, JR and others need to grow up and see beyond an X on a paper.
All government agencies have been given the mandate to do their jobs. Even Bahamasair been on-time lately.
GUL is only the first on a long list of companies on the MOF hit list.
Come now; How much has Mr. Ritchie paid to the government since the government demanded payment of his arrears? 2x$200,000.00 and both cheques bounced! He had money in his possession for duty that was paid to him by his clients who expected that money to be forwarded to the Ministry. It was never HIS money. He got paid by his clients for services rendered. What he did was fraudulent and no amount of “spin” takes away from that fact. He should be jailed! Mr. Ritchie had no intention of paying that money (which was never his in the first place). If Mr. Ritchie had an ethical bone in his body, he had an opportunity to take his “personal stash” and cover his debts. So many have gotten away with so much and there are always so many who will cover-up for then that it gets nauseating. Morehands you are correct when you say he should
have taken the opportunity to go into restucturing of the company. But he chose to brazen it out, and now HE WANTS SYMPATHY? Not from anybody who has a modicum of sense.
Another PLP crook, and another time the simpleton editor of Bahama Press makes an execuse for him. Am not suprised;Pindling left a good legacy of corruption and in some cases stupidity for his admirers to folllow and follow him they are doing indeed.
@Morehands
It is amazing that you can’t see that if Mr. Ingraham does this to Mr. Ingraham he will do it to anyone he sees fit. It is the fact that Mr. Ingraham runs that Bahamas as if only FNMs live here, every single issue is tainted by politics and that is his legacy and fierce supporter of policital tribulism. If I were I broke government as they claim evey single one of the companies would be placed on a payment plan. I agree with the seizure of company assets ONLY IF the company has no way or no intention to settle the bill. Mr. Ritchie has offered to settle his bill in a manner where he can stay open and given the fact that government not good managers of anything it is best that this company remain private. The Ingraham administrations discrimination is plain as day in this case and it is no need you or anyone else say anything different. The circmstances of this case set a HORRIBLE precedent. This man is willing to pay his debt how many other in the Bahamas are hiding out under the cloak of the Ingraham administration with outstanding debts to pay and because their minds are so politically wharped think that they don’t have to worry about paying taxes unless the FNM lose next time. That way of thinking is of date and needs to stop.
More Hands, you seemed to have lost your senses again. What you are describing is the government nationalizing a private entity. Its already bad that they are being stupid with the offers to settle the debt now you have them taking the company over altogether. Only in China or Cuba would that happen my friend. We know Hubert’s a dictator but I don’t think he wants to go full Mugabe on us. The government should have taken the $150,000 per month offer or at the very least, made a counter offer to at least show some willingness to see the debt settled and the company not close. They didn’t do that because they wanted GUL shut down and it can only be because it is political. My people in MOF and Customs confirm that there are other companies, including that big one in the mall that owes the government 7 figures too but have been paying regularly to keep it in the low 7 figures and we don’t know because they back the right party. I also understand that they were owing this money for a while, even under the PLP and nobody thought it was a big deal because they always made payments. Now if this is true, then thats a double standard. At the very least Morehead, the government should be finding ways to keep companies open, not closed. This stinks and you don’t have to be a PLP or like Jack Ritchie to see that. This stinks big time.
And the band plays for Ritchie…wa..wa..wa…waaaaaaaaaahhhh. (give the man a tissue)
He gambled on the PLP winning the election and his debts being overlooked and forgotten.
No 6’s on the dice here, the chips didn’t fall the way he hoped, no jackpot, no straight flush, no 21’s – he took a risk and loss.
And while he promises to pay $400,000 per month, how will he pay the other $500,000 that he regularly should as a result of his daily business earnings?
Just for the sake of the workers, I wish the Ministry of Finance was set up in a way to just seize control of GUL to keep it functioning, fire Ritchie, sell off all of Ritchie’s personal, and then manage the operations of the company until the debt is paid off. In other words, GUL stays open but all profits go directly to the treasury until debt is paid off. By estimate this would only take about 14 months.
If Ritchie really cares about the Bahamian worker, he should sacrifice himself for them. He can bounce back far more easily than any of them can. Restructure the management of the company to an independent board of directors to show good faith, resign as company head and after the debt is paid off you can regain control of GUL with a new lesson on life learnt.
pls. review Mr. Richie’s income declaration provided prior to ’97 election published in Bahama Journal dated 4/16/07. net worth $18,800,000.00 & salary $400,000.00
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