| Gill pays $1.25 million to settle criminal, civil claims | | Print | |
| Written by Richard Green/richard@fptci.com | |||
| Thursday, 15 December 2011 14:54 | |||
 U.K. businessman John Gill will pay $1.25 million to settle all criminal and civil issues discovered by the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team, Attorney General Huw Shepheard announced Dec. 9. “After a comprehensive investigation by the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team into the role of John Gill and following a detailed review of the evidence against him I agreed to proceed in his case by way of a civil recovery action. No details of the allegations against Gill came with the announcement. “It must be remembered that there are ongoing criminal proceedings against other individuals that could be prejudiced if I were to disclose the full details of how and why I reached the conclusion that it was appropriate not to prosecute Mr Gill,” Shepheard said. “Not only would such a disclosure be likely to prejudice other proceedings, it would also be a criminal contempt of court.” Gill was once a business partner of developer Richard Padgett, and together they bought the Blue Horizon Resort on Middle Caicos. Gill is now sole owner of the property. Padgett has been charged with bribery for paying government ministers to get special treatment on his stalled Third Turtle development. In addition to Padgett, four former government ministers and four others were formally charged in court Dec. 6 with making or taking payments to fraudulently distributing government land and grant concessions to developers. Shepheard explained that the 2007 Proceeds of Crime Ordinance allows the attorney general to seek the recovery of property from a person who has not been convicted of a crime, even though that person could be charged and prosecuted. Property also can be recovered after prosecutions, but the SIPT recommended civil recovery in Gill’s case instead of prosecution. “I am satisfied that the public interest is served by this settlement, and it is a settlement that is consistent with the interim administration’s policy that it wishes to treat in a fair and proportionate way with all self-confessed wrongdoers,” Shepheard said. “I will in appropriate cases consider that an acceptance of responsibility and an agreement to make financial recompense is a sufficient way to resolve these issues, whilst always reserving the right to take criminal proceedings in the right case.” The outcome is not unusual, Shepheard explained. “The practice of accepting a civil recovery instead of pursuing a prosecution has a long history in English Law,” he said. “It has been a feature of the tax recovery regime in England and Wales for several hundred years and has also been adopted in relation to various kinds of wrongdoing by the authorities in the United States of America. Its use is encouraged by several international organisations such as the OECD and the United Nations in their model laws on financial crimes.” Photo: Huw Shepheard
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