Government on the Hook for Another $250M to Ashcroft

After signing an agreement in Miami, the PM agreed to pay five hundred million dollars for the acquisition and nationalization of B.T.L.  Government is once again indebted to Lord Michael Ashcroft to the tune of roughly two hundred and fifty million dollars.  That hefty figure includes the interest that continues to accrue on the U.H.S. debt, as well as the interest that would be tacked on to the damages being sought following the appropriation of IMMARBE and IBC back in 2013.  According to Lord Ashcroft, should the settlement with B.I.S.L. take another three years, government would have to pay an additional ten years in interest, aside from the forty-five million dollar compensation it is seeking in damages.

Michael Ashcroft

Lord Michael Ashcroft

“Well very roughly, so far the government has had to pay out five hundred million dollars for the nationalization of B.T.L.  In addition to that, B.T.L. had borrowed approximately twenty-four million U.S. dollars from a bank that I have an interest in, in the Turks and Caicos, which the government tried to avoid paying.  Eventually again, on the litigation and the settlement agreement that finally came, they actually had to pay out forty-two million U.S. dollars for that bank debt.  So the five hundred million U.S. dollars is being paid out and I think the sad reality is, looking at the last accounts of B.T.L., I very much doubt that it’s worth a third of that price that is being paid.  That of course is a subjective assessment and I am yet to be proven wrong on that particular point and it’s probably another two hundred and fifty million dollars potentially that are outstanding.  The matter which keeps increasing these amounts is interest and it keeps building up all the time.  If it takes another three years for B.I.S.L. to be paid out, that will be ten years since the sequestration of the assets.  So even six percent per annum uncompounded, you’re looking at another sixty percent over and above the damages awarded in due course and the government’s policy has always seemed to be to take everything to the Nth degree, kick the can down the road to the Nth degree and either they win or it’s out, the cost with interest accruing.”