Former Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) board member Fred Ramsey was charged in a Magistrate's Court with accepting more than $600,000 in bribes from a foreign company over a decade ago to help it land BEC contracts.
Ramsey, 78, was arraigned on four counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and 14 counts of bribery. Prosecutors allege that Ramsey accepted a total of $651,788.90 between 1999 and February 2003. It is alleged that Ramsey acted with others, but he was the only one who faced charges yesterday.
Ramsey, a former Free National Movement candidate for Fox Hill, pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. The payments allegedly range from $13,548.25 to $99,650? He allegedly collected the payments on 14 different occasions. In exchange, Ramsey allegedly used his influence to get Alstom Power Espana S.A. (formerly ABB Generacian S.A.) contracts for the second and third phase of BEC's New Providence Expansion Project. Ramsey, who appeared calm throughout the arraignment, was awarded $40,000 bail with two sureties.
Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt ordered that Ramsey report to the Elizabeth Estates Police Station of the 15th of every month on or before 6 p.m. Ramsey will return to court on October 13. The matter was transferred to court 10.
Roger Minnis represented Ramsey. The charges follow months of speculation surrounding the bribe scandal.
The matter first came to light nine months ago when the U.S. Department of Justice reported that Alstom SA agreed to pay $772 million to resolve allegations that it bribed high-ranking foreign government officials for lucrative projects. Federal prosecutors said Alstom falsified its records and paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes for help in obtaining more than $4 billion in projects in countries including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and The Bahamas.
As part of the plea agreement, the company detailed its corrupt practices. The agreement said that in connection with the bidding on power projects, Alstom retained "Consultant I" who, as certain Alstom employees knew, was a close personal friend of "Official 8", a board member of BEC. The names of Consultant I and Official 8 were omitted from the recorded agreement. Local investigators wrapped up their investigation last month and turned their findings over to the Office of the Attorney General.
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