Cash denies ties to BOB leak

Sat, May 3rd 2014, 11:40 AM

Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Darron Cash said yesterday there is not a "snowball's chance in hell" that he is somehow behind the alleged leak of confidential information at the Bank of The Bahamas.
On Thursday, three police officers showed up at his Cable Beach home and seized two laptops and a smartphone as part of an ongoing probe into the leak.
"My wife, whose name they have taken through the doggone mud, is also a professional," said Cash, who was a guest on Star 106.5 FM radio show "Jeffrey" with host Jeffrey Lloyd.
"She works at the Bank of The Bahamas in human resources. She never had access to the kind of information that was released to the public -- never and never would.
"So explain to me how the managing director of the bank, the board of directors of the bank, the auditors of the bank, the ministers who had access to the information, have their personal computers been seized? Have their cell phones been seized?"
Seemingly angered by the ordeal, Cash said there is no doubt in his mind that he was targeted because of politics.
"I don't want (Prime Minister) Perry Christie...or anyone else in that regime to judge me by their undecorated standards," he said.
"I never have and never will disclose private and confidential information."
The matter involving Bank of The Bahamas grabbed national attention several months ago after The Punch reported a series of allegations regarding loans from the bank.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson told The Nassau Guardian yesterday that police acted after they received a complaint from the bank.
But Ferguson said he could not reveal anything about the ongoing investigation.
Cash said yesterday that even before those articles were published in The Punch people had expressed concerns about activities at the bank.
He said the FNM was merely doing what a responsible opposition should do when it called for an investigation.
Earlier this year, Cash called for the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Assembly to "scrutinize the extent to which public funds, including those of the National Insurance Board, are at risk with BOB".
Cash said yesterday he issued those statements because he and others in the FNM had gotten accounts of "where the bodies were buried and said it is time for the government to use its offices to determine whether the information was fact or fiction".
Christie, who is also minister of finance, assured the public earlier in the year that "there need be no fear or concern" relating to the bank.
"The bank's capital position and other fundamentals remain strong," Christie said in a statement.
FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis also defended Cash.
On Thursday night, he accused the government of directing the police to carry out a "political witch-hunt" on Cash because of his recent critique of the bank.
"The FNM will not stand for the apparent political assault on its national chairman, which is purely a smoke screen and deflection away from the very real, pressing and serious issue and chronic problems facing our nation," Minnis said.
Attorney Carl Bethel, who represents Cash, told The Guardian that he filed a notice of originating motion in the Supreme Court , which will begin the process of determining whether the police followed lawful protocol in the execution of their duties.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

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