CAP JULUCA SOLD? NO IT HASN’T. THE SAGA CONTINUES AS ANGUILLIANS ARE DUPED OUT OF ALMOST $18 MILLION DOLLARS

*CAP JULUCA SOLD? NO IT HASN’T. THE SAGA CONTINUES AS ANGUILLIANS ARE DUPED OUT OF ALMOST $18 MILLION DOLLARS*

Part One Hundred and five (105) : THE CHIEF MINISTER THAT CALLED WOLF! THE CINDERELLA CALLED CJ!

By : Observers of Anguilla.

2000, the Anguilla United Front (AUF) administration came to office with a promise to sort out Cap Juluca. In 2004, on the eve of the 2005 election, Minister of Finance, Hon. Victor F. Banks took a Memorandum to the Executive Council to take control of Cap Juluca on the basis that they has violated their alien land holding lease agreements.

2007, Mr. Banks announced a sale of the famed hotel to Mr. Karim Allibi of GENCOM Ltd.

Against all legal and professional advice, and during the heat of a protracted legal battle, Mr. Banks and his government facilitated a sale of the hotel to Mr. Adam Aaron with the ability to sell portions of the property via sub leases. This was ill-advised and in 2010, the court ruling proved the same.

Fast forward to 2015 where Mr. Othlyn Vanterpool, Hon. Curtis Richardson, Hon. Cora Richardson-Hodge, Hon. Evans McNeil Rogers, Hon. Cardigan Connor and Chief Minister Banks stated that they are qualified to bring all the warring parties together for a united Cap Juluca. 18 months later and they have given up this impossible quest however, they promised in May 2016 that by May 9th 2016, the hotel will be sold.

Mr. Banks then gave an interview to travel weekly in New York where he said by end of June 2016, Cap Juluca will have new ownership who will invest millions in renovations and expansion.

Mr. Fritz Smith, Chairman of the AUF and employee at Cap Juluca, Sherpa of the government and Chairman of the Health Authority is again traveling in tax payers dime to England along with Minister Cardigan Connor, Cora Richardson-Hodge and Victor Banks while yet another month goes by and Cap Juluca is unmoved.

In September 2016, Hon. Connor stated he is 17 million percent sure that Cap Juluca will be sold and sorted out for good. Mr. Banks told DJ Hammer on klass fm radio that he is taking a bill to the house to forgive more than $17 million dollars in taxes on the basis that the former AUM government did not grant Mr. Charles Hickox an alien land holding license and business licence BUT – and here is the strange but – but if the hotel is not sold by September 30th, they would have to pay those taxes. Do you understand that? The bill was passed unanimously.

Today is November 1st 2016. Not only did September 30th pass, but October 31st has also passed and there is no such sale and not one dime of the 17 plus million dollars have trickled into Anguilla’s treasury to benefit the people of the island.

The issues that surround Cap Juluca are beyond the remit of any government. These observers stated that while the AUF promised otherwise and wife of Mr. Hickox informed employees that the hotel will not be sold and no deal was made.

The hotel is still fractured as it open it’s doors for another season. The *Brilla group and the other private owners still have their villas closed and boarded up and Anguilla are no better off because of the Anguilla United Front amazingly unrealistic and false promises and Cardigan Connor has been virtually invisible for more than two months*.