David Ames and Buccament Bay Resort Fiasco

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An alarm went up, the controversial foreign investor/hotelier: Davis Ames, and man behind the Buccament Bay Resort enterprise, run away with over seven million dollars of monies that was alleged to have been earmarked to pay into the St. Vincent and the Grenadines treasury as Taxes and into the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) on behalf of the workers who are employed by that business enterprise.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, the government’s chief decision maker of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who is an alleged lawyer is whimpering like a baby over the alleged stolen money, as if all is lost. So what! David Ames stole several million dollars from a company of which he is one of the chief investors and the CEO and he absconded with the money. I have not seen the big deal and how this alleged theft of company money does has affected the government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Apart from the fact that a crime was committed. Situation such as these becomes a problem, when the people who are place as managers of the country’s resources (the government) and the watch dogs of those people (the parliamentary opposition) are void of rational thoughts and readily available solution.

Now there is a warrant out for David Ames for tax evasion and for theft. I will have to say the Director of Public Prosecution (D.P.P) have got to be a jack-ass to charge David Ames with theft. Who did David Ames stole from, who file a report of theft against Mr. Ames and who is the virtual complainant in this case. Tax Evasion yes but to charge him with the offence of theft is highly idiotic. I will explain further later.
Now the fact that David Ames left St. Vincent and the Grenadines with without fulfilling his company’s financial obligation to the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the form of paying the taxes his company owed to the Government as well as, his company’s financial responsibility to the INS is indeed an offence. Because he, as the company’s legal representative (not counsel) fail to ensure the company’s financial obligation to the government was met.
I will say this, that David Aimes is only liable to St. Vincent and the Grenadines to answer criminal charges, David Ames is not indebted to the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadine for the money that were not paid. We must never forget that the Buccament Bay Resort is a corporation or Limited Liability Company and as such, that company has an independent existence apart from its owners, managers and investors. The monies were stolen not from the Government but from the company, and therefore the company is still indebted to the government and the N.I.S.
The truth is David Aimes is liable to his company for the money he stole not to the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It is only the company can bring charges of theft against David Ames. Therefore the company have to write the stolen monies off as a lost, but the money that was stolen even if it was earmarked to take care of the company’s financial obligations to the government and the N.I.S has nothing to do with the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. As far as the Government is concerned, the Buccament Bay Resort still owes the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines monies owed as tax as well as, the National Insurance scheme monies owed to it as workers contribution. David Ames absence and his theft of the company’s money, do not change the color of water or the price of eggs.
According to the charges laid before the magistrate, the Director of public Prosecution claimed that between: on December 31st 2011, and December 31st 2012, David Ames, stole approximately four million dollars the property of the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. David Ames never stole any money from the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; however, he fail to pay the said monies into the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines treasury and to the N.I.S monies owing as fund collected from workers on behalf of the N.I.S. David Ames, broke the Laws of St. Vincent and the Grenadines when he fail to pay to the company’s two creditors, monies owing to them as was his responsibility and as stipulated in the law.
To charge David Ames with theft of monies of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the silliest thing I have ever heard. Does the Director of Public Prosecution and his team understand or know what the legal definition of theft is? Do they know the conditions that must be presence to constitute the offence of theft? What David Ames did do not amount up to theft.
What David Ames did was to fail to pay, on behalf of his company, money owed to the Government in taxes, which amount to Tax Evasion, however by not paying workers deduction into the N.I.S and keeping said monies for himself is embezzlement. David Ames did not embezzled the monies from the N.I.S or the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but he did so from the company he is part owner and CEO of. Although embezzlement is a form of theft, legally it is not theft; in the same manner burglary is a form of theft but legally burglary is not theft. The manner in which the theft was committed changes the classification of the offence in to embezzlement.
David Ames’ actions does not automatically takes away or relief the company, of its financial obligations (taxes) to the Government or its financial obligation to the NIS. The company has to take David Ames dishonesty as a company financial lost and tabulate that lost as a part of its yearly deficits. However, the David Ames dishonesty or misappropriation of his company’s money does not cancel the company’s financial obligated to its debtors. It is incumbent on the government to begin actions to recover monies owe to it as taxes as well as monies owed to the NIS in the form of workers contribution from the Buccament Bay Resort not from David Ames.
I will say if the sum owed to both the Government and the NIS is more than the assets of the Buccament Resort then the government have an obligation to the people, to take legal actions to acquire that enterprise as payment for debt owed.
Come on D.P.P Collin Williams, you should be smarter than that, come on Judith Jones Morgan, you have been Attorney General for almost seventeen years, why don’t you do your jobs. I expected more from both of you, because you went to an accredited law school, and passed the bar.
By Allan H. F. Palmer