Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Peter Turnquest has put to rest renewed claims of the government’s alleged role and knowledge of a purported inheritance of up to $79 billion to Derek Rolle.
As the decades old story goes, Rolle – now deceased – inherited a fortune from a deceased American couple.
However, it was alleged that his efforts to obtain the inheritance were thwarted by the government, who along with so- called unscrupulous bankers – had conspired to hide and steal the money.
Then there was the claim that the Minnis administration rushed the dormant accounts bill through Parliament to abscond with the multi-billion-dollar inheritance.
Mr. Turnquest told members of the House of Assembly yesterday in an official communication that “neither the Ministry of Finance nor the Central Bank – nor any other government entity – were or are aware of this alleged inheritance that was supposedly left to Mr. Derek Rolle.
“Further, and it would follow from this, neither the Central Bank nor any other public entity has had or does have knowledge or possession of any funds related to this alleged inheritance,” he added.
“Neither the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the Attorney General, the Ministry of National Security nor any other relevant agency have been approached by any domestic or international entity on any matter related to the investigation of this issue.
“Further, the government is not aware of any legal action that has been commenced in The Bahamas or any other jurisdiction in respect to what is alleged to be the largest theft of monies ever recorded,” the minister said.
“One would certainly believe that there is more than sufficient incentive for this matter to have been advanced over the last twenty years.”
“There would be literally thousands of lawyers from across the world who would fly to the Bahamas – or the relevant jurisdiction – today to commence action if $79 billion was on the line.”
According to Minister Turnquest, as far as the government’s concerned, the story’s completely untrue.
