CONFLICT OF INTEREST REARS ITS ANGRY HEAD IN NEVIS

In the aftermath of the suggestion by the judge in the  HAMILTON RESERVE BANK litigation that PREMIER MARK BRANTLEY suspend the bank's license, pending a civil and criminal investigation of its conduct, Nevesians are pointing out his multiple Conflicts of Interest that are on open display; he is using the Office of the Premier  as a conduit to his law firm, where millions of dollars are made.

First, on the law firm website, he deliberately listed his name as "Hon. Mark Brantley," and not Mark Brantley Attorney at Law, which is an explicit reminder to potential investors of his role as the Premier of Nevis. This is an indirect but powerful direction to investors towards his law firm without actually telling them where to go.

Second, his firm advertises that it can license international banks. Of course, as the Premier as well as Minister of Finance, he alone as the power, not only to grant such licenses, but also the responsibility to regulate, supervise and even sanction, them. He is the same man, who can incorporate s bank, grant it a license, and then subsequently regulate it. Many observers have deemed this Misfeasance or Malfeasance in Public Office, by definition.

Third, the premier has been the Minister of Energy since 2013, meaning that he has ministerial responsibility for NEVLEC, the Government's wholly-owned electricity utility, and from what the record shows, his law firm has been closely involved since then, from the incorporation of Nevis Renewable Energy International or NREI, to the legal Retainer for NEVLEC, to Dispute Resolution in NREI vs. Drillers. How is all this not a Conflict of Interest?

Nevis deserves better; the question is, will it ever get it?