Corruption claims force halt to TCI resort project

Kinay said the construction on the Dellis Cay resort, located on a 560-acre island in the TCI, has stopped while the developers try to put themselves in a better financial position.

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands, October 14, 2009 – A developer in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) claims allegations that he was linked to government corruption have forced him to halt construction on a luxury resort and have even put his business on the brink of collapse.

Cem Kinay says he and his partner Oguz Serim, who are constructing the Dellis Cay project, are now trying to work out a restructuring plan with their funder, Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation.

“Our business is in the brick of collapse because confidence in it was destroyed by allegations made by the Turks and Caicos Islands Commission of Inquiry during its hearings earlier this year and then repeated in its leaked report,” Kinay said in a press statement.

That leaked report which came out of a UK-ordered Commission of Inquiry into allegations of corruption by the former government of the British overseas territory, named Kinay among businessmen who allegedly had corrupt dealings with government.

Before the report was published, a judge had ordered that it be redacted to protect the names of certain individuals. But even after the edited document was published on the government website, a hacker was able to access the unedited version and it was then widely circulated.

Kinay says since that happened, negative press and anonymous emails and letters from a group of political activists in TCI were sent to the project’s partners and funders to destroy the company’s business and its reputation.

“Despite the world economical crisis, we had continued to operate but we could not survive the publication of these allegations, despite the fact that a court found that they were unlawfully made,” he said.

“As a result of the negative environment, our sales slowed down considerably and impacted the performance of our receivables, and new sales.”

Kinay said the construction on the Dellis Cay resort, located on a 560-acre island in the TCI, has stopped while the developers try to put themselves in a better financial position.