FOR its assistance, John Issa’s family was awarded a certificate, a pin and an unspecified “something else” by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the SuperClubs chairman has revealed.

The Jamaican hotelier did not state the nature of the assistance given to the FBI but said that the Washington-based boss of the FBI agent, who covered Jamaica, called at his SuperClubs office to say: “We want to thank you for what you have done in assisting us…”

Issa, giving a follow-up deposition in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County, Florida, in pursuance of a lawsuit he filed in the US, also disclosed that he had been thoroughly checked out by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the State Department.

Issa is maintaining that his reputation was damaged in defamatory e-mails traced to computers originating in Florida. The follow-up deposition to one given in January was taken on September 9, 2009, and is being serialised by the Sunday Observer.

Attorney Reginald Clyne of Clyne and Associates, representing the defendants, asked Issa about his role in the purchase of a hotel in The Bahamas and whether he had verified if any of the investors were drug dealers.

Clyne wanted to know whether Village Resorts Limited, owners of SuperClubs, had entered into a joint venture with Jamaica’s state-run Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the now-defunct Jamaica Mutual Life Assurance Society to make the Grand Lido hotel.

Issa: “Yes, it could be described as such.”

Clyne: “Okay, did Jamaica Mutual Life or any of its employees suggest to you that your purchase of a hotel in The Bahamas, and with the use of their funds, constituted a breach of their fiduciary duty?”

Issa: “I don’t recall because we didn’t use any of their funds. I didn’t purchase a hotel in The Bahamas. Investors purchased it, and Village Resorts — through a subsidiary — leased it.”

Clyne: “Did you lease it at such a high price that it would cover the mortgage?”

Issa: “My recollection, it was a very reasonable renter.”

Clyne: “The question was, did you lease the… buy the hotel yourself with some investors and then lease it to Village Resorts and had the lease so high that it would cover the mortgage?”

Issa: “First of all, take it in parts. The lease was not so high. The lease may have covered whatever financing the owners did but the owners may not have borrowed much.”

Clyne: “Did your partners in Village Resorts object to you doing that? Did a partner or shareholder… Sorry.

Joe DeMaria, Issa’s lawyer: “Which is it, one gadfly or a whole bunch?”

Clyne: “No, just a shareholder.”

Issa: “Just one shareholder didn’t think it was a good thing to do.”

Clyne: “Who was that?”

Issa: “Anthony Ferrari.”

Clyne: “Did he feel it was a breach of your fiduciary duty?”

Issa: “I don’t know what he felt, but he had taken off for three or four months, and when we tried to contact him to describe the deal to him, he was unavailable and couldn’t be found, so the company had to go forward. We can’t just stop because he’s taking a three or four-month holiday.”

Clyne: “Who were the investors in the purchase of the hotel in The Bahamas?”

Issa: “It’s a company called PPL Limited, I think.”

Clyne: “And who are the shareholders or members of PPL Ltd?”

Issa: “A company called Prime Properties Ltd.”

Clyne: “And who are the shareholders or members of Prime Properties Ltd?”

Issa: “I don’t know. I think it’s some kind of trust.”

Clyne: “Are you a member or shareholder of Prime Properties Ltd?

Issa: “No.”

Clyne: “Are you a member of the trust that…”

Issa: “No. A trust is owned or controlled by trustees. It’s a discretionary trust.”

Clyne: “Who’s the trustee?”

Issa: “I don’t remember.”

Clyne: “What is your relationship to the trustee?”

Issa: “I know the trustee… at least, I’m not sure. I have to check. I think I know one of them.”

Clyne: “Who’s the one that you know?”

Issa: “Paul Winder.”

Clyne: “Where did the trust get the money to buy this hotel?”

Issa: “I don’t know. You have to ask them.”

Clyne: “Were you involved in the deal in purchasing the Bahamas hotel? I think it’s a Wyndham.”

Issa: “I negotiated it.”

Clyne: “So you are negotiating on behalf of a corporation that owns a corporation that has a trust behind it?”

Issa: “Quite common in the Caribbean.”

Clyne later asked Issa if in his handling of this negotiation, he had verified that none of the investors were drug dealers.

Clyne: “You are a sophisticated businessman, and you’re buying and negotiating with corporations that own corporations that hold trusts, and in these anti-money laundering days where drug money is flowing, what I want to know, and I’m not trying to throw any aspersions on you, did you know that your money was clean?”

Issa: “Okay, let me do it this way…”

DeMaria: “You are casting aspersions. You have no basis to do so and it’s improper. Go ahead.”

Issa: “First of all, before we deal with anyone new, we speak to our friends in the DEA and we ask them to clear it. This is whether they’re people in the islands or in Mexico or in Colombia or wherever. The second thing, if there was anything wrong in my background, myself and two members of my family wouldn’t recently have been given awards and presentations from the FBI in Washington for assisting them in their work in Jamaica. And thirdly, the Government of the United States would not have just leased my daughter Zein and her husband Chris’ home for the residence of the ambassador…

So they have checked me out thoroughly and it’s much more than you can do. So I would not have that relationship with the DEA, the FBI and the State Department of the US.”

To be continued