Century National debt recoveries revised
Published:Wednesday | July 13, 2011 | 12:00 AM
The total sum netted so far by FINSAC Limited from the sale of assets formerly owned by ex-chairman of Century National Bank, Donovan Crawford, and connected entities, has been revised upwards to J$339 million.
Errol Campbell, general manager of FINSAC, had initially told the commission of enquiry into the financial sector crisis of the 1990s that J$122 million has been collected from the sale of a number of assets, mostly apartments and land in Kingston and St Andrew, St Elizabeth and St Ann, as well as proceeds from ordinary shares, an insurance policy, rental from two properties and the auctioning of a vintage motor car.
But last Friday, Campbell provided an extended list of 29 other properties which have also been sold. However, the net total sum has still not taken account of the sale of Blue Cross of Jamaica and almost 50 per cent of holdings in Jamaica Grande, which have been sold for US$3 million and J$37 million, respectively.
By a Supreme Court order, FINSAC has been authorised to sell a vast array of assets owned by Crawford, his relatives and companies in which he has significant interest, to recover a J$2.5 billion to J$3 billion debt.
The expanded list, which includes the names of the purchasers and the dates on which the sales were effected, include six townhouses at Skyline Drive, Jacks Hill, St Andrew — a market value of J$8.4 million was put on each, but were severally sold for between J$6.7 million and J$7.8 million.
Assets to be sold
It also includes seven apartments at Devon House East, Kingsway, Kingston 10. Real estate dealers D.C. Tavares & Finson, which undertook the valuation for most of those properties, estimated their market value at between J$2.5 million and J$4.2 million, but the sale price ranged between J$2.3 million and J$3.7 million.
The list also contains six commercial units at Devon House East, valued between $7 million and $7.9 million, but sold for J$5 million to J$6.1 million.
Among the other assets sold were properties, including land, in Burnt Savannah, St Elizabeth; Half Way Tree Road, Kingston 10; Ward Avenue, Mandeville, Manchester; Point, Ocho Rios, St Ann; Norman Manley Boulevard, Negril, Westmoreland; Waterloo Road, Kingston 10, and Barry and Lloyd Street, St Catherine.
A majority of the properties were owned by Century National Development Limited, 99.9 per cent of which was owned by Don Crawford.
On Friday, Campbell also began addressing individual complaints made by witnesses who appeared before the enquiry that FINSAC treated them unfairly, and in some cases sold their properties at grossly undervalued prices to recover what many of them argued were inflated debts owed to financial institutions in which the agency intervened.
The general manager, under examination by attorney Brian Moodie, who along with attorney Danielle Chai is representing FINSAC, has so far produced valuation reports and, in each case, read into evidence several pieces of correspondence between the adjustment company and the aggrieved persons or their attorneys, seeking to justify the actions taken.