Bahamas News

American celebrity Anna Nicole Smith plans to sue attorney Michael Scott and Callenders and Co., charging that they breached attorney client privilege and were involved in a conflict of interest situation, The Bahama Journal has learnt.

Mr. Scott and the law firm formerly represented Ms. Smith, who is at the heart of brewing controversy surrounding the approval of her permanent residency application.

He is also the attorney for G. Ben Thompson, the foreign developer who claims to own the Eastern Road house where Ms. Smith is staying. Mr. Thompson has asked Ms. Smith to leave the home by today.

Mr. Scott has said that an agreement between Mr. Thompson and Ms. Smith called for her to execute a mortgage to pay Mr. Thompson back the million dollars he paid for the residence.

Ms. Smith was granted permanent residency based on the fact that she bought a million-dollar home in The Bahamas, according to Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, who has been forced on the defensive over the issue.

Wayne Munroe, who represents Ms. Smith, said last night he will be writing to Callender’s on behalf of Ms. Smith for an explanation over certain statements that appeared in the press.

He is also seeking explanation on certain correspondence forwarded to the Immigration Department from the law firm.

Meanwhile, a Free National Movement official continued to up the heat on the matter on Monday.

According to the FNM, Prime Minister Perry Christie’s vehement denials in recent events seem to have been “quite out of place” and he ought to “take the type of action with respect to Minister Gibson” that “constitutional norms require.”

Minister Gibson is alleged to have personally received a $10,000 cheque for the permanent residency fee of Vickie Lynn Marshall, also known as Anna Nicole Smith among many other aliases.

The minister firmly denied the claim in the past, and reiterated that denial on Monday.

“I never picked up any cheque from Anna Nicole (Smith’s) house. Anybody who says that is lying,” he told the Journal.

Minister Gibson expects to be vindicated once “the truth comes out” and “the documents are produced.”

Free National Movement Chairman Desmond Bannister told the Journal on Monday that if the evidence coming to light that suggests Minister Gibson did indeed receive the cheque personally proves true, regardless of his denials, then the prime minister has made a mistake in defending him.

“Either the prime minister was misled, in which case he owes a duty to the Bahamian people to tell them that he was misled by one of his ministers; or, he knew the full facts and has made a serious error in judgment, in which case he owes the Bahamian people an apology,” Mr. Bannister said.

Mr. Bannister conceded that by “constitutional norms” he meant that Minister Gibson, whose portfolio includes Labour and Immigration, should retire.

“You ought to be out of the peoples’ business. You ought not to be involved in the peoples’ business when you make that type of mistake, and there is a way for the politician to gracefully bow aside, accept that he made a mistake, and then see whether the people want him back at some other stage,” he said.

“But certainly at this stage, the right thing would be for the prime minister to ask that minister to do ‘what is right.’”

Mr. Bannister stopped short of saying outright that Mr. Christie’s ministers are not being truthful with him.

“There’s one of two things; if the prime minister would come out and make the denial that he did, then either he was in possession of the full facts or he wasn’t. If he was in possession of the full facts and he made a statement like (the denial of the fight between two of his MPs, and the denial that Minister Gibson received the cheque), then (Minister Gibson) needs to go. If he were not in possession of the full facts, then it means that his ministers would not have been frank with him,” Mr. Bannister said.

“There are no other alternatives. Those are the alternatives.”

He said that evidence has come out that the widely debated fight between Mt. Moriah MP Keod Smith and Kennedy MP Kenyatta Gibson did occur in a manner in which Mr. Christie indicated that it did not occur.

Mr. Christie told the Journal the Wednesday following the fight that he and the two men had laughed at media reports, and while he acknowledged that there had been a disagreement, the prime minister said he had received no reports that the incident had gotten physical.

Both men have resigned their posts in the Christie administration and Mt. Moriah MP Smith has since confirmed that the fight was indeed a physical confrontation.

“It raises very fundamental questions in a democracy if you have a country which is supposed to be run on the Westminster system and the prime minister finds that he is unable to provide the type of strong leadership that the country needs,” Mr. Bannister said.

“And (if the prime minister) also knows that his ministers are not being frank with him, then there’s an obligation on the prime minister to take the interests of the country ahead of the interest of individuals in his government.”