By Gemma Handy
A brazen billboard highlighting Canadian businessman Jack Stroll’s lengthy legal battle to withdraw millions of dollars of his money from a local bank appeared to have struck a nerve yesterday.
Within hours of the poster – featuring the face of the boss of Global Bank of Commerce – being erected early Friday morning, it was torn down and replaced with letters from planning officials warning of defamation.
In addition to Brian Stuart-Young’s photo, the poster carried a slogan using wording repeated verbatim from Prime Minister Gaston Browne who previously told his Saturday radio show that Stuart-Young was “not a crook”, but “a decent man”.
The poster went on to question why Stroll was still struggling to access his money.
The Whenner Road billboard is situated outside the UPP’s St Mary’s North office and now, once again, reveals the image of the opposition party’s constituency caretaker Johnathan Joseph.
The letter from the Development Control Authority – put in place with impressive efficiency on Friday – cites a “breach of planning control”.
“You have erected a billboard without permission,” it states, adding, “furthermore, the erected billboard contains defamatory information”.
Signed by the Town and Country Planner, the letter orders the site’s owner/occupier to remove the billboard with immediate effect.
The addressee’s right to appeal is noted but warns it must be lodged the same day.
Failure to comply with the order risks a fine of EC$500, which increases by EC$100 each day. If convicted, the offender faces a fine of EC$10,000 or six months in prison, or both, the letter adds.
Joseph could not be reached for comment yesterday and precisely who owns the land remains unclear.
What is also unclear is why the billboard is only now incurring the wrath of planning chiefs, well over a year after it was erected in the run-up to the January 2023 general election.
Global Bank’s ostensible financial woes are certainly a sore point for the government which has repeatedly sought to assuage fears over the institution’s stability.
The bank is also under fire over a US$1 million donation deposited by the Steve Morgan Foundation in 2017 to aid Barbuda’s recovery from Hurricane Irma and which has apparently yet to reach its intended recipients. The British charity previously told Observer they were “deeply upset” by the delay.
The government said it never received the charity’s funds due to “financial difficulties” Global Bank was experiencing, coupled with Global’s corresponding bank going into receivership. Government pledged to rectify the issue by making US$1 million available to build homes at Luis Hill in Barbuda.
Meanwhile, Stroll’s three-year battle to access his savings continues.
When approached by Observer for comment regarding the billboard yesterday, he replied, “What’s wrong with freedom of speech?”
He added, “The bank tells me they are working on getting me my money, but they’ve been telling me that for the last three years.”
The Jolly Harbour resident’s MP Kelvin Simon, who first brought Stroll’s plight to public attention, disagreed that the billboard’s wording was libellous.
“There was nothing at all that was defamatory,” he told Observer.
“The billboard is on private property,” he continued. “It has already been there over a year with Johnathan Joseph’s canvas on it, so to me their argument that it’s in breach of planning rules is nonsensical.
“If it was a billboard that had just appeared I could understand it, but it was already there.”
The DCA could not be reached for clarification yesterday.
Stuart-Young was also approached for comment yesterday but did not respond up to news time.
The latest stage in Stroll’s legal fight to attain his money is an attempt to shed light on Global Bank’s finances.
Last month, the High Court gave the country’s oldest international bank until 4pm yesterday to provide written answers to 104 questions submitted by Stroll’s attorneys requesting information on everything from its profit and loss statements to details of Stuart-Young’s personal finances.