Banks & trust companies making millions but do nothing to help VI- L. Allen Wheatley
Speaking on the forum, “A Response” hosted by the Community Worship Centre Church of God of Prophecy in Long Look on March 12, 2023, Mr Wheatley said if elected he would be pushing to change that.
‘Banks & trust companies did nothing to help VI’- Wheatley
“These are the things that really bother me. It bothers me because you have like banks here making 25 million dollars in profit, profit you know, not revenue, profit, and not one bank, not one trust company, could do what those people did in Virgin Gorda.”
The Eighth District candidate, who will be coming up against incumbent representative Hon Marlon A. Penn, said he had observed how wealthy investors on Virgin Gorda willingly spent massive amounts of monies to assist persons on Virgin Gorda to repair their homes following the hurricanes of September 2017; however, this was not the case on Tortola.
Mr Wheatley said electricity was swiftly restored for financial services to keep going, “but when you look at the schools, the rest of the BVI, look how long it took us to get Elmore Stoutt school back up.
‘I going to come gunning’
“I can’t understand that. How the millionaires up in Virgin Gorda could see fit in a community that the live in, could put back when he saw the need and businesses here [on Tortola] making millions and billions of dollars and watched us suffer and didn’t even care enough to fix a school.
Mr Wheatley said it was local businessman Peter Haycraft, the former owner of Road Town Wholesale Limited, who rebuilt Enis Adams Primary School at Meyers Estate, following its destruction in the hurricanes of September 2017.
“I say that to say that when you start to look at these things about what we are going to do in this country, we have to seriously take stock of how the corporate businesses, and I am not talking about local businesses, I am talking specifically about financial services, and I probably going to offend some people, but I have told a lot of people in the industry already, I going [to] come gunning, I ain’t joking about it. If I get a chance, they are going to make a more substantial contribution to this country. They have been making millions of dollars year after year and they do nothing,” the former Financial Secretary said to loud applause.
Mr Wheatley said the money from corporate entities doesn’t even have to come into the Government coffers, rather the example of Haycraft could be used...”to keep the government out of the confusion.”
Mr Haycraft, now deceased, took it upon himself to do the various hirings and expenditure for the rebuilding of Enis Adams Primary School.
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53 Responses to “Banks & trust companies making millions but do nothing to help VI- L. Allen Wheatley”
LAW is a cr**k.
the companies in question transfer substantial sums of money through this territory(are there any emphatic checks and balances in place
the small man comes under very serious scrutiny; NHI, SSB nails us to the cross whereas the establishment mentioned only God knows
the system should change and have to change, remove the double standards
stay focused born road town in 1952
However - he seems to be ignoring the fact that so much money has been syphoned out of the Government contributed by tax paying people and companies (e.g. payroll tax and license fees). We should have an amazing infrastructure but we don't. Just very wealthy politicians!
They are the ones going out there marketing the BVI as a financial services jurisdiction so that the government can make millions of dollars in company licence fees and transaction fees each year.
They provide more jobs to locals than the tourist industry! And not minimum wage jobs either.
Many of them give to local causes (not all have the budget for it like you think).
Many of them give scholarship opportunities to locals.
Do you really want to kill that goose with this shortsighted lunacy? Do you even understand the industry and its contributions?
So Allen please go do your homework before you start making statements.
Just one example.
All this nonsense about giving to Charity is BS.
These banks make lots and lots of money in the BVI. This is all Offshore money. They do not service the people of the BVI. They just take take take.
The government should mandate service requirements for local banking services. If the line has 50 people in it, why is there 2 tellers!! If the wait in line is 3 hours, why is the bank only open 3 days a week!??? Why can I not get a $30,000 loan to add a bedrooom on my house!??? Tell the banks they can run offshore accounts unless they fix this.