Looking At OBA Consultant Derrick Green’s Role

May 19, 2014

[Updated] Amid the controversy surrounding the JetGate situation, the name Derrick Green has been coming up, and while his exact role remains unclear, the American political consultant was seen attending Saturday’s meeting at OBA Headquarters.

Mr Green has served as a consultant to the OBA from prior to the 2012 General Election, and is often seen on the island.

Overseas consultants are nothing new in local politics, with various political parties said to have utilized their services over the years.

According to an older article from the Washington Post, Mr. Green has a long history in Democratic Party politics and has worked on campaigns for U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg and Jon S. Corzine.

Reports from various media including ZBM, the Bermuda Sun and Think Media indicate that U.S. developer Nathan Landow and his associates wired some $300,000 – $350,000 to Bermuda prior to the 2012 Election.

The reports suggest it went to either the OBA, a group called the “Bermuda Political Action Club” and questions have been raised as to whether the funds may have went to an account in the name of Stephen DaCosta and Derrick Green.

Mr. Green walking into Saturday’s meeting at OBA headquarters:

Derrick Green Bermuda, May 17 2014-5

ZBM asked Minister Shawn Crockwell if the money went to an account in the name of Mr. DaCosta and Mr. Green, to which the Minister replied, “I think there is some consistency with the names you mentioned,” but declined to answer a strict yes or no saying he has not seen documentation.

While the island’s political parties are not required to reveal their sources of funding, OBA Chairman Thad Hollis has stated that the Party never received funds from Mr. Landow and his known associates, adding that the OBA plans to conduct an internal investigation into the matter and make their findings public.

The Chairman’s comments were followed by two meetings this weekend, which saw the OBA MPs, Senators and Executive members huddled inside OBA headquarters on both Saturday and Sunday. The Party has remained tight-lipped about the meetings, which are understood to be about the JetGate matter.

Calling him the “Premier’s own version of Olivia Pope” during Friday’s [May 16] session of the House of Assembly, Opposition MP David Burt noted that Mr. Green was “here on the island all of a sudden.”

Mr. Burt went on to allege that the $300,000 was sent to an account which was “controlled by Derrick Green, the Premier’s political consultant, and Mr. Stephen DaCosta, the Premier’s business partner…”

The Premier interrupted with a Point of Order and said, “Mr. Speaker, again, misleading the House. Stephen DaCosta is not my business partner.”

During that Point of Order, the Premier objected to Mr. Burt saying that Mr. DaCosta was his business partner, and did not refute the allegation that the account was controlled by Mr. Green and Mr. DaCosta.

Mr. DaCosta’s name has been raised before in connection with JetGate, as he was also on the trip taken last year on Mr. Landow’s jet, accompanying the Premier and two Cabinet Ministers.

The Premier was asked back in March 2014 if Mr. Greene was involved in arranging or attending the meeting with Nathan Landow, to which he said “no.”

Mr. Green speaking outside the OBA’s meeting on Saturday:

Mr. Green attended Saturday’s meeting and when questioned by the media he declined to offer specifics, citing the ongoing inquiry.

Mr. Green said, “As you know, there’s an internal inquiry going on right now and so it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment at this moment but the Chairman will setting the record straight on next week.”

When asked if he had solicited the funds from Nathan Landow, Mr. Green replied by saying, “Like I said, the Chairman is going to be making an official comment on next week.”

When reminded by ZBM that the Chairman said he was unaware of the $300,000, Mr. Green responded by saying, “He is going to be – right now, the party is holding an internal inquiry right now, and I will assure you that the Chairman will be making a statement on next week.”

When asked if there was any truth to claims that the dollar amount in question was $350,000 as opposed to $300,000, Mr. Green said, “The Chairman will be making an official comment on next week and he will clear everything up for the people of Bermuda.”

It has not yet been confirmed what happened with the $300,000 or $350,000, however the OBA is continuing their internal investigation into the matter, and has pledged to let the public know their findings once it has concluded.

For all our coverage of “JetGate” click here.

Update 2.20pm: Answering queries about whether Mr. DaCosta had ever worked for the OBA, an OBA spokesperson said, “Stephen DaCosta did work for the OBA during the election period in 2012, heading crews that were handing out brochures and putting up posters.”

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Comments (43)

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  1. WillSee says:

    SO What! All these parties receive funds from all sorts of people.
    Certainly no different than the previous Government thats for sure.

    • Politricks says:

      You are missing one key point, the Party NEVER received the money!

      • AAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAA , Dear Watson, By George I think you got the point, and just to think that we did not have to even call in Scotland Yard for this one.

        • BETTTY TRUMP says:

          What your and others are missing is the most important fact that your your failing to understand the real issue at hand here. I am not sure this is due to your pain that your feeling and it is clouding your judgement to think logically, or your failure to accept that the OBAubp has gone astray.

          But the matter is not about what happen to the money. But more so the fact that your Premier and Jetgate 4 LIED on the floor of the House of Parliament.

          As a result, “Under the Westminster political system, what is euphemistically termed “misleading parliament” is usually considered a capital offence for those holding Cabinet-level positions.” The Premier has mislead parliament, and now must face the music.

          This is the bigger problem. The party is now deadlock in negotiations as they must consider if it is party over country. A few of your MPs are not singing from the same page at present. This deadlock has put the OBAubp in a really tight and most uncomfortable positions.

          This situation is not good for the country. But a party that starts off on the wrong foot of lies and deceit often are faced with such a situation sooner rather than later. As I have told you they will fall on their swords sooner than you believe.

      • WillSee says:

        Well,Who did?????

        • Greed Killed Bermuda says:

          Um – that’s the exact point!

    • Looking for Leadership says:

      Well true. But when you go to see the people who give you money when you are in office and mislead parliament that is where trouble starts.

      Ever heard “The cover up is worse than the crime”

      No one is upset that they went on the trip, it was dumnb. What no one can understand is why they can’t come clean on everything.

      As for so what?? Ask Leah Scott, “So What?”

      • Marge says:

        I hope Lea Scott does resign… she has not said one thing in the house of Parliament, she does not return emails….. so what the hell is she getting paid for ? and her facebook post says a lot about her !!!!!!she could have waited for the out come of the internal investigation.

        • smh says:

          Sounds like you have something personal against Ms Scott.

    • Question says:

      Agreed – - it is not and should not be about the money.

      What it is about though is the lack of honesty by the Hon. Premier and why he did not provide the information when asked directly about in the House – - that is the issue.

      Q

      • I like your comment but in this case we need to drop the title Hon: or Honorable when referring to this matter,because there is nothing honorable about the man if he is out right lying or about his colleagues if they are trying to help cover up the crap, you can cover the crap all you want , it still stinks and you smell it miles away.

        • Rad Mama says:

          IF…until we know, Hon. should stay. Shouldn’t be long now, mind.

        • Bermewjan says:

          I hear you Duane… maybe he can be “fixed” so that he doesn’t lie to us any more.

    • well says:

      that is the problem.

      They are pretty much the same as the PLP administration. Just with less racism and more economic sense. They are not the party Bermuda needs, just the lesser of two evils. Both parties care only for themselves.

      • well says:

        Bermuda needs better than either party can offer

    • Real Talk (original) says:

      Um.
      I think you’re missing the point… the money did not go to the OBA’s account and the Chairman up until last week was unaware of any donation and unable to account for the funds… if you cannot see the issue with that and you’d rather use the ‘well the last government took political contributions too’ line, then I guess we well and truly are stuck on stupid…

      At the very least it means that we should be pushing for political reforms which would see all political contributions publicly disclosed.

      • WillSee says:

        The truth is I really do not care.
        So we have been deceived ! Again!
        Ok lets focus on the real issues.

      • lucky 7 says:

        So if the money went into the Premier’s account, the loan/gift was obviously personal and no body else’s business. At least it wasn’t TAXPAYERS money, that’s the difference between the PLP and OBA.

    • Real Talk (original) says:

      Oh. And now we learn that the same individual who was on the private jet and is a business associate of the Premier and may be a signatory on the account of the account into which $300,000 (or $350k) was deposited… and we’re supposed to just look the other way?

      Wow.

      • inna says:

        Like how the rest of us just “walked away” from:

        1) Cedar beams
        2) Uighyurs
        3) Bullet envelope
        4) Smashed up GP1 car

        and the list can go on bredren! how about you focus on your real job instead of trolling bernews all day, or let me guess, you’re one of those who are paid to bring down the OBA at any and all cost so as to get your lavish lifestyle of overtime and doing no work back?

        • Real Talk (original) says:

          Sorry, you’ve got me confused with somebody else.

          I’m just a hard-working Bermudian whose future depends on the OBA not effin’ this up.

          This is not the change that I voted for and to say it’s handling has been “piss poor” would be an understatement.

          • Anon says:

            If anything he’s guilty of it’s lack of political experience a.k.a. as the art of answer questions without actually saying anything.

        • Ian says:

          Cedar beams… really??? How much time do you spend complaining about the acres of cedar filled land that was taken from black Bermudian families just a few generations ago? At least theres EVIDENCE of that. It smacks descendants of those families in the face with every drive through Tuckers Town! Btw its funny how you think anyone that isn’t blindly faithful to the OBA is a “taker” who doesn’t like to work. Clearly your views are biased and toxic…

    • Steve Biko says:

      Another Surrogate Puppet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. Dee says:

    How many times does one have to say it is not about receiving funds. Yes the PLP received funds. Yes the UBP received funds. The POINT is, whatever funds were donated, actually went where they were supposed to have gone. The POINT is, no one lied about recieving said funds. The POINT is, menbers of those parties didnt deem it necessary to huddle and investigate said funds. The POINT is PCC is a self righteous, pompous fool who thinks he is accountable to no one, and who thought the public were dumb enough to believe his lies and accept his sheer arrogance. The POINT is PCC must go!!!!

    • inna says:

      how do you know where the funds were supposed to go? and why does this concern your small brain so much?

    • Benny says:

      “The POINT is, whatever funds were donated, actually went where they were supposed to have gone” —- and what proof do you have that the money donated by Landow and his friends did not go where it was supposed to? Hint: you don’t have any. He said the money went to the Political Action Club, not the OBA. So what’s the big deal? Sure, we both have no idea why it was requested that the money be sent there and not to an OBA bank account but until there comes a time when we are required to report where/how political donations are spent your point above is moot. ‘Unethical but not illegal’ rings a bell…

      • Wow says:

        Benny, if you are ok with your politicians being unethical then, why would any sound minded person trust you?

    • js says:

      perhaps the money was received by the intended people

      however the intended purpose was as a political donation

      now it could get dicey for the 2 signatories if any of that money was not used for its intended purpose but rather for their own personal uses

      if so we are looking at theft and possibly some prison time

  3. Unbelievable says:

    Nathan Landow discredited Think Media’s $2 million dollar allegation. If that allegation is untrue Think Media should issue an apology.

    But my question now is: did the Premier lie about the 300k?

  4. Anon says:

    It’s somewhat amusing watching the demagogues whip people that are easily led into such a frenzy over something so relatively insignificant(compared to Debt, education, lack of jobs). I guess there’s a portion of the population that are gluttons for punishment and blind to stupidity. How sad

    • inna says:

      And no doubt, you are a number in that portion of the population you speak of!

    • Wow says:

      Insignificant? You’re ok with liars, deceivers and unethical leaders holding the purse strings?! And I mean that for both parties as well as independents! Immorality doesn’t stay in one corner….it’s spreads like a disease!!! What’s wrong with you people???!!! YOU seem to be the one that is MOST blind to stupidity!!!

  5. Serious Though says:

    Politician have always been “diapers wearers”, and “we the people” it’s our job to change the stinking ones, as it happened last election, NOW this one got some politician with stinking diapers , and i think “we the people” need to change them.

  6. Coffee says:

    Finally the DIS EASE in the OBA is about to be remedied by the passage of time .

    As a side note , how will the OBA pay for Derricks services ? Is he the same surrogate manifesto writer ? If so then he should command a terribly large consultancy fee , maybe the entire $300,000 given by Landow if indeed there is any left .

  7. Reality Check says:

    Sounds like all the money that’s missing at Social Insurance that a lot of Employers take out of our checks and don’t send it in smh… Ppl steal all over and its been happening for years “Go check see what your contributions are for when you are 65″? I did and its next to nothing cause most of the employers I have worked for over the years kept my money and I know I’m not the only one… Check it out for yourself….

  8. Bull in a hurry says:

    Now I know we have these stiff anti money laundering laws in place in this country so can somebody please tell me how any one can open up a bank account in a political Name that nobody seems to have heard of and deposit $ 300k?

  9. done says:

    The real tragedy is that Leah Scott may resign…NOT!!! She hasn’t done a blankety blank thing since she has been there and is a waste of money…so Leah please go ahead and resign.

  10. Truth says:

    shadow campaigns are the norm where Derrick Green is from. They are the norm and very legal. There is nothing wrong with a private donor contributing to a private account. The party needs to get over it and move on. So are we now saying that overseas interested parties are unable to invest in the things that interest them? This is so the norm. I am unclear why the chairman is so interested…

  11. Please Line my Pocket says:

    I just dont get it! They are complaining about 300K of another mans money but aint worrying about where your 800mil tax dollars went! Jennifer Smith did she never stepped down!