Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy yesterday broke his silence on the Jetgate row — and slammed “inaccurate” claims in a report into the affair by Thad Hollis who resigned Tuesday as One Bermuda Alliance chairman.

Sen Fahy said a claim by Mr Hollis that he had been phoned by the Bank of Butterfield and “confirmed the account” when OBA advisor Derrick Green and party supporter Steven DeCosta attempted to open an account to fund a grassroots campaign in the run-up to the 2012 general election was wrong.

“Whilst this quote is partly accurate to the extent that the account was opened with two signatories, I have spoken directly with officials at the bank who advised me that when Mr Green and Mr DeCosta applied to open the account, verification was required as to the background of Mr Green, since he was a guest worker,” Sen Fahy said in the Senate.

“A senior official at the bank made repeated phone calls to the former chairman to confirm that Mr Green had a work permit with the OBA and was still employed with the OBA, since, presumably, this is the information provided to the bank upon the opening of the account.

“I have been advised that the then party chairman was unreachable.

“I was therefore phoned, as an OBA official, in my capacity as OBA campaign director, by a senior official at the bank.”

And he denied he was planning to take legal action against his own party.

But Mr Hollis last night declined to comment further — because Sen Fahy had threatened court proceedings if Mr Hollis did not withdraw sections of the report.

Mr Fahy’s statements were also at odds with Mr DeCosta’s claim in the Bermuda Sun yesterday that he had told bank officials to “call the campaign chairman” to confirm the account — not the party chairman.

Sen Fahy said he was only asked if Mr Green worked for the OBA and if he had a valid work permit — both of which he confirmed.

But he added he was not told by the bank why they were checking and that “was the full extent of my involvement in relation to that account”.

“Contrary to what has been said in another place, I did not open the account with the bank and I was unaware that the account would be opened with the bank,” Sen Fahy said.

Sen Fahy said he told Mr Hollis in a phone call before the report was released about his involvement in the account and the call from the bank to him.

But Sen Fahy, who said he had not been interviewed for the Hollis report, added: “Despite my informing him of this fact his statement says that I ‘confirmed the account’. This is not accurate.”

Sen Fahy said that he later became aware of the Bermuda Political Action Club account by Mr Green and Mr DeCosta, but insisted he had no involvement with the account.

He said that he had no knowledge of the account or access to it or who had made donations.

“The reason for this is that I had no need to know. It was not an OBA account.

“For further clarity, I did not have access to or knowledge of donations made to any OBA bank accounts either. Again, it was not in my remit to have that knowledge.”

The news came as police fraud squad detectives launched a probe into the BPAC account.

A police spokesman said: “The Bermuda Police Service Financial Crime Unit has commenced inquiries to determine if any criminal offences have been committed in relation to the financial transactions associated with The Bermuda Political Action Club account.

“No further information with regards to this investigation will be released at this time.”

Sen Fahy said, however, that the setting up of the account was “perfectly proper” and did not breach Bermuda election law or party rules.

“I was not given an opportunity to review the former chairman’s statement either to confirm what was concluded or to correct the obvious inaccuracies.

“Those are fundamental failures of the rules of natural justice and, as I have said, they are regrettable indeed.”

And he said: “My absence of criticisms of other parts of the former chairman’s statement does not mean that I support or endorse the rest of the statement.

“I have already brought to the attention of the executive of the OBA my other concerns, but I shall deal with those internally.”

Mr Fahy, who has dodged questions on his role since the report was released — said he did not speak out because he regarded the matter as an internal one for the party.

“However, given that inaccurate information has now been made public by this report, and is being repeated in the media and been repeated in another place it is fair and proper that I clarify matters,” he said.