A lawyer retained by Export Development Canada continues to threaten legal action against local marketing firm Evoke International and the Department of Tourism, despite claims by Evoke?s president Walton Brown that the matter has been ?resolved?. The Department of Tourism also claims that it has settled its role in the matter.

Mr. Brown issued a statement on Sunday in which he said the dispute between his company and the Canadian firm General Printers ?is essentially a private matter which has been resolved by the two companies.?

Barak Sena Sabatine Group lawyer Michael Avram said yesterday, however, that the dispute is far from resolved. Nor is it a private matter between Evoke and General Printers. Export Development of Canada (EDC), a business owned by the Canadian government to represent Canadian exporters, retained his firm to settle the invoice for approximately $100,000USD (CAD$121,201.66) that General Printers sent to Mr. Brown in February, 2003.

Last Friday, after media stories about the unsettled invoice, Mr. Brown wired $4,500USD to Mr. Avram?s firm. A month prior he had wired $500USD, but that still leaves approximately $95,000USD outstanding.

Mr. Avram said: ?Is it unfortunate that the newspapers got involved and finally prompted him to make a payment of course, but the day the articles came out he found $4,500 and prior to that he wouldn?t take our calls.?

He adds however that his law firm ? which EDC retained to conduct an asset and liability investigation as well as a fraud investigation against Evoke ? is not a finance company and is therefore not interested in a long-term payment arrangement. His firm only came into the dispute six months ago after three other groups ? EDC, a collection agency and General Printers ? were unsuccessful in trying to settle the invoice.

E-mail correspondence from May, 2003 show Mr. Brown at first telling General Printers that he never received the funds from the Department of Tourism and that is why the payment was delayed. In his statement this week, Mr. Brown said that the Friday news story contained a ?gross misrepresentation presented to the public?.

He said: ?The Department of Tourism was not involved in this current matter and any claim to the contrary in untrue.?

This newspaper understands that the Department of Tourism previously issued a purchase order to Evoke.

Marc Telemaque, permanent secretary for the Department of Tourism, said yesterday: ?There was a contract between Evoke and the Bermuda Department of Tourism and all of the obligations under that contract have been met and discharged by both parties.?

Mr. Telemaque added that matters between Mr. Brown and whatever other parties he may have contracted with are strictly matters for him. The contention that the Bermuda Department of Tourism should be responsible for paying the outstanding amount would ?have the taxpayer pay twice and that is unconscionable,? said Mr. Telemaque.

Mr. Avram?s firm, on behalf of the EDC and General Printers, however, plans to include the Department of Tourism in its legal claim based on the fact that General Printers never would have offered Evoke so much credit on its own.

Mr. Avram said that a direct relationship on this matter has been documented between General Printers and Tourism including numerous direct conversations and tourism?s direct payment to cover the charges for shipping the brochures.

?Yes, the agreement was between Evoke and Bermuda Department of Tourism but the brochures weren?t paid for, that is the bottom line and somebody needs to take responsibility,? he said.

Mr. Avram adds that asking the courts to decide who is ultimately responsible, the alternative would be for his firm call everyone who received the brochures and ask for them back because they are not paid for.

?That is embarrassing and we would rather not go that route,? he said adding that his firm does not make threats that it cannot justify. Mr. Brown also said in his statement that ?no one at Evoke, in particular Walton Brown, has had any communication or contact with Michael Avram as alleged, or at all.?

Mr. Avram confirms this as true. Michael Sabatine, managing partner at Barak Sena Sabatine Group is the person dealing directly with Evoke.

As for Mr. Brown?s statement that the matter is a private one between his firm and General Printers, Mr. Avram said that is ?completely false?.

?It is a private matter to him because it is embarrassing.?