CONSTRUCTION boss Zane DeSilva was another central figure in the police investigation into corruption at the Bermuda Housing Corporation, according to police files. The Island Construction owner and now prospective PLP parliamentary candidate was involved in a number of contracts with the BHC and also had business dealings with Dr. Brown and former Housing Minister Nelson Bascome, police records indicate.

The dossier reveals that the businessman was hired by Dr. Brown to build a luxury mansion on A.P. Owen Road while simultaneously employed by the BHC to build 20 houses at Southside.

The police papers also include evidence that both Dr. Brown and Mr. Bascome were employed as consultants by Mr. DeSilva’s company — business interests that neither politician has ever declared.

And the documents further suggest that both Dr. Brown and Mr. Bascome were pencilled in for a cut of profits earned in a potential multi-million-dollar deal between Mr. DeSilva and Government involving the shipment of demolition debris, including asbestos to Cuba.

According to the files, police also received evidence that Mr. DeSilva provided an apartment in Fairylands for Mr. Bascome’s lover and illegitimate child. Police also heard allegations that Mr. Bascome instructed BHC boss Raymonde Dill to give a contract to Mr. DeSilva — even though the contract had already been awarded to another company.

The dossier also contains summary notes made by investigators of interviews with witnesses. One summary report reveals how a rift between Mr. DeSilva and business partner Kevin Bean-Walls developed when the BHC Southside housing project ran into financial difficulties and Mr. DeSilva allegedly sought to increase charges to the Corporation. In an interview with detectives, Mr. Bean-Walls outlined a fiery meeting between the two men during which Mr. DeSilva is alleged to have declared: “I am the head nigger in charge of Bermuda. F**k Raymonde Dill, I will take care of Raymonde Dill.”

The files also outline evidence that “monies were mixed from the BHC Southside project and the new house for Dr. Brown at 21 A.P. Owen Road”.

“Documents seized to date seem to support this — it is unclear if Dr. Brown has direct knowledge of this but what is clear is the house was built and paid for under Fair Market Value,” Det. Insp. Robin Sherwood noted in a March 2004 memorandum to Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith.

While investigating allegations that Dr. Brown and Mr. Bascome had close business links with Mr. DeSilva, police obtained a four-page, hand written business plan seized from Mr. DeSilva’s offices and believed to be written by him.

The document outlined how “Island Environmental Management OR<$> a company to be formed for this specific purpose (BEST OPTION)”, put in a bid to Government to ship up to 300 containers of asbestos and other building waste to Cuba. The author also identified “interested parties” in the scheme with the initials ICS, BIC, IEM, EB and NB — believed by police to represent Island Construction Services which is owned by Mr. DeSilva, Bermuda Island Cruises, Island Environmental Management, Ewart Brown and Nelson Bascome.

The business plan calculated that a $1.65-million profit “should be achievable” through the deal and that both ‘EB’ and ‘NB’ would each pick up a five per cent, $100,000 share of those profits.

Mr. DeSilva’s business dealings in Cuba were summarised in a February 2004 Royal Gazette,10,0,9.7,0,0,g)> story.

The article read: “Mr. DeSilva has long had business interests in Cuba. Last October, he announced that ICS [Island Construction Services], had tabled a proposal to Government to deal with Bermuda’s unwanted stockpile of hazardous asbestos by shipping it to Cuba for processing.

“Mr. DeSilva said he had negotiated a deal with the Cuban authorities. And last September he pushed his case by writing to then-Works & Engineering Minister Terry Lister. He wrote that he was bringing in four shiploads of slate from Cuba and if the ships returned to port laden with asbestos, ICS could slash transportation costs on their proposal.”

The offer was made shortly after Government signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with Cuba, an agreement which was strongly backed by Dr. Brown who visited the Caribbean island as Minister for Transport. It is not clear if Mr. DeSilva’s proposal to dispose of the material was ever accepted by Government .

Another damaging document held in the police file demonstrates further business links between Mr. DeSilva and Dr. Brown.

Dr. Brown wrote to Mr. DeSilva in March 2001 confirming that his company — Bermuda Healthcare Services — would provide Mr. DeSilva’s firm with “consulting services” with “special attention paid to the health aspects of handling asbestos and other hazardous materials”.

“We have agreed to accept a monthly consultancy fee of $1,500 payable on or before the tenth day of each month,” Dr. Brown wrote.

“Cheques shall be made payable to Dr. Ewart F. Brown and sent to the address below.”

Although the police file does contain papers suggesting that Dr. Brown received his monthly fee, there is no evidence in the dossier showing that Dr. Brown or Bermuda Healthcare Services carried out any consultancy work for Mr. DeSilva.

According to the Fraud Squad dossier, Mr. DeSilva came to the attention of detectives when they interviewed sacked BHC chief Raymonde Dill in August 2002.

A summary of those interviews, compiled by Det. Insp. Sherwood on August 20, 2002, show how Mr. Dill outlined to police Mr. DeSilva’s involvement in the Southside housing project and his close association with Government.

The report reads: “There were problems with the building of the 100 homes project - all the homes were to be built by one overseas contractor. Dill arranged for the project to be divided between different contractors - three local and the original overseas contractor. The homes were to be built using lower cost materials such as plastic, sprayed concrete etc. Whilst the project is called 100 homes it only in fact involved the building of 66 homes.

“All the contractors for the 100 homes project completed their projects without any specific or unusual problems, with the exception of the Southside project. This project was between two companies — Pitcher Construction and ACL Construction. Pitcher Construction was owned and operated by Arthur Pitcher (MP) and ACL was owned and operated by Kevin Bean-Walls and Leon Williams.

“Zane DeSilva — a principal in Island Construction — joined the group and a new company — Bermuda Composite Construction (BCC) — was formed to accept the contract for the Southside project.

“BCC was due to commence work on the Southside project and a separate contract at 29 AP Owen Road. The second contract was with Dr. Ewart Brown - Minister for Transport. Both projects were using the unique building methods and were to run simultaneously. However, due to planning delays at Planning, the Southside project was delayed, however the work at 29 AP Owen Road commenced.

“Dill was initially reluctant to awarding such a large job to a relatively inexperienced team. He was in fact initially happy with Zane DeSilva joining the team as he felt he had previous experience with large projects through his other companies.

“Dill states that the found it disturbing that both properties and contracts were being built by the same company.

“There was ill-feeling between partners in BCC — Pitcher and DeSilva versus Williams and Bean-Walls. Although BCC had not legally split, Williams and Bean-Walls moved away and formed a new company, Hibiscus Construction.

“There continued to be problems with the Southside project. It became apparent that Zane DeSilva was heavily involved — Coloron Management Ltd. and Delta Developers, both underlying companies belonging to Zane DeSilva, became involved in site management at Southside, thereby increasing his overall involvement and payments with the project.

“The Southside project began to have cash flow problems and Zane DeSilva attended the office of the BHC GM [Raymonde Dill]. He was looking for $800,000 to solve the problems. These problems involved the 29 AP Owen Road as well as the Southside project.

“Minister Bascome telephoned Dill after he (Dill) had refused to pay any further monies to DeSilva and BCC. A meeting was set up at BHC.

“Dill referred to the documents which relate to the financial overview of BCC as of 14 December 2001. He indicates that the outstanding costs for 29 AP Owen Road - some $422K — was ‘buried’ in the Southside project, resulting in that project being $430K overdrawn.

“Minister Bascome telephoned and changed the meeting from the BHC offices to his Ministerial office. When Dill arrived, he found Zane DeSilva and the Minister present. The meeting concerned the cash flow problems of BCC. Dill was told or persuaded to release $300K, which was part of the ‘hold back’ on the Southside project. (The release of the hold back and the awarding of the Hard/Soft landscape appear to meet the cash flow problem of the $800K).

“The hard and soft landscaping for the Southside project (value of approximately $350K) was between Derosa Excavation and Island Construction. Dill, in his capacity as General Manager of BHC, had made the decision to award the contract to Derosa Construction and he had made this fact known to Zane DeSilva. Minister Bascome instructed that the contract be awarded to Island Construction, of which Zane DeSilva is the principal shareholder.

“Dill comments on a relationship between DeSilva and Minister Bascome. He believes that Bascome has a consulting role in Island Construction Company. He is further aware that there is ‘talk on the street’ that DeSilva paid for an apartment in Fairylands for Bascome when he left home. This apartment is now occupied by a female and young child. Mr. Bascome is believed to have a relationship with the female and to be the father of the child.

“Zane DeSilva would often go directly to Minister Bascome and bypass the correct route through BHC. If there was a delay in cutting a check - Dill would receive a call from Minister Bascome instructing payment to be made to DeSilva.”

The allegations presented to detectives were partly corroborated in interviews with Mr. DeSilva’s business partner Kevin Bean-Walls. According to a police summary of those interviews, the part-owner of BCC told officers that, “when BCC ran into trouble at Southside, Zane DeSilva saw a clause in the contract that he thought could get R.Dill BHC to pay for houses”.

The summary went on: “He [DeSilva] wanted Williams and Bean-Walls to say that the contract was amended to say that owners will supply fixtures, windows, plumbing, electrical and fitting, but contract did not say this.

“Was pressured by Ewart Brown, Renee Webb, Nelson Bascome . . . to let Pitcher and DeSilva to do the Southside project.

“At one point during dispute with DeSilva ‘I am head nigger in charge of Bermuda. F**k Raymonde Dill, I will take care of Raymonde Dill’.”

According to the police notes, Mr. Bean-Walls also confirmed both the Premier’s and Mr. DeSilva’s links with Cuba.

According to the transcript, Mr. Bean-Walls was asked by detectives if he had ever been to Cuba.

“Yes, Zane DeSilva, Leon Williams, Dave Woodward, Joe Lieth, Dennis Morris and I. Dennis Morris owner of Bermuda Island Cruises set up trip, he owns a business in Cuba and his father was a friend of the father of Leon Williams. We went to a marble and tile factory to develop a relationship to import goods with a view of starting a company in Bermuda. Whilst coming back on the plane, Zane DeSilva said he wanted 50 per cent but the others said no as it would give Zane control over company. Zane then said he was just testing us.

“Zane went back to Cuba but with Nelson Bascome, Arthur Pitcher and maybe Ewart Brown.

“Items were imported into Bermuda either via Delta Property Ltd. or Delta Property Ltd. was formed to do so.

“Zane bitched about having to put all this marble and limestone into Ewart’s house and shortly after that he had the contract to provide the PTB buses with oil tyres and the old buses he had at his compound down the base. He also brought in the monster trucks and didn’t have to pay duty.”

When asked about a reported $400,000 shortfall at BCC, Mr. Bean-Walls replied: “I know of the $400,000 and the $30,000 security system at AP Owen Road but I do not know how that came about because I did not have privy to BCC books.

“I know that after finishing Ewart’s house, Zane called a contractor, Cooley Robinson, to ask him to put in a bid to build Neslon Bascome’s house. Cooley said he never did and I do not know if a house was built for Bascome.

“I remember at one time Mel Wright had put in the cost for tanks at 100 per cent to BHC for work at Southside by BCC which was incorrect. I pointed out to Zane that this was incorrect because the tanks were not at 100 per cent completion. Zane told me to shut the f**k up. I told Raymonde DIll who slashed the price. Floyd Forth, the BHC project officer, had signed off on the cost order at 100 per cent. He was either verbally or by letter warned by Raymonde. Months later, Floyd was removed as BHC project manager.”

According to the interview notes, Mr. Bean-Walls also told detectives of Raymonde Dill’s concerns with BCC and of Mr. DeSilva’s close ties with Government.

“Raymonde had asked Leon and me not to build Ewart’s house using the 3D system because he felt there was a potential for problems because BCC were building Southside with the same material,” the report reads.

“Let me say this — Zane DeSilva is close to the Premier. [Jennifer Smith] She was at his Xmas party and made a speech. This was two Xmases ago. I was not invited to the one last Xmas but heard that 2/3 of the PLP showed up.”

Mr. Bean-Wills also informed police that Mr. DeSilva was warned not to get involved in BCC by his personal financial adviser, Bruce Wilkie.

“Bruce did not want Zane to be involved in BCC or with building Ewart’s house,” the report reads.

“Bruce was against this. Zane said he does not do anything without Bruce’s advice but he got involved anyway.”

Zane DeSilva’s links to Brown, Bascome