Sovereign Ground Support Ltd. has ceased operations with immediate effect as of yesterday, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The move was confirmed by Department of Operations general manager Aaron Adderley after this paper received a tip-off from a reader.

On the same day, Kenny Burns, president and CEO of Sovereign Flight Support, also part of the Sovereign Group, spoke of his anguish as he claimed attempts were made to force him out of the business and he had to stay away from the offices while Bermuda Police Service investigated the company's financial records.

He said the probe took the best part of a year and was only concluded at the end of last month.

Mr. Burns, who claims to still be CEO and to own 50 percent of the business, said he was asked to account for where the money had gone in the company and he came up with all the answers required of him.

He added that the investigation came to nothing and insufficient evidence was found against him, describing the closure of Sovereign Ground Support as news to him, saying that all he heard about the company was what he read in the paper. Mr. Burns said he was now just waiting for the day that he could return to work.

Police did not comment on the matter by press time yesterday.

"I had to answer for every financial transaction that was going on with the company, which I gave all the answers to," Mr. Burns said.

"But even throughout that time when I had to explain every detail it seemed like they were trying to get me out of the business.

"I don't know what the motives were behind it.

"But hopefully things can turn themselves around soon."

Mr. Burns claims staff were told he was no longer working at the company and that other parties had been brought into the business without his consent, so he just kept his head down and waited for something to happen.

As a shareholder, he said he should have at least been receiving minutes of directors and shareholders meetings, but was seeing nothing and being made to feel like he was being pushed out of the business altogether.

"Even now they are still trying to do things without me," he said. "And even now they don't want me to come back.

"So I have to sit back and look at what is transpiring. It is kind of an awkward position I am in."

Sheldon Steede, vice-president of Sovereign Flight Support, and Stephen Daniels, a shareholder in Sovereign, both believed to be running the company, did not respond to calls from this newspaper by press time.

Government had to pay out $2.75 million to settle with Bermuda Aviation Services (BAS) for breaching the company's exclusive rights to offer private jet services at LF Wade International Airport, which ran until 2014, when they gave rival operator Sovereign Flight Support permission to provide a private jet service.

Government was also ordered by Supreme Court to pay up more than $202,569.16 in damages for contravening BAS's rights, as exclusively reported by The Gazette last year.

Former Attorney General Phil Perinchief told this paper he was never consulted over Government's decision to give Sovereign Flight Support permission to offer private jet services at the airport.

Mr. Perinchief said that he would probably have advised against the course of action Government took, while Premier and Tourism & Transport Minister Ewart Brown has since refused to comment on who his Ministry received its legal advice from over the exclusivity of the private jet services at the airport, raising questions about whether the advice came from outside Government at a greater expense to the taxpayer.