The Bank of Bermuda said yesterday that a Human Rights Commission (HRC) Board of Inquiry has now been appointed to look at claims that its directors discriminated against businessman Harold Darrell.

The bank said it will be going to the Supreme Court to challenge the legitimacy of the decision to set up the inquiry into the racial discrimination claims, which it strongly refutes.

Mr. Darrell's spokesman Corey Butterfield said yesterday he was mystified by the bank's statement because Mr. Darrell's company, the Hardell Group, had not been informed that the Inquiry had been appointed.

And he said Government Human Affairs director Kenneth Dill told him yesterday that the inquiry has not yet been set up.

The bank said yesterday it had been informed by Solicitor General Wilhelm Bourne that Sports and Culture Minister Randolph Horton, who has responsibility for HRC, has now appointed the Board of Inquiry.

The saga began in 2000 when Mr. Darrell alleged to HRC that because he was a black Bermudian businessman, the directors of the Bank of Bermuda did not properly address his complaints that confidential business information had been leaked to third parties.

HRC dismissed the case in January 2001, but Mr. Darrell claimed current Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister, who then had responsibility for HRC, had improperly applied political pressure to have the case dropped.

Mr. Darrell sought a judicial review of HRC's decision not to allow him to have a hearing before it dropped his case.

He withdrew the application for judicial review because it was announced in March this year that his case will now be heard at a HRC Board of Inquiry.

A bank spokeswoman said yesterday: "The bank intends to challenge this decision in the Bermuda Supreme Court for a number of reasons: In January 2001, the HRC dismissed Mr. Darrell's complaint and there are no legal grounds or justification to reverse that decision absent a judicial review - an action Mr. Darrell sought then dropped.

"(Further) the Board of Inquiry which has been proposed does not meet the requirement under the Human Rights Act for establishing a Board of Inquiry.

"And there is a Supreme Court stay in effect which precludes convening any such proceedings.

"But beyond the legal issues, we continued to object strenuously to the characterisation that the bank was anything but fair in its dealings with Mr. Darrell.

"There has been no discrimination here and Mr. Darrell knows it. Rather, by his own admission, Mr. Darrell has undertaken a course of action to 'swarm' the bank with complaints. Demanding an improper Board of Inquiry is another tactic in that strategy."

Mr. Butterfield said yesterday: "It (appointing the Board of Inquiry) hasn't happened. I spoke to Kenneth Dill this afternoon and he said the decision has not been made. It has not occurred.

"It is extremely curious that the bank's statement says there is no discrimination and Mr. Darrell knows it, and yet they are challenging an investigation to find out if there was any.

"If I was the bank, an honourable institution, I'd say: 'Give me my day in the commission to clear my name'."