The Tribune

Ricardo Wells discovers a grandiose plan to take the Bahamas telecommunications sector by storm is nothing more than a deception.

A SELF-PROCLAIMED “telecommunications liberator” and Bahamian businessman living in New York with a company boasting 100 employees and offices in the United States and the Bahamas is now being accused of being a “confidence trickster” and “fraudster” of no fixed address.

It is claimed that Erskine R Curry has taken in thousands of dollars under the guise of a non-existent company called Upstream Atlantic Global (UAG)-ECIBIZNET Bahamas Ltd, of which he is listed as the chief executive officer. UAG claims to employ 100 people, but The Tribune has been told none of them has been paid since signing contracts, some for more than a year. Furthermore there is no record of any of UAG’s Bahamas, Miami or New York offices existing.

Mr Curry is reported to have started UAG in 2013 with the goal of entering the Bahamas telecommunications industry to either compete with or buy out the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC). He claimed to have secured the necessary funding to deploy a national Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, deliver WiFi service throughout the Bahamas and structured a deal enabling ECBIZNET to deliver more than 200 premium channels. The Tribune has seen proposals for $200m investments.

In a UAG press release issued earlier this year Mr Curry claimed: “We are seeking a rude awakening and a hostile takeover of BTC through a public referendum, competitive intelligence, finance and global strategies ... Join us in a ‘Telecommunication Sector Peoples’ national referendum for me and my team to takeover BTC through the buy-out of 100 per cent of the shares from the government and its foreign partner(s).” He appealed for public support for “a 100 per cent Bahamian-owned acquisition of BTC”. In mid-September he was claiming on his Facebook page that the hostile takeover “would bring about a national communications carrier which is 100 per cent Bahamian owned and operated and would bring an immediate benefit in the form of a $2 billion price-cut in services which Bahamians are currently using” and is “expected to create more than 10,000 new jobs for Bahamians”.

But The Tribune has discovered that UAG-ECBIZNET Bahamas Ltd was never registered or licenced by the Utilities Regulations and Competition Authority (URCA), which is a necessary requirement for any company vying to enter the telecommunications market in the Bahamas. In the Fall of 2013 Mr Curry had preliminary discussions to purchase a local internet provider which, at the time was registered and licenced by URCA, but he never followed up.

In an email obtained by The Tribune the owner of the internet company demanded in February that Mr Curry keep his word and finalise the deal. “It has been about a month that we had agreed an arrangement between our companies. At present I am still waiting for you to live up to your end,” the e-mail said. “Mr Curry I really don’t know what you want me to do. If we had stuck to the first arrangement at $10,000 per week, this week will still be $30,000 for three weeks. Sir, please call me ASAP so we can sort out what needs to be done.” Nine months later, no deal has been signed.”

On the company’s website UAG’s premier office is said to be in the Bahamas Financial Centre, Shirley Street, but when asked about that location Mr Curry said that the information on the website was outdated and incorrect. “The locations of our Nassau offices have changed,” Mr Curry said. “The locations listed on the website have to be changed, but need to be reflected on the website.” He refused to identify his company’s present address.

All of UAG-ECBIZNET websites are hastily-built Wordpress blogs that are managed and operated by Mr Curry. The company’s web presence features poorly-worded posts strewn with grammatical errors.

In February 2013 Mr Curry met Glendina Spence through Facebook and contracted her as his personal assistant, giving her the responsibility of managing the day-to-day operations of the company’s Bahamas office.

Five months later Mr Curry met a New York resident, AnnMarie Simpson, at a Starbucks in the city where he briefed her on his company. Mr Curry contracted her in August 2013 as a publicist and she was given responsibility to oversee the New York end of the operation. Her job description was similar to that of Ms Spence.

Their contracts stated: “Your employment with the company will commence August 20, 2013. This executive employment agreement, dated as of August 20, 2013, is made and entered by and between ECBIZNET (Bahamas) Limited, a Bahamian domestic corporation and the undersigned”.

It continued: “Your place of employment will be at the company’s place of business situated at Nassau/Paradise Island, the Bahamas. At the discression (sic) of the board of directors you may be expected to travel abroad and stay on away missions as deemed necessary for the proper performance of your duties.”

The contracts stipulated employees’ work schedule, detailed salary information and also prohibited employees from engaging in any other work activities. It included the clause: “You are required to devote the whole of your time, attention and skill to the business and affairs of the company both during normal business hours, off duty hours and during such additional hours as are necessary for the proper performance of your duties.”

Ms Spence and Ms Simpson said they have never been paid.

In August 2013, Mr Curry’s unregistered company contracted ten employees in the Bahamas, all interviewed and hired by Ms Spence. Between September and October last year up to another 30 employees were contracted and another mass hiring exercise followed in November. Again all were interviewed, hired and contracted by Ms Spence acting as proxy for Mr Curry.

From then until April this year UAG operated despite no employee being paid, no business agreements being signed and no word from Mr Curry as to when the telecommunications aspect of the business would take off. Ms Spence said she executed all the duties stipulated in her contract during this time. She said she acted as Mr Curry’s proxy in meetings with lawyers, potential business partners, local organisations and realtors.

“I would do seven to eight hour meetings,” she said. “I would meet with realtor after realtor, tour office building after office building all with the mindset that this is for work, my dream job.”

Meanwhile in New York, Ms Simpson had been carrying out the same tasks from marketing, organising group flights, public relations and lunches. “I was organising meetings, lining up press events, hiring photographers – just doing what the business needed me to do,” she told The Tribune. “I honestly thought this business would take off and all my hard work would have paid off.”

Both Ms Spence and Ms Simpson worked under the impression – given by Mr Curry – that the other was the reason that the business was not profitable.

“It came to a point that I hated Glendina without even really knowing her because all I ever heard from Curry was that she was messing up in the Bahamas,” Ms Simpson said. “That was what he always told me, the money is being held up at the Bahamas office because of Glendina’s incompetence.”

“Curry always had the right excuse,” Ms Spence explained. “He would say that the money is being held up at the New York office for a couple of weeks; then a couple of weeks would pass and he would say that something else came up. During this time we all are sitting back in Nassau wondering what was going on. He wanted us to look for offices and we did. We got lease agreements signed and ready to go – it fell through because no payments were made.”

Ms Simpson added: “He told me to plan a trip. He said that some of the employees of the Bahamas office were coming to New York for a company conference. Curry told me to get hotels reserved, hire a photographer, get press events together – he wanted this to be a big deal. So I thought finally this was going to be the start of what I was dreaming about for so long. It turned out to be a flop, everything fell apart. This is when I started to doubt him.”

Ms Spence was going through something similar in the Bahamas.

“We had a company conference planned to be held at Atlantis,” she said. “I sent Curry all the details, everything was lined up and ready to go, they could not hold our reservations without payment, but he never paid. So it fell through, and he made me out to be the reason. He made it seem as if I was doing my job wrong.”

Another employee, who did not want to be identified, told The Tribune about this period: “I was supposed to be a part of that Nassau team going to New York. Curry said we would have no worries on this trip; he said that all we had to do is come with the clothes on our back. Curry told us we would have tailors come to fit us for all new wardrobes. He mentioned that he had a lot of cars waiting to be shipped back to the Bahamas. It all seemed like a go, finally.”

During this time Ms Spence introduced her boyfriend, Ellis Blom, to Mr Curry. Mr Blom, in an email sent to The Tribune, said that he got involved in the company after learning that it was a telecommunications company whose main goal was to provide services throughout the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

“It was also to be a global company, and since I am from Canada that was the first international country targeted,” he said. “I said that it sounded like it may work out, and if it doesn’t we can always get out at any time. She (Ms Spence) told me that because Mr Curry was not living in the Bahamas any more he couldn’t own a company there outright and therefore was looking for someone in the country to start things up.”

“Glendina informed me that she was told that the company had $2 billion available and $500m was always waiting to be shipped to the Bahamas to cover salaries, rent, etc ... However, we were always told that the money was ‘tied up’ and not being released by the bank. He always said he needed money to release these funds and pay the insurance on the money. How often would this be necessary, if ever? It was always the same story.”

After a couple of months of waiting, Mr Blom visited the Bahamas. “In November 2013 I came to the Bahamas on holiday for a few weeks and attended a meeting they (UAG-ECBIZNET) were having. I knew he had nothing set up ready to go at this time, but during the meeting he told everyone there that he was either going to or wanted to (can’t quite recall the exact wording) make us all millionaires by February, which was only three months away.”

Ms Spence and others believed Mr Curry and stayed on board with UAG despite not being paid. Ms Simpson started to question everything – she was now broke, homeless and stuck in a rented van with all of her personal belongings.

Mr Curry needed another play; he had one in Ellis Blom.

“Towards the end of 2013 I was led to believe that (the company) was supposed to start operations very soon. I resigned from my current position, and, of course, nothing has happened since,” he said. “Glendina then came to Canada for Christmas and we (were) set to leave together to return to the Bahamas at the end of February, 2014. Curry asked us to stay back in order to get an office for the company in Toronto. This entailed a stay of five more weeks, including a rental car which cost around $3,100 when I could finally return it. With the extra costs we had to endure (cancelled flight penalties, food, etc) we added $7,000 to what he owed us, and he agreed to this.

“We got an office in Toronto in the financial district, which is the most expensive area in Toronto for this purpose. The first two or three months were free, and after that he refused to pay them and the office was lost. He even wanted us to hire three people at this time. Thankfully we never did.”

In mid-February Mr Blom completed negotiations for a Regus office space in Brooksfield Place, Toronto. Mr Curry received an emailed confirmation letter shortly after.

Mr Blom said: “I also told him that he had to go through the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications) in Canada to get a licence to operate there. This is a strict process. I talked to the CRTC and got him the information he had to provide them with. He said he had taken care of it.”

Mr Curry did not receive a licence or CRTC registration and the Canada office ceased operations in April.

Mr Blom said that this was the point at which everything started to unravel.

“In April I was approached by Mr Curry for a loan to get some of the business moving, including a billion dollar account in Canada which he said alone would set me for life. He said that I would receive the money back in 1.5 weeks. I received an email stating that it would be no more than 30 days.

“He then wanted a bit more to help cover training costs. The training would take place in New York for about three weeks. I said that this time I wanted a guarantee from him that he would repay – I wanted it in writing. He agreed to pay me US$100,000 in return for the trouble he put me through. I said I needed the money by June 4, so that was the date agreed to.”

Mr Blom said he sent Mr Curry $13,000. The Tribune has seen records of two transfers from Mr Blom’s Canada Trust account to UAG’s account with Chase Bank in Miami showing $10,000 sent on April 22 and $3,000 on May 22.

Ms Simpson revealed to The Tribune that it was around this time that Mr Curry told her that the Bahamas office had finally come through with the money. She said: “Curry said he got $10,000 from the Bahamas office and the rest was on its way. That night we got rooms at a luxury hotel.

“It wasn’t until later I understood what was going on. He used the money he got from Glendina (Mr Blom’s money) to put us up at the hotel. After that ran out we were kicked out and went to my sister-in-law’s house for what was supposed to be a short period. It turned out to be a lot longer.”

Ms Simpson said that the last time she saw Mr Curry was in April, when he left to get money to repay her sister-in-law for his 17-day stay at her home. “After my sister-in-law concluded that Curry was a fraud and brought it to his attention, he told her he would return with money to compensate her for his time there. He never returned.”

Mr Blom said that despite numerous requests he has not been repaid. “I have yet to receive anything,” he said. “I fully believe that there was never such a company and was never going to be. Where is the reserve fund and initial IPO (initial public offering) if he needs funds? No such company exists on any stock exchange, that’s for sure.”

Mr Blom is now contemplating legal action to recover what he is owed and what he lost due to Mr Curry.

Ms Spence is now working to convince the employees she helped contract for Mr Curry to “see the light”. She is trying to prevent him from “leeching off anyone else.”

Ms Simpson is presently employed by another company, working to repay nearly $17,000 in tuition fees that she was left with after a “scholarship” granted by Mr Curry’s company fell through.

According to UAG-ECBIZNET and Mr Curry their operation is still moving forward, with the full support of all of its contracted employees, minus Ms Spence and Ms Simpson. “My company is still pacing forward despite a few in opposition,” Mr Curry told The Tribune. He maintained that he intends to pay all of his employees now that Ms Spence is not prohibiting the company from doing so through her “gross deficiencies”.