The Tribune

* US Justice Department probes Rudolph Kermit King

* 'Bound to' oppose claims involving aviation giant Boeing

* Case sees injunction on Bahamian law firm client account

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Flamboyant "philanthropist", Rudolph Kermit King, is the subject of another US Justice Department investigation that has resulted in the freezing of $1.5m in a Bahamian attorney's client account.

Details of Mr King's latest brush with the US authorities can be pieced together from a recent Court of Appeal judgment, which reveals how the US attorney's office for Washington state's western district urged the Attorney General's Office to ensure the freeze on funds in Monique V.A. Gomez & Company's client account remains in place.

The letter from the US attorney's offices identifies the "victim" as Boeing Corporation, the massive aerospace contractor and jet contractor, although no specifics are provided on the alleged offence in the Court of Appeal judgment. However, given that a $1m-plus sum is involved, it is likely fraud-related or some other financial matter.

Kirkland Mackey, an attorney with the Attorney General's Office, set out the US attorney's office letter in an affidavit that was filed with the Court of Appeal, in which Mr King was referred to as "the third respondent".

"The appellant is advised by the United States attorney for the western district of Washington by letter dated July 24, 2020, that the investigation into the third respondent 'remains active and ongoing...we request that the restraint remain in place. It is still our goal to forfeit and return those funds to the victim, The Boeing Corporation, as part of the prosecution of the case'," Mr Mackey alleged.

No further details were provided, and Tribune Business has been unable to obtain further papers on the case. However, Damian Gomez QC, the former minister of state for legal affairs and Mr King's attorney, said his client is "bound to" oppose and deny the US Justice Department's allegations as he purportedly has no connection to the companies and events involved in the affair.

He added that Mr King and himself were now awaiting a Supreme Court ruling that could result on the injunction/freeze on the Monique V.A. Gomez & Company client account, held at CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) on Shirley Street, being discharged.

"They didn't in fact say he did anything," Mr Gomez said of the allegations against his client. "That's the problem. They said he had done something in the US before, but they never tied it in to what allegedly happened here."

He added that the claims centred around a transfer of money from Fuji Bank in Tokyo that was supposed to be a down payment to Boeing for a private jet. However, this purchase was subsequently cancelled and the funds - without the instruction of the client - diverted "to some fellow in Atlanta". Mr Gomez suggested the latter could have been a victim of identity theft."

The Court of Appeal judgment, meanwhile, revealed how Mr King had sought to strike out the appeal by the Attorney General's Office on the basis that it had failed to comply with the registrar's order that all transcripts related to the Supreme Court hearing by provided to the higher court.

He and Mr Gomez also sought an order from the Court of Appeal discharging the freeze/injunction on $1.511m in the Monique V.A. Gomez & Company client account or, alternatively, varying the sum involved to just $894,000. There is no suggestion that Monique Gomez or any of the law firm's employees have done anything wrong in relation to the case.

However, the Court of Appeal, while chiding the Attorney General's Office for its conduct decided that it "be given a further opportunity to get its house in order".

"We are also aware that this appeal also has significance for this country’s treaty obligations with a foreign state so the subject matter is not trivial," the Court of Appeal ruled, in a nod to the US.

"It must be acknowledged, however, that the appellant’s handling of the appeal process could have been expedited by paying more careful attention to the requirements of the rules of this court. It was in those circumstances that although we were not prepared to strike out the appeal on this application, some sanction was necessary."

The colourful Mr King has a history with the US authorities, who are currently treating him as "a fugitive from justice" over two cases that remain open. In 2007, he was detained in Los Angeles, California, after the US Justice Department filed charges alleging he tried to defraud the US government’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of $2.7m.

Mr King appeared in court, was charged and granted bail, but ultimately came back to The Bahamas. The case against him, though, remains active, as do more recent charges filed by the US attorney for southern Florida.

That indictment was said to be the result of joint investigative efforts by the US Secret Service and the US Postal Inspection Service, and included charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme to defraud. According to the indictment, Mr King created bogus corporations that he then used to create merchant accounts with credit card processors.

Mr King said he had been "taken aback" by the allegations when the latter case was filed in 2014, denying the claims and suggesting that persons who he did not name were behind a conspiracy "to destroy me".