By Ivan Clifford
HAMILTON, Bermuda— Government backbencher Zane DeSilva faces another date in Supreme Court after he appeared in Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday charged with violating proceeds of crime laws.
Prosecutors claim that DeSilva, a 63-year-old former cabinet minister, entered into or became concerned in an arrangement he “knew or suspected facilitated the use or control of criminal property by or on behalf of William Anthony Blakey.
Blakey, a music promoter, who was not in court, was charged separately with obtaining a money transfer by deception.
The alleged offense occurred between April and August 2018 and breached section 44 of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
DeSilva was not required to enter a plea as the charge is indictable. Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo deferred the matter to next February’s arraignments session in the Supreme Court.
Last week DeSilva and his daughter Zarah Harper, 38, were acquitted by a Supreme Court jury of charges relating to a party at a restaurant held two years ago during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The jury cleared them of providing information to an official at the Ministry of National Security that they did not believe true.
Cindy Clarke, the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the Magistrates’ Court that an arrest warrant for Blakey, currently in the United States, had been issued, and extradition proceedings had begun.
Blakey, from Atlanta, secured an US$800,000 loan from the Bermuda government in 2018 to set up a recording studio in Dockyard at the island’s west end. But the project never got off the ground, and Blakey then disappeared.
A demand for payment notice issued in June 2019 said Blakey had defaulted on US$778,204 of the loan.
In December 2020, police were called to track down Blakey after government lawyers could not serve him with a legal demand to return the taxpayer funds, plus interest.
DeSilva owns a construction company and has been a Progressive Labour Party MP since 2007 and is the party’s only white legislator. He has served as Minister Without Portfolio, Minister of Health, Minister of Social Development and Sports, and most recently, Minister of Tourism and Transport.
The 2020 party at the Blu Bar and Grill made headlines after footage from the event spread on social media, including clips of both DeSilva and then National Security Minister Wayne Caines. They approved the application for an extensive group exemption, dancing on a stage without face masks in breach of COVID-19 regulations.
Caines and DeSilva left the cabinet after they accepted an “invitation to resign” from Premier David Burt just days after the party. Both now sit as government backbenchers.
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