By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis urged his successor to reveal how much money the government is paying a US-based law firm to help the Davis administration manage public relations issues surrounding the collapse of FTX.

The Nassau Guardian reported in December that the administration engaged Brown and Rudnick LLP to provide non-legal services.

According to the report, fees would be based on the time expended by each lawyer and other firm personnel multiplied by each person’s hourly rate.

“Brown Rudnick will apply a ten per cent fee discount to all invoices,” the letter said.

Dr Minnis said yesterday: “Will the prime minister and the government please confirm the details of this story, none of which are sub judice?

“Has this law firm or any other law firm or public relations company been hired by the Davis administration?

“What services are this firm or any other firms providing?

“How much has this cost or is it costing The Bahamas?

“The country wants to know how public funds are being spent and who is representing our country.

“Moreover, are they seeking to protect the reputations and/or offer legal assistance to any particular Bahamians, including the prime minister, the attorney general or any other of his ministers or PLP officials or donors?

“In the interest of law and order and transparency, why is the prime minister ducking questions on FTX?”

Once one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, FTX’s US arm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. Its Bahamas-based company is in liquidation under the oversight of court-appointed joint provisional liquidators.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Friend was arrested in January after the currency exchange collapsed. He faces criminal charges in the United States related to securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations.