Former Turks and Caicos Islands premier Michael Misick has been sentenced to an effective prison term of four years and 26 days after being convicted on bribery charges in a landmark corruption case that has spanned more than a decade.
Justice Rajendra Narine imposed the sentence on Friday, nearly four months after finding Misick guilty on three counts of bribery arising from government land and development transactions. The prosecution, regarded as the most significant corruption case in the British Overseas Territory’s history, centred on allegations that public officials benefited from deals involving Crown land and major development projects.
In delivering the sentence, Narine said corruption by public officials represented a serious abuse of the trust placed in them by the public and required custodial punishment to reflect the gravity of the offences and deter similar conduct.
“The public interest in this case requires that the sentences should reflect the retributive and deterrent objectives of sentencing. This case involves an immense betrayal of public trust for the sake of personal gain. The conduct of the defendants caused a constitutional crisis and reputational harm to the territory,” the judge said.
“The public interest requires that the sentence reflect society’s abhorrence of the criminal conduct. And the sentence should be such that like-minded potential offenders will be deterred from similar conduct,” he added.
Narine, a Trinidadian jurist who previously served on the Barbados Court of Appeal, said the offences fell within the highest category of seriousness, citing the financial benefits involved, the abuse of senior public office and the sophisticated methods used to facilitate and conceal the criminal conduct.
He rejected submissions from the defence that Misick should receive a suspended sentence.
The judge adopted a starting point of eight years’ imprisonment on each of the three bribery counts before reducing the sentence to account for several mitigating factors, including the lengthy delay in bringing the matter to trial, the breach of Misick’s constitutional right to be tried within a reasonable time and the 339 days he spent in custody in Brazil while extradition proceedings were underway.
The court also considered Misick’s lack of previous convictions, his years of public service, family circumstances and medical evidence presented during the sentencing hearing.
After the reductions were applied, Misick received sentences of two years and 16 days on Counts One and Three and four years and 26 days on Count Two. The sentences will run concurrently, resulting in an effective prison term of four years and 26 days.
Misick was convicted alongside former Cabinet minister McAllister Hanchell, who was found guilty on two bribery counts, and attorney Thomas “Chal” Misick, who was convicted on four money laundering charges.
Hanchell was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, while Chal Misick received a four-year prison term.
In his Feb. 4 ruling, Narine found that the former premier had acted contrary to the standards of honesty and integrity expected of elected officials, concluding one of the most closely watched corruption prosecutions in Turks and Caicos Islands history.
