Posted on 07/23/2010 11:22:25 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Belize said Jeff Greene's yacht damaged a coral reef, racking up $1.87 million in unpaid fines.
On a Tuesday morning five years ago, Summerwind, a three-story, 145-foot luxury yacht, maneuvered above the celebrated barrier reef that lines the coast of Belize. There it dropped anchor -- and plunged into controversy over severe damage to a coral reef system officially recognized by the United Nations as one of the world's most magnificent and irreplaceable treasures.
``The guys from the area told me they were beside the boat before it dropped anchor, and they were yelling and waving their hands, shouting, `No! No, don't drop here,' '' recounted Melanie McField, a marine scientist with the Smithsonian Institution who surveyed the reef soon after the incident. ``It was bad. There was a lot of damage.'' The owner of that yacht? Billionaire Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene.
The real-estate mogul from Palm Beach was not aboard the boat at the time. And, oddly, Greene today says the incident never happened, despite extensive publicity about it at the time (including statements from his representatives), eyewitness accounts, scientific surveys of the damage and an extensive case file at the country's Department of Environment.
``Jeff Greene doesn't take a penny of special interest money, so career politicians are attacking him with ridiculous stories about something that didn't even happen five years ago on a boat he wasn't even on,'' said campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino.
`THAT'S OUR QUOTE'
Asked how he could say it never happened when Greene's own employees at the time acknowledged a problem on the reef with Summerwind, Vizcaino declined to comment further: ``That's our position. That's our quote.'' Greene bought Summerwind in 2003, registering it in the Marshall Islands, a well-known tax haven.
The yacht has traveled across the world, hosting Greene, family members and celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan. He brought it to Nantucket last weekend to crash a meeting of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee where only his Democratic rival, Kendrick Meek, had been invited to speak.
Summerwind -- like a 14-story building turned on its side -- accommodates about 10 guests in five suites.
Greene boasted to Forbes in 2008 that he practically stole it for $6 million in 2002. It may have been a bargain purchase price, but it costs about $100,000 to fill up the tank on Summerwind, which burns about 50 gallons of fuel per hour.
Like a second home, such luxury yachts often are docked well away from their owners when not in use, which appears to be what happened in this case.
In Belize, the chief environmental officer of the Department of Environment, Martin Alegria, thumbed through a two-volume file on the Summerwind case in response to questions from The St. Petersburg Times. The case remains officially open, Alegria said in a phone interview, and if Greene or the Summerwind's then-captain returns to Belize they face fines of up to $1.87 million, given the amount of reef damage caused.
Belize became much tougher on those who harm or pollute the 175-mile reef after the Summerwind incident occurred, Alegria said, but at the time local authorities failed to seize passports or press charges before Summerwind left.
LARGE GASH
Billy Leslie, president of the San Pedro Tourist Guide Council in Belize, said he saw the damage soon after the incident and closely followed the investigation.
Summerwind's anchor caused a swath of destruction on the living reef 50 feet by 200 feet, he said.
``It was a very big deal at the time, but the police made mistakes in that they didn't apprehend anyone soon enough,'' he said. Summerwind representatives ``were very clear they were willing to pay to get this resolved, but by the time the order finally came to apprehend someone, they had taken off and never paid a penny.''
Various news accounts at the time said the yacht's captain was interrogated but after several days passed without further action, Summerwind took off.
``My recollection is that the vessel was manned with the permanent crew at the time of the reported incident and that there were no guests onboard. The captain at the time had indicated to me that he had cooperated fully with the local authorities, including making a formal statement at a local police station,'' said Rupert Connor, who at the time worked as Greene's yacht manager. The boat left Belize as it was scheduled to, he said, ``and my office received no notification from the Belize authorities of any claim against the vessel or its environmental insurance policy.''
`A LOST CAUSE'
Alegria, Belize's chief environmental enforcement officer, said he may take a closer look at the case now that it has been brought to his attention, but in 2005 the matter effectively ended when Greene's yacht left.
``It's still an open case, but it was a lost cause after they left Belize,'' said Alegria, noting that Belize authorities have been much more successful punishing people responsible for major reef destruction in recent years.
Rules and Laws are only for Republicans to follow.
Was the boat “The Flying WASP” by any chance?
$1.87 million in unpaid fines, I would tell them to kiss it too.
I would pay someone to work with the government to repair the damage but that amount of money is obscene.
Surely Al Gore has some sort of Coral Reef Offset Fund that this man can buy into that will allow him to buy credits from a small time Australian fisherman.
This schmuck is running for the Democrat nomination for senate in Florida. He is running nonstop “I’m the green candidate” ads. This tells me the media is shilling for Kenrick Meek the brother who doesn’t have two cents to do his own research. All of this a side we need Green to win the primary so he can spend his money beating up Charlie Crist. BTW Rubio get 53% in the three way and walks away with it.
It regrows....They say it won’t repair...but it will. It was an anchor....not an atomic bomb...
The fine includes damage repair, holistic repentence costs, wealth guilt tax, pain and suffering for Gaia, plus a little something something to Al Gore for the effort.
I'm all for tax havens and minimizing your tax burden. But since Democrats insist on raising taxes every chance they get, shouldn't they take the lead in paying them?
it costs about $100,000 to fill up the tank on Summerwind, which burns about 50 gallons of fuel per hour.
Money well spent, I'm sure, and I wouldn't criticize anyone for spending it as long as they acknowledge that the whole carbon footprint issue is a lot of hoo-haw. If he doesn't believe "global climate change" is a pretext for government intervention in the economy, then I don't care how many gallons of fuel he burns as he motors around the world digging up coral reefs. If he's another Al Gore, though, who thinks he's supposed to be immunized from the laws he passes, though, it doesn't hurt to point out the hypocrisy of it all.
Nearly two million in fines for dropping an anchor in the wrong place seems like a shakedown to me. But if its compounded due to his refusal to pay an earlier, smaller fine, it may be entirely warranted. The story doesn't make it clear, nor does it make it clear if the area is marked on the nautical charts as a no-anchor zone. If it isn't, he couldn't be expected to know not to drop anchor. So that would be my first question, which the news-writer didn't address.
i have seen his ads here in florida....no thanks....
Don’t know much about Jeff Greene, but appearance wise, he looks like everyone of those lawyers who immediately went to court in Florida on behalf of Al Gore in 2000.
“Greene bought Summerwind in 2003, registering it in the Marshall Islands, a well-known tax haven.”
The democrats, party of the rich. He and John F’n Kerry don’t want to be patriotic and pay their fair share of taxes.
I had a piece of frogspawn coral that bleached and died after hurricane Ike crashed my aquarium. A buddy placed the fragment in his lighted aquarium sump, where it miraculously began to regrow.
It spent a week in the crashed aquarium, which was like a bait bucket on a hot summer day. Less than two years later, its revived and going gangbusters.
I've seen a lot of coral appear to come back from the dead, in tanks that would make decent mass-extinction simulators. While lefties squeal about 'fragile' reefs, they make no mention of 'resilient' reefs.
You sure it was the Summerwind and not the Scaramouche (John Kerry’s boat)?
How do you repair a reef? Put on a splint? Or maybe trowel in some mortar like in the Star Trek episode about the creature that tunneled through rock? Are there reef repair companies?
But Mr. Greene is a Democrat who believes that taxes and fines should be based on the target’s ability to pay rather than the amount of damage caused. We have to make an example of those evil billionaires.
When Ross Perot heard the story, he exclaimed, “blast it!”
Must have been a ‘fluke’! (heh)
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