The Isle of Man Financial Services Authority has declined to disclose details of the costs borne by local taxpayers for the liquidation of companies linked to the Premier Group.
The group, which was behind the ill-fated £300m ($388m, €347m) New Earth Group of funds, went into liquidation in June 2016.
The fallout meant that taxpayers on the island ended up footing the bill.
Key questions
On 26 September, local newspaper IOMToday submitted an FOI to the Financial Services Authority, asking the following questions;
1) Please can you supply details of the costs borne by the IoM taxpayer to date in connection with the following companies linked to the Premier Group Isle of Man:
New Earth Recycling and Renewables (Infrastructure) and its two feeder funds Premier Investment Opportunities Fund and Eclipse Investment Fund; and,
Eco Resources Fund and its subsidiaries ERF Ltd and EcoPlanet Bamboo IoM.
2) Is the taxpayer funding the liquidation costs of any other company linked to, or promoted by, the Premier Group (IoM)? If so, which ones and how much has been expended to date?
Request denied
The response from the IoMFSA, dated 18 October, was that the information sought is “exempt from disclosure”.
It cited paragraph 1 of schedule 5 of the Financial Services Act 2008, which “restricts the disclosure of certain information [which] includes information which relates to the business or other affairs of any person’ and breach of this restriction is a criminal offence”, the regulator stated.
