Former Bank Of Bermuda Chief Denies Financial Wrongdoing

by Leroy Baker, for LawAndTax-News.com, New York

10 January 2006

Donald Lines, the former president of the Bank of Bermuda, has denied allegations from United States regulators that the company he now heads was involved in securities fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission stated in documents filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia that on November 10, 2005, three administrative subpoenas were served on Mr Lines, chairman and president of the financial services firm lines Overseas Management, while he visited the United States to undergo medical treatment.

According to a Royal Gazette report, the subpoenas were related to requests for information regarding an investigation into market manipulation involving shares issued by Sedona Software Solutions Inc., SHEP Technologies Inc., and HiEnergy Technologies Inc.

The SEC named LOM and Donald Lines' son, Scott Lines as "potential key actors in the schemes".

The Lines family and LOM deny any wrongdoing, and Donald Lines continues to maintain that the SEC has not contacted him or the company to serve the subpoenas.

"I have never been served a subpoena by the SEC," Mr. Lines announced in a full page advertisement in the Bermuda Sun last week.

"There has been no contact from the SEC to even notify me that they ever intended to serve any subpoenas or that they, however incorrectly, believed they had served me," the advert stated.

Mr Lines' ad went on to ask: "How could I 'flout' something that was never served and I never even knew existed?"

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