Mr Hoffmann is a wealthy Slovakian businessman
He is, indirectly, the owner of over 90% of Postova Banka, a regulated Slovakian retail bank, and is the Chairman of its supervisory board of directors.
Since 1997 he has been a frequent visitor to the Turks and Caicos Islands, having built a house there and spending 2 to 3 months there every year.
Since 2000 he has been pursuing a project to develop, through a company called DEVCO, an island of particular beauty called Salt Cay. To that end he has steadily acquired land on this island from the Government of TCI. Another Slovakian bank, J & T Banka, is a partner in this project. An important part of the project is the creation of a golf course.
The following facts have not been in dispute in relation to the project. The TCI Government, under the leadership of its premier, the Hon Michael Misick, granted to DEVCO the land on which the golf course was to be built, on a 99 year lease at a “peppercorn” rent. In August 2006 Salt Cay Golf Club was incorporated as the company that would own and run the golf club. 50% of the shares in this company were held by Mr Hoffmann’s Cyprus based holding company. The other 50% were given to a holding company of which Mr Chal Misick, a brother of the Premier, was the owner. In the following year, 2007, the Hon Michael Misick successfully applied to J & T Banka for a loan, made to himself and his wife, of US$ 6 million. Mr Chal Misick provided, and J & T Banka accepted, his 50% shareholding in Salt Cay Golf Club as security for this loan.
Property developer Mario Hoffman said he ‘owned’ Turks and Caicos government
Mario Hoffman pays $238 a year for a 99-year lease on “Crown land” in the Turks and Caicos Islands valued at nearly $8m A European property developer alleged to have links to the criminal underworld boasted that he “owned the government” of a British dependency in the Caribbean, an inquiry has been told.
The Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands and his wife apparently once used an aircraft belonging to Mr. Hoffman to fly to the United States.
Chal Misick had set up a Casino company, Casablanca Casinos Ltd, in April 2006, allocating shares in equal amounts to Washington Misick, a brother of the Hon Michael Misick, and to a man named Andy Stephens, both of whom became directors.
When asked about the possible involvement of Mario Hoffmann in the Casino operation, Chal Misick said he did not know. Yet Mr Hoffmann stated that on a visit by the Hon Michael Misick to Bratislava in October 2005, he, Mr Hoffmann, introduced him to Andy Stephens who ran a casino there. Mr Stephens visited the TCI with Mr Hoffmann and viewed the Casino site and its former building.
Mario Hoffman is connected to a steel-Magnate named Zoltan Mikoczy, by a horse called Overdose.
As well as being considered the country’s best horse since Kincsem, a champion of the 1880s, Overdose appears to have been credited with entirely reinvigorating the Hungarian racing industry.
We had to choose a name for him, quickly, beginning with an O after his mother's name. I suggested Osama Bin Laden - reports Zoltan Mikoczy. There was a time in the 90s when there was a deliberate attempt to finish off Hungarian racing by the government,
Zoltan Mikoczy, an ethnic Hungarian from Slovakia, would be arrested for fraud in Romania in 2009. Mr. Mikóczy claims he is not guilty.