PHILIPSBURG — The story StMaartenNews.com published in January about irregularities at the K1 Brittannia Foundation did not go unnoticed in the United States. At least two online news sites referred to StMaartenNews.com in reports that reveal more about the shady record of what once started as a very good idea.
Local non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) still feel that K1 Britannia’s tarnished reputation gives all NGO’s on the island a bad name. “After several months of silence I am still worried that several non-knowledgeable international and regional donors still contribute while this board is not replaced,” one source told us, wondering while the whole organization has not been dissolved yet. “We make many efforts to strengthen the civil society sector while bad apples like K1 Britannia and Spirit of St. Maarten harm the reputation of St. Maarten and specifically the NGO sector. That is not what the others deserve.”
TimeBusinessNews.com quoted the StMaartenNews.com story under the headline Sailing Legacy Tarnished: The Rise and Fall of the K1 Britannia Trust. Another site, EyesOnHollywood.com headlined: Adrift in a Sea of Scandal: The Britannia Trusts soggy saga.
While these stories are clearly inspired by publications in St. Maarten (on our site and by Ralph Cantave), the American authors dived deeper into the background.
The driving force behind the American Britannia Trust was James Linen, an investor who made his money from Apple stock through his investment vehicles Native Holdings and Greenzone. Linen’s motivation: “To bring back to life this extraordinary vessel and a truly enduring race machine and a force for good.”
It sounded optimistic and all was well until Linen ran into trouble with the IRS. His financial empire started to crumble and he “effectively bankrupted Native Holdings as well as the K1 Britannia Trust and its associated charity,” TimeBusinessNews.com wrote.
The Manhattan Herald wrote that K1 Britannia, founded in 2014, wanted “to revitalize the illustrious 1893 sailing yacht Britannia.”
The original vessel was commissioned by Albert Edward, son of the British Queen Victoria. Over its 43-year lifespan, the boat won an astonishing 231 sailing races. It was, as TimeBusinessNews.com pointed out “a marvel of naval design and craftsmanship.”
James Linen wanted to bring the Britannia back to life. The project was spearheaded by Charles le Gallais. The trust’s board of trustees consisted of James Linen, Scott Ward and Priya Tirimur.
A spinoff from the Britannia project is the Spirit of St. Maarten, a vessel financed by donations and loans from Linen’s financial empire.
TimeBusinessNews.com reported that Linen and Ward sank the replica of the Britannia near Southampton Harbor and that Linen pocketed the insurance money.
That’s not where the saga ended: in 2021 K1 Britannia’s St. Maarten’s affiliate came under scrutiny for the way it handled donations from the Dutch Red Cross and an unidentified donor in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.
TimeBusinessNews.com reported that the investigation into financial shenanigans continues and that “it remains to be seen whether the K1 Britannia Trust, its trustees and its St. Maarten subsidiary foundation will weather this storm of investigations.”
The Manhattan Herald reported how Linen and Scott Ward, described as a philanthropist and a former Hollywood TV actor, registered the K1 Britannia Foundation in Aspen, Colorado as a tax-exempt non-profit. They immediately began receiving donations for their Britannia-project, according to non-profit-records on ProPublica.
These reports provide a deeper meaning to the concerns local NGO’s have about their reputation, the willingness of donors to support them and in the end, their survival. If K1 Britannia wants to have a future at all in St. Maarten it will have to rid itself of people who have been at the heart of the alleged irregularities we described back in January. The volunteers who dedicated their time, energy and skills to the foundation are not to blame: they did laudable work to make St. Maarten a better place. The same cannot be said of those who have used the foundation for their personal benefit.
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Related article: K1 Britannia under fire for financial shenanigans
