Jeffrey Hall, CEO of Jamaica Producers Group and new appointee to the Scotia Group Jamaica board, has recused himself from the panel hearing the front-running case. - file

Jeffrey Hall's appointment to the board of Scotia Group Jamaica has upset the complainant in the front-running case against its subsidiary, delaying the hearings for an eighth month.

Hall on Monday recused himself from the Disciplinary Committee panel hearing the case at the same time that Steven Bruce-Miller went public about a potential conflict at interest.

The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) says it will be reconstituting the panel, with a member of the JSE replacing Hall, but the exchange has not said when the hearings would continue.

The other three members, identified as chair Hilary Phillips, QC, Garth Kiddoe and Diane Black, will remain, completing the membership of the committee.

Panel to be ratified

Bruce-Miller's attorney, Oswest Senior-Smith, says the new panel is expected to be ratified today.

"This means that my client will now be incurring additional cost as the entire hearing will now be starting over," said Senior- Smith.

"There must be no question of apparent bias, justice must always appear to be done," he said.

Yesterday, Hall refused to comment directly on the issue, but told Wednesday Business he was confident the hearings could proceed and be concluded satisfactorily.

"I am satisfied that the closed- door hearings of the JSE are conducted properly and in the interest of all concerned," he said.

Scotia Group is parent to ScotiaDBG - formerly Dehring Bunting and Golding - which Bruce-Miller has accused of pro-fiting off a trade that he had instructed the brokerage to transact on his behalf.

Hall was appointed to Scotia's board on November 26 last year.

The JSE referred further queries to Phillips, but when contact was made with her office, she was said to be engaged and later at lunch.

The hearings have been delayed since June 2007, and the JSE was hoping to have them wrapped up this week, prior to Monday's developments.

Bruce Miller, a former client of DB&G, is alleging that the brokerage house did not satisfy his request to purchase 100,000 shares, a transaction valued at $1.2 million, but instead purchased 50,000 having acquired the remainder for itself.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com