HAMILTON, Bermuda, Aug 10, CMC – Former Attorney General Mark Pettingill, who quit his cabinet post in the wake of the so-called Jetgate scandal earlier this year, has resigned from a top job at a Bermuda bank after less than three months.
Pettingill left his post as Clarien Bank’s chief legal officer Thursday.
A spokesman for Clarien, which took over the former Capital G Bank in April, said: “Mark Pettingill has opted to pursue alternative professional opportunities outside of the organisation.
“We thank him for the contributions he has made in his tenure with us to date and wish him well in his future endeavours.”
Pettingill who has not commented on his resignation, stepped down as Attorney General after accepting the job with Clarien.
He initially said he would continue as Attorney General until the post reverted from a political to a non-political one. But he tendered his resignation in May, shortly before taking up the private sector job.
Pettingill, with ex-Premier Craig Cannonier and Tourism and Transport Minister Shawn Crockwell and Stephen DeCosta, a business associate of Cannonier’s, became embroiled in a row over a trip in March last year, on a private jet owned by American tycoon Nathan Landow to visit to Washington, DC to discuss possible investment opportunities in Bermuda.
Cannonier was forced to resign after details of the trip became public, along with a donation to a One Bermuda Alliance-linked 2012 general election campaign fund amounting to US$350,000 by Landau and a group of other US businessmen, although he denied any wrongdoing.
Pettingill said his decision to stand down as Attorney General had nothing to do with the affair dubbed Jetgate by the opposition Progressive Labour Party (PLP) and said there had been nothing wrong with the trip and that it had not breached any ministerial code of conduct rules.
Crockwell refused PLP calls to step down and continues to hold his two ministerial posts. Cannonier and Pettingill sit on the government backbench.
