This story makes my head hurt

[flash9286]

As for how to write it, I'd love to see some small business file suit against a competitor who was lured into their community by special tax breaks and then was given special treatment. Though I wouldn't be surprised if that already happened somewhere.

More likely, they would sue the government body (which can be hard because of sovereign immunity and lack of any theories that I know of to sue on). I doubt there is any law (and especially no common law right) giving businesses the ability to sue other business for taking advantage of tax breaks. Plus it would be pretty easy to get around, governments could just tax the company then give subsidies, etc.

As the Virgin Islands don't actually need the cash for development, they can give back half the money and pocket a tidy sum. Is that more or less the shape of things?

It doesn't matter if VI needs or doesn't need the cash for development, they had no tax revenues from rum before and they will now have a couple billion.