Investment banker Gary di Silvestri and timber baron Timothy Blixseth were friends before 2006 when di Silvestri sold Blixseth a luxurious tropical island.

Now the two are locked in a prolonged dance of litigation with political overtones over who will finally be on the hook for $1.7 million in stamp duty taxes for the property sale and millions more in penalties plus interest, which already has been paid to the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands.