Louis Bacon fires back

Mon, Mar 21st 2016, 11:52 AM

Louis Bacon, the billionaire hedge fund manager who has accused his Lyford Cay neighbor Peter Nygard of plotting to have him killed, yesterday decried certain Bahamian political leaders who are "bewilderingly doing their utmost to silence" the plaintiffs in the recently filed murder for hire case, and any charitable organizations they belong to instead of going after Nygard.

In the House of Assembly on Thursday, Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald detailed what he claimed is an elaborate scheme funded by Bacon to overthrow the Christie administration.
Fitzgerald said the Save the Bays (STB) environmental group, which is funded by Bacon, is really a political organization.

In a lengthy statement released to the media yesterday, Bacon said he is "shocked" that with the depths of Nygard's "disgusting disrespect" for Prime Minister Perry Christie and Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis being displayed for everyone to see, "that it is I who is vilified by the PLP in Parliament along with the other plaintiffs and victims castigated as insidious agents trying to topple the government".

Bacon said there is no denying that in Nygard's mind he believes he has "bought the right to a specific favor from the PLP by way of his self-admitted enormous campaign contributions".

Bacon and several members of Save the Bays have alleged in court documents that Nygard and attorney Keod Smith plotted to have them murdered -- a claim both Nygard and Smith have strongly rejected.

Accompanying the court filings are video recordings of Nygard purportedly meeting with thugs. Nygard speaks disparagingly of the prime minister. He also claimed he donated $5 million to the Progressive Liberal Party's campaign and suggested certain promises were made.

In the House of Assembly last week, Prime Minister Perry Christie denied abusing his office to grant Nygard favors.
Bacon said in his statement yesterday there could hardly be more forceful evidence that Christie had not succumbed to Nygard's attempts to buy him and that Christie had rebuffed Nygard's entreaties.

He pointed out, "The plaintiffs of the recently filed Supreme Court action could have left out the video evidence detailing Prime Minister Christie's rejection of Nygard's demands -- if they had a political agenda against the prime minister and the PLP.

"On the contrary, the video exonerates the prime minister, but showed the ugly and insulting truth behind Nygard and his misguided thinking that he owns the prime minister."

Bacon added, "One would have expected the right-thinking PLP to rise up (and many have) against the foreigner who was massively insulting to their leader and the leader of the country and extol the fact that Mr. Christie had proven stalwart against rumors of undue influence, vindicated morally and politically for all to see and to immediately put distance between them and the noxious Nygard now and forever, whatever past relations Nygard sought to promote.

Name and shame
Bacon also rejected Fitzgerald's claims that Save the Bays is a political group. He said he has no idea what political party any of the Bahamian directors belong to "nor has it been a subject of conversation with anyone I know".

As he laid out the alleged plot engineered to bring down the Christie administration, Fitzgerald referenced several documents and email threads among members of the Save the Bays, including Grand Bahama attorney Fred Smith, public relations specialist Dianne Philips, Bahamian entertainer Kirkland 'KB' Bodie, FNM Chairman Michael Pintard, and environmentalists Romauld Ferreira and Joseph Darville, among others.

Responding to this, Bacon said, "I imagine the naming and shaming of the directors and employees during recent parliamentary debate on television delineated the political persuasion of these local directors and employees -- something like my countryman Joseph McCarthy did on the floor of our Senate in the 50s in outing supposed communist traitors to American democracy, which is now perceived to have been [a] travesty of justice and political overreach."

Bacon said, "STB, however, is an advocacy charity. Its mandate is to get involved in any environmental issues, including policy issues. It is non-partisan."

He said the organization is the lead proponent of "environmental advocacy" in The Bahamas.

Bacon concluded that certain actions of Bahamian political leaders in this matter are "highly disturbing" and contended that those actions are negatively impacting "already frightened victims..." He called Nygard a "privileged foreigner".

In the House of Assembly on Thursday, Fitzgerald also announced that the government is seeking the assistance of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of State in addressing matters related to the alleged destabilization plot.

Responding to this, Bacon said, "As for recent calls by a senior cabinet minister for investigation on foreign influence in The Bahamas by the FBI, the IRS and the Foreign Corrupt Practices, why not make it a bi-partisan initiative and have it concern all foreigners" including Nygard.

"I welcome it as it is long overdue," he said. "Perhaps it is the only way out for civil society in The Bahamas to rid itself of this pestilence."

Donations
Bacon added, "As for banning foreign money in Bahamian electoral campaigns, I would welcome that proposal as well since Nygard's $5 million donation seems the root of all the mess here."

Christie said in Parliament he was not aware of anyone who had given the PLP $5 million but he did not deny a claim by Fort Charlotte MP Dr. Andre Rollins that Nygard spent $4 million on PLP 'Believe in Bahamians' T-shirts ahead of the last election.

In his statement, Bacon added: "As for my charitable organization, Moore Charitable Foundation, we have prioritized environmental and educational giving.

"Besides my backing of STB, I have donated millions of dollars in The Bahamas including gifts to the Bahamas National Trust, Nature Conservancy Bahamas, BREEF, the Rotary Club amongst others.

"These gifts dwarf the donations to political campaigns I have given to the PLP in the 2007 electoral cycle and to the FNM in the 2012 election cycle.

"In fact, I have donated to both the PLP and The FNM in like amount in the low six figures, both because, as a property owner and resident of The Bahamas, I supported the environmental policies espoused and upheld by the leaders of their party at the time."

He said, "Parliamentary debate can lead to impolitic and overwrought statements and claims that have a deservedly short shelf life.

"Although there is a certain tolerance for hot talk over time however misguided, what is perhaps most disappointing for the Bahamian image abroad, if not at home, is the recent unauthorized release by a senior cabinet minister of private emails of a charitable organization, STB, and its bank records and foreign money transfers."

Bacon said, "Never in a thousand years would I have thought it would be a sitting member of Parliament of The Bahamas who would use unauthorized access to private financial and corporate information to try to destabilize me by putting this information in the public record, on television."

He said he does not think international investors realize how tenuous the sanctity of their personal, business or banking information is in The Bahamas if they run afoul of certain politicians.

Bacon urged both the PLP and FNM to come together at a time when national unity would seem to be imperative and focus on the national issues at hand that warrant a change of course in protecting the good name of The Bahamas internationally in the financial service industry rather than focus on internecine score-settling.

By Candia Dames

Managing Editor

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