The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Hayward family believes it has been “duped” over the removal of two trustees charged with safeguarding their late father’s trust, having obtained witness statements suggesting the person responsible may be suffering from dementia.

Documents filed with the Supreme Court, and obtained by Tribune Business, reveal that Sir Jack Haywards’s children and grandchildren view the removal of Richard DeVries and Ian Barry within five months of his death as “not right”.

These concerns are detailed in the transcript of the June 11, 2015, meeting between Rick Hayward and Preston Rabl, the guardian for Sir Jack’s great-grandson, and Keith Griffiths, the protector for the Sir Jack Hayward Discretionary Settlement 1993.

Mr Griffiths signed the documents removing Messrs DeVries and Barry during a meeting with ex-Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) chairman, Hannes Babak, and Freeport-based attorney, Andre Feldman.

The move sparked the latest rift in the Hayward estate, leading to the appointment of ex-financial services minister, Ryan Pinder, and his Deltec Bank & Trust colleague, Paul Winder, as Judicial Trustees for the Discretionary Settlement by the Supreme Court.

That, in turn, has effectively ‘locked up’ the Hayward estate’s 50 per cent equity holding in the GBPA and its Port Group Ltd affiliate, potentially impeding efforts by the family and the St George’s to sell the companies.

This, too, has cast a pall over Freeport’s immediate future and development prospects, while also deterring potential new investors in the city and undermining confidence among existing businesses.

Rick Hayward, in seeking to uncover the circumstances behind the trustees’ removal, describes Mr Babak as a ‘behind the scenes’ string-puller and influence on the Hayward estate.

“We are actually a bit upset, I mean, I think the family have.... hearing this, we couldn’t quite believe.... I think that, um, we’ve all been duped basically. I think that’s a nice way of putting it,” Mr Hayward told Mr Griffiths of the trustees’ removal.

Mr Griffiths describes Mr Feldman as “a straightforward guy”, to which Mr Hayward responds: “But he’s controlled by Hannes. Hannes put him in there.....”

Mr Griffiths then suggests that Mr Babak is “a tough gun”, to which Mr Hayward replies: “Well, I don’t know - Dad had a love/hate relationship with him.

“One minute he though he was the best man in the world; the next, he didn’t want to see him, you know.

“But he’s not, er, a trustee. He always stays in the [background]. He never.... he gets everyone else to do the things - sign off. You will never see his signature anywhere.”

Tribune Business previously revealed that Messrs Barry and DeVries were removed because the third trustee, Prometheus Services Ltd, felt they were negotiating a sale of the GBPA and Port Group Ltd that significantly undervalued the assets.

The purchaser would have been BlackRock, the $4.5 trillion asset manager and world’s largest private equity firm, but Prometheus felt its two trustee colleagues had “mishandled the proposal” and needed to be removed.

The Hayward family is arguing that Prometheus is effectively controlled by Messrs Babak and Feldman - a claim the former has denied to Tribune Business.

He also told this newspaper that Mr Griffiths was in “perfect mental health” when he signed the documents removing the two trustees. This assertion was backed by Mr Griffiths himself, who told Mr Hayward during their June 11th meeting: “I may look unwell, but I feel very, very well.”

This, though, is disputed by the September 14, 2015, witness statement given by Rod Purvis, an executive manager with Bahamas-based RoyalStar Assurance, and a lifetime friend of Mr Griffiths.

Recalling his visit to see Mr Griffiths in the UK in May 2015, just five days after the latter met with Messrs Babak and Mr Feldman, the RoyalStar executive said his friend was unable to recall the layout of his home in the Bahamas - which he had designed and built himself.

“That was very concerning to me,” Mr Purvis alleged. “We tried to discuss many subjects relating to his absence from the Bahamas, and it was clear to me that early dementia had set in - he was struggling in many respects when it came to detail relating to people and places.”

Mr Griffiths then revealed the meeting with Mr Babak and Mr Feldman the week before, but was “very vague about the details”.

“Keith was so vague about the details that I was not even certain if this had taken place or Keith had imagined it,” Mr Purvis alleged.

“Keith told me that he had signed some documents that Andre Feldman had brought with him. Keith was not at all clear about what Mr Feldman had asked him to sign, telling me only that it had something to do with Sir Jack Hayward’s will.”

Mr Purvis continued: “From my knowledge of Keith’s mental and physical health at that time, I am concerned as to whether he would have understood the documents he signed.

“It is very likely that Keith would have signed the documents simply because he had been asked to do so. I know that Keith liked Mr Babak and considered him a friend, and would have wanted to be seen to be helpful and proud once again to be involved in Sir Jack’s will.”

Mr Purvis said he met with Mr Babak upon his return to the Bahamas, and they “talked briefly about Keith’s poor health”. Mr Babak allegedly told him “that he had needed Keith to sign some papers relating to Sir Jack’s will”.

A September 9, 2015, e-mail from Mr Griffiths’ UK medical carers also raised doubts over his mental health.

Revealing that Mr Griffiths is under the Specialist Older People’s Mental Health Service, Plan Care Brighton wrote: “It is suggested that Keith may have dementia, but there is no official diagnosis.

“However, at times it is clear he has memory difficulties.”