The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

THE open letter to the Gaming Board in yesterday’s Tribune raises serious concerns that need to be addressed before the Gaming Board grants Sky Warrior Bahamas Limited a licence to operate the casino at Baha Mar.

It is necessary for the Board to address these concerns for the public to see. The Bahamas has suffered enough from the issues involving Baha Mar.

We want tourism to flourish here. We want visitors to feel safe. We want to have confidence in the government and those charged with regulating our commerce. We want all of us who live and work here to not have to be constantly looking over our shoulders with concern.

That letter was not the first time concerns have been raised about the Cheng family, who ostensibly will be owning Baha Mar, and their connections to international crime. The Tribune and Guardian raised these very concerns a few months ago after the Government announced that Chow Tai Fook, owned by the Chengs, would be buying Baha Mar from China EXIM Bank.

We had been hopeful that the Government, which had made a big deal about conducting due diligence on the supposed new owner, would also publicly report on the findings of such due diligence. But, alas, months have passed, and the Christie administration has remained silent on its due diligence findings with absolutely no explanation. Why?

Did its due diligence reveal concerns about the Chengs and criminal associations? In its haste to announce a deal for Baha Mar at any cost, did the administration cover up its due diligence findings, as it has with the deal itself? Or was this all just a continuation of the empty political posturing? It is hard to know the answer to these questions because the government has kept us in the dark about the Chengs and their criminal relationships, investments and businesses.

All the government needs to do is to check the extensive public record of numerous court documents, regulatory reports and news articles to see that the history of the Chengs is one which includes numerous associations with criminal elements and infiltration. Let’s not turn a blind eye to the fact that some of the characters mentioned as being associated with the Chengs and/or their enterprises are hardcore criminals linked to transnational crimes, often violent, including drug smuggling, human trafficking and money laundering.

When questioned about the Cheng family relationships previously, Chow Tai’s response was to say that a number of these nefarious relationships really related to another Chinese family - the family of Stanley Ho - and that the Chengs were merely investors in a number of Ho-controlled enterprises. This is not accurate. If this “investor defence” is accepted, what does this say about the Chengs’ own due diligence? More interestingly, in a number of these very entities, members of the Cheng family, or their confederates, have held management and board positions, completely invalidating this response.

The Bahamas has emerged from a lengthy period in which international crime - particularly related to the drug trade - was a major definer of our nation’s economic livelihood. Tourism could become that economic driver today. We hope the Gaming Board does its job and truly asks for accountability of the Chengs and their shell company, Sky Warrior Bahamas Limited. Our future as a nation depends on it.

WATCHING AND

WAITING

Nassau

March 28, 2017