The Tribune

LAST WEEK, Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield announced China’s new restrictions on overseas investments. In so doing, he said that these restrictions could possibly affect “new investments” in The Bahamas, but not those already approved. Yet this is contrary to the very pronouncements of the President of China and many of China’s largest companies have started selling their controversial real estate holdings. In fact, last week in London, a Chinese “powerhouse” pulled out of a deal that, like the sale of Baha Mar to CTF, had not closed.

We hope no “new” Beijing investments are contemplated for The Bahamas, especially after our experience with Baha Mar, the sordid details of which still remain a mystery, despite the soothing talk of Attorney General Carl Bethel.

One of the planks in the FNM’s election platform was to open Pandora’s Box on the Baha Mar agreement, and any corrupt dealings that might be related to it, between the PLP, China Export Import Bank (CEXIM), the lender, and presumably China Construction America (CCA), without which as partner, the bank would not have entered into the loan agreement with Mr Izmirlian.

At an early meeting of the House of Assembly after the May 10 election, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced that he had, as promised, laid the heads of agreement for the sale of Bah Mar on the table of the House. When questioned afterwards, Attorney General Carl Bethel said the unsealed documents contained nothing unusual that would prompt government to question its terms. However, he said, there were other “sensitive” documents relating to the sale that remain under court seal. Yet we know that many of the “sensitive” documents, such as the sale from Perfect Luck to CTFE, and any agreement between CTF and the government are not sealed. Why have these not been made public? We call on the Prime Minister to honour his government’s campaign obligations and release these documents.

We now hear that many Bahamians are not accepting the explanation, some who seem to know more than the average Bahamian about the deal, are protesting. Others are questioning the Attorney General’s opinion.

“We said if there was anything untoward or conflicts of interest with these people we would renegotiate,” Mr Bethel told a Tribune reporter. “But there is nothing particularly unusual in the documents.”

It is true that the verdict is based on one lawyer’s opinion. We suggest that a few of the best brains in the legal profession sit down with the Attorney General and together go over all of the documents. It is only then, when their views are made public, if they all agree with the Attorney General, that the documents might gain credibility. If not, in the end, Baha Mar might yet bring the country down with investors convinced that The Bahamas is not a safe place in which to do business.

Many Bahamians still cannot understand how Sarkis Izmirlian, the largest single investor in the history of The Bahamas, who spent at least 15 years trying to create in The Bahamas the Caribbean’s largest and most glamorous resort, could have it snatched from him by the Chinese EXIM bank with the tacit support of the Christie government. Are these actions really now supported by Prime Minister Minnis? The irony of this whole tragedy starts in the days when former prime minister Perry Christie was a practising lawyer, and American Phil Ruffin, a business partner of now US President Donald Trump, was his client. It was when Mr Ruffin decided to sell his Cable Beach hotel that Mr Christie tried to interest Mr Izmirlian in its purchase.

Apparently, Mr Izmirlian turned him down twice. On Mr Christie’s third try, Mr Izmirlian capitulated. But his vision was far larger than that of Mr Ruffin. He decided to buy all three of the aging hotels on Cable Beach —the Crystal Palace and Cable Beach hotels were renovated and opened, while the Nassau Beach was closed.

“I saw a real opportunity to create something special here,” a young Sarkis Izmirlian told a TV interviewer at the time. “Cable Beach had a lot of potential, but it needed a big vision to create a great destination which would complement Atlantis and be big enough to compete against places like Orlando.”

It was in 2005 that Mr Izmirlian’s newly formed Baha Mar Development Company made the purchase. By then, Mr Christie was the prime minister. Mr Izmirlian reached an agreement with the Christie government for a $1 billion plus development that would include hotels, casino, convention centre, retail village, enlarged golf course, beach and pool area. He then entered into a joint venture with Harrah’s Entertainment of Las Vegas, and was given a deadline for the completion of the deal. But the Christie government, having signed the heads of agreement on April 6, 2005, did nothing to complete the agreement. Obviously, with an election looming, the PLP didn’t want this to become an election issue. The PLP lost the election. By that time, Mr Izmirlian had also lost the Harrah’s agreement for non-compliance with the deadline.

During that period Mr Izmirlian was forced to write a stiff letter to Mr Christie to try to get the contract signed to meet Harrah’s deadline. “I wish to be very clear, and very frank,” he wrote. “Unless your government delivers on the much advertised partnership between the government and Baha Mar, I am seriously considering whether investing billions of dollars in this country is the right decision… Indeed in order to meet firm board commitments of the partners, these matters must be finalised no later than the first week of February (2006).”

If the Christie government had lived up to its commitment and met the contract deadline, the Harrah’s group today would have been the joint investor, Baha Mar would have been flourishing and there would have been no need for Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency to dismiss this country’s credit as “junk” and Harrah’s to put The Bahamas on probation, maintaining its credit worthiness at Baa3, but changing its credit outlook from stable to negative. One slip and we go down the “junk” drain.

And – all for the want of a signature from the PLP government by February 2006 – we are now at the mercy of China Import Export Bank and the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Also thanks to the construction deadlines, which China Construction America (CCA) set for themselves, but consistently failed to meet. This ended the magnificent Baha Mar dream.

And now the irony of the tragic affair is that CCA, having agreed not to abandon Baha Mar for its own project at The Pointe until Baha Mar had been completed, upped tools and moved to The Pointe with Mr Christie’s approval and a heads of agreement allowing CCA to move Chinese workers and equipment from Baha Mar, boasting that at least that project would be completed on time because he, CAA’s senior vice president Daniel Liu, owned it. Apparently, the difference was that Mr Liu did not own Baha Mar, which might indicate why it failed. Now Mr Liu knows what it feels like to swing in the wind of uncertainty as he pleads with the Minnis government— after being spooked by the Chinese government’s pronouncement on overseas investments — for “immediate assistance” for The Pointe’s condominium and marina construction approvals. Now that the tables are turned, Mr Daniel Liu, might learn a much needed lesson in integrity.

In January, 2015, Mr Liu urged government — that is the PLP government — to “quickly make a decision” on the proposed masterplan to revitalize downtown Nassau. He described Bay Street as an “unfulfilled dream” for 50 years that today had failed to move forward.

We would like to remind Mr Liu that Bay Street is a Bahamian dream, which when it moves forward will have Bahamians at the helm with Bahamians as the work force. Remember this is our country that will control its own future.

• To be continued.