The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An accused Bahamian drug trafficker has admitted in legal documents that the construction company which developed both the Government’s $34m Eight Mile Rock administrative complex and flagship Carmichael Village affordable housing project is his “business”.

Jonathan Eric Gardiner, also known as ‘Player’, in filings with the southern New York federal court produced a Bahamian bank slip purporting to confirm that $20,000 of the $30,000 in cash he possessed when his plane crashed on May 12, the date of the general election, had been withdrawn from an account belonging to Top Notch Builders.

And, in accompanying legal papers supporting his failed bid to be released on bond from US custody, Mr Gardiner and his attorneys affirmed that the funds had come from his “business bank account” one day earlier on May 11. The admissions leave little doubt that the accused narcotics smuggler, who has a past US conviction for similar offences, is Top Notch’s real owner and control person, with signatory authority on the company’s bank account and the ability to withdraw substantial cash sums.

The latest revelations sparked Dr Duane Sands, the Free National Movement’s (FNM) chairman, to renew demands for a “fulsome investigation” to be carried out in The Bahamas as to ”whether the Government, knowingly or unknowingly, has been complicit in laundering money” for Mr Gardiner via the taxpayer-funded contracts for both the Eight Mile Rock complex and the $20m Carmichael Village affordable housing developments.

He argued that the latest evidence linking Mr Gardiner to Top Notch requires “a deep dive” given what he branded “absolutely massive ramifications” for taxpayers and The Bahamas. US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents have previously alleged that Mr Gardiner was using “Bahamian government-issued construction contracts” to “launder his narcotics trafficking proceeds” which, if correct, means taxpayer dollars are being used to wash clean drug money.

The bank withdrawal slip filed by Mr Gardiner and his attorneys reveals that the $20,000 withdrawal took place from Top Notch Builders’ account at Bank of The Bahamas’ branch on JFK Drive. The BISX-listed bank is 82 percent majority-owned by the Government via the Public Treasury and National Insurance Board (NIB), and the withdrawal slip bears Mr Gardiner’s signature and his name - both typed and written out by himself - and describes him as “the customer”.

“Approximately $20,000 of the recovered currency had been withdrawn from Mr Gardiner’s business bank account on May 11, 2026, one day before the flight,” the drug accused and his attorneys stated, the business clearly named and identified as Top Notch Builders on the withdrawal slip. “Bank records documenting that withdrawal are attached as Exhibit B. A photograph attached as Exhibit A reflects that those funds remained bundled and packaged by the banking institution.”

Dr Sands, though, argued that the evidence filed with the southern district of New York court proves Mr Gardiner is the true owner and control person at Top Notch Builders despite efforts to seemingly conceal these ties. Mr Gardiner had denied owning shares, or having any beneficial interest, in the contractor in an affidavit of beneficial ownership filed with the Registry of Records on February 13, 2017.

However, his involvement with the construction firm seemingly continued for a further nine years until the May 12 general election and plane crash. “At the very least he is one of the signatories,” Dr Sands told Tribune Business of the evidence filed in the southern New York court. “That closes the loop. If that his evidence, he’s admitting it’s his company. There it is.

“I think this, once again, brings us full circle to what we have said. It raises a number of questions about government funds potentially working their way to a previously-convicted narco trafficker. But, more important, whether the Government - knowingly or unknowingly - has been complicit in laundering money for this individual. There are huge ramifications from these revelations; absolutely massive ramifications.

“It deserves a fulsome investigation not only in the southern district of New York but also in The Bahamas. It is possible that those homes [in Carmichael Village] have been built, in whole or in part, with the proceeds of crime. The ramifications are so huge it requires a deep dive. This dismissive approach adopted by multiple agents of this administration does a disservice to the Bahamian people. Let us look at the consequences, repercussions and ramifications of these developments.”

Tribune Business previously revealed that records filed with the Companies Registry, which is maintained by the Registrar General’s Department, show 4,999 of the 5,000 shares in Complete Construction, the Renaissance at Carmichael Village subdivision contractor, are owned by Mr Gardiner’s Top Notch Builders. In essence, Complete Construction is the alter ego, front or corporate veil for Top Notch Builders.

Complete Construction’s officers and directors are virtually the same as Top Notch’s. Samson Hield, the former’s president, held the post of vice-president at Top Notch when the latter signed the separate ‘public-private partnership’ deal with the Government for the Eight Mile Rock administrative complex.

Other Complete Construction directors are listed as Marc Robinson, a financial consultant and its treasurer; Alecia Bowe, an attorney and its secretary; and Michael Cooper, an insurance executive who is named as its vice-president. The trio are also all named as directors and officers of Top Notch in the latter’s corporate filings.

Tribune Business was also first to report Mr Gardiner’s ties to both Top Notch and PPP Construction and Investments, the latter being a vehicle 100 percent owned by the contractor, and which was used to construct the Eight Mile Rock administrative complex in a public-private partnership (PPP) with the Government. That project was subsequently forecast to cost Bahamian taxpayers more than $50m.

Dr Sands, meanwhile, said Mr Gardiner’s evidence also raises uncomfortable questions for Michael Halkitis, minister of finance, whom corporate records show was named as Top Notch’s president and a director for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 prior to resigning ahead of the 2021 general election. The court disclosures suggest Mr Gardiner maintained his involvement with the contractor through the time Mr Halkitis was there until 2026.

“As a private citizen I was involved in financial consulting and corporate services consulting,” Mr Halkitis said when questioned about his role at Top Notch Builders at a time when the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) was not in office.

“I was approached to provide consulting and directorship services to Top Notch Builders, in particular setting up proper corporate governance procedures and structures.” Mr Halkitis said he was not hired by Mr Gardiner, and was approached by an attorney.

He said his involvement began in mid-2019, but the company suspended operations by April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I resigned as director of that company and all the other directorships that I held in 2021,” he added. The minister subsequently said his involvement with Top Notch Builders ended in April 2020.

However, Dr Sands yesterday questioned how Mr Halkitis - given his position as Top Notch’s president - could have been unaware who the company’s beneficial owner was “in light of” Mr Gardiner’s court filings. He also challenged how the now-minister would not have known Mr Gardiner was a signatory on Top Notch bank account, and asked who was responsible for making payments and signing cheques on the company’s behalf.

The evidence filed by Mr Gardiner undermines, and blows a hole in, previous corporate filings that Top Notch Builders is instead owned 100 percent by Paradise Productions Inc Company. That is an entity fully-owned by Mr Hield, who has been listed in previous Tribune Business reports as the “lead contractor” for the Eight Mile Rock PPP deal. However, the New York documents strongly suggest this is merely a ‘fronting’ operation.

Michael Coleman, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent who swore the affidavit detailing the US government’s case against Mr Gardiner, alleged that the latter’s co-conspirators as recently as September 2024 said he “was currently building government buildings” and “reportedly trying to keep his involvement below the radar of law enforcement”.

“Based on my participation in this investigation, I understand that comment to be a reference to Gardiner’s company, which has bid on and secured Bahamian government-issued construction projects,” Mr Coleman claimed. “Gardiner owns a business that Gardiner uses to, among other things, bid on Bahamian government-issued construction contracts and launder his narcotics trafficking proceeds.”

US prosecutors, in yesterday’s court hearing where Mr Gardiner was denied bail by Judge Gregory Wood, had asserted that previous assessments dating from his previous conviction has “substantially undervalued” the Bahamian national’s assets.

Juliana Murray, an assistant US attorney, voiced doubts that the $30,000 in Bahamian currency which Mr Gardiner was arrested with was “almost the entire value of his net worth”.

She added that despite Mr Gardiner’s efforts to “distance” himself from Top Notch Builders, he was still affiliated with it, and referred to both the Eight Mile Rock and Carmichael Village contracts received by the company. “Mr Gardiner has profited substantially from these government contracts”, she said, adding that this explained the prosecution's “deep concerns” about how much Mr Gardiner is really worth.