The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The air crash victim arrested and charged with drug offences by the US authorities appears to have been linked to a Bahamian construction company around the time it secured a $34m public-private partnership (PPP) deal with the Government.

Documents from The Bahamas’ registry of records, which have been seen by Tribune Business, reveal a ‘Jonathan Gardiner’ swearing under oath that - despite being “the president and a director” of Top Notch Builders - he owned not a single share in the company. Top Notch Builders, which is based on Adelaide Road in south-west New Providence, is the firm that secured the deal to construct the Government’s Eight Mile Rock administrative complex one day before the May 10, 2017, general election.

Multiple sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, yesterday confirmed that the ‘Jonathan Gardiner’ referred to in the document is the same Jonathan Eric Gardiner now in held in custody in the US following last week’s general election day plane clash after he was charged with involvement in a long-running conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the US. Some described Top Notch Builders as “his company”, meaning Mr Gardiner’s, although that is to be balanced against the document seen by this newspaper.

Sworn on February 13, 2017, less than three months before the PPP deal for what is now the Obadiah H. Wilchcombe government complex, named after the late MP and minister of tourism, was signed on May 9, 2017, the document - signed by Jonathan Gardiner - appears to be an attempt to distance himself from ownership of Top Notch Builders by denying he has any beneficial interest in the company.

He testifies under oath that Top Notch Builders is instead owned 100 percent by Paradise Productions Inc Company, an entity fully-owned by Samson Hield, who has been listed in previous Tribune Business reports as the “lead contractor” for the Eight Mile Rock PPP deal.

Jonathan Gardiner also asserts that none of the ordinary shares in Top Notch Builders are being “held in trust for or on behalf of any other person” by either Mr Hield or his Paradise Productions Inc Company. The document carries both the volume and page number it is recorded under in the Registry of Records, and has been signed and sealed by a Bahamian attorney.

Top Notch Builders and its principals could not be reached for comment before press time last night, but there is no suggestion that they have done anything wrong or are linked in any way to Mr Gardiner and the claims against him. None of them are named in the US indictment.

However, Michael Coleman, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent supplying evidence for the US authorities’ charges and complaint against Mr Gardiner, also known as ‘Player’, alleged he had been informed that “Gardiner owns a business that Gardiner uses to, among other things, bid on Bahamian government-issued construction contracts and launder his narcotics trafficking proceeds”.

This claim, if true and can be proven, is deeply concerning for The Bahamas and its governance because it implies that the Government and, by extension, the Bahamian people in their capacity as taxpayers, are effectively enabling the laundering of proceeds from criminal activity, and washing them clean, through the awarding of public sector construction contracts.

Meanwhile, other documents seen by Tribune Business show that Top Notch Builders received a ten-acre Crown Land grant involving property on the northern side of Adelaide Road on February 15, 2022, which would have been almost six months after the September 2021 general election was held. It carries an official government seal and is signed by Prime Minister Philip Davis KC in his capacity as the minister for responsible for Lands and Surveys.

And this newspaper has also found documents showing that Top Notch Builders, alongside hundreds of other Bahamian companies, was “non-compliant with obligations to file beneficial ownership information in compliance with the Register of Beneficial Ownership Act 2018”. It was also among the unsuccessful bidders in 2018 on a $5m Long Island water supply and repair project being financed by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Tribune Business revealed recently that the Eight Mile Rock PPP has become embroiled in a furious legal battle by accusations that the Government’s failure to make due rental payments has caused the deal to default on a $25m bond.

The bust-up emerged due to Leno Corporate Services, the Bahamian financial services provider that structured and issued the bond, launching Supreme Court legal action against both PPP Investments & Construction Company, the private sector partner that built the Grand Bahama property, and the Ministry of Finance following the former’s failure to meet its repayment obligations. PPP Investments is 100 percent owned by Top Notch Builders, this newspaper’s records show.

PPP Investments & Construction Company, which has “admitted to the majority” of Leno’s accusations and is only disputing the amount owed, has now joined the financial services provider in blaming the bond default on “the Ministry of Finance’s failure to pay” it the rent due on the administrative complex.

The financial mess is detailed in an April 10, 2026, Supreme Court ruling by Adrienne Bellot, its acting assistant registrar, who rejected the arguments by the Government for the Ministry of Finance and Attorney General’s Office to be removed as defendants to Leno’s action. She ruled that the financial services provider’s claim must move forward to be heard by a judge.

Tribune Business records show that, just over three months after Leno launched legal proceedings on the Eight Mile Rock administrative complex bond, the arrangement suddenly appeared in the Government’s 2025-2026 Budget - not as a rental payment but, rather, a loan debt.

The deal appeared under the ‘public debt servicing - interest and other charges’ heading, noting a $33.93m, ten-year loan due to PPP Investments & Construction Company even though this debt was supposed to have been serviced by rental payments. The PPP had initially been billed as a lease-to-own structure where the Government would pay back the company and its lenders via rental payments.

Besides the $25m bond, the balance of the $34m Eight Mile Rock complex’s funding - some $9m - was obtained from Sygnus Capital, the Jamaican investment and alternative financing house. However, it has now appeared in the Government’s books as a “loan” that has to be repaid by Bahamian taxpayers. Some $2.308m is due to be paid in 2025-2026, with payments of $2.094m and $1.874m due in 2026-2027 and 2027-2028, respectively.

The $25m bond default will likely have caused Leno difficulties with the investors who bought into the debt security, which is effectively an ‘IOU’ committing the borrower to make scheduled interest and principal payments to them on time. The bond offering documents asserted that the Government will pay a fixed quarterly rent of $852,224, or $3.409m per year, to PPP Investments & Construction Company throughout the duration of the initial 10-year ‘rent-to-own’ lease.

Once the debt is fully paid off, the two buildings comprising the Eight Mile Rock complex were to be conveyed to the Government for $100. The latter was to pay PPP Investments & Construction Company a $535,000 'handover fee' once construction of the complex, named in honour of the late ex-tourism minister, Obie Wilchcombe, was completed. It opened in 2023.

The first building was to be 33,000 square feet, and feature three floors to be used as a Government administrative building to house NIB (National Insurance Board) and other local government-related offices. Building 'B' was to be 13,000 square feet with two floors to be used as a court house, a police station and a fire station.

Among the prospective tenants were the Ministry of Finance, Passport Office, Department of Environmental Health, Urban Renewal, the Registrar General's Office and the Grand Bahama island administrator.

This newspaper’s archives show that the Minnis administration allowed the Eight Mile Rock project to proceed despite clear misgivings over the last-minute deal it had inherited from its Christie predecessor. Desmond Bannister, former deputy prime minister and minister of works, had described a $4.4m 'advance interest payment' to PPP Investments & Construction for 'initial funding construction’ as "inconceivable".

PPPs are typically designed to reduce the financial stress on cash-strapped governments by contracting the private sector to provide the funding, development and expertise to construct much-needed infrastructure or run public services.

The Government’s cash flow pressures are eased by requiring the private sector to finance the up-front capital costs, with the latter earning a return on investment - and paying back any lender - from the revenue streams generated by infrastructure assets they develop or services provided.

The Free National Movement (FNM) has previously argued, though, that several projects touted by the Davis administration as PPPs do not fit this model or meet this criteria and, in reality, are off-the-books loans designed to keep debt off the Government’s balance sheet and prevent it from adding to the annual deficit and $12bn-plus national debt.