Former Baha Mar developer calls for moratorium on sale

Monday 26th of June 2017

Original developer of the Baha Mar resort, BMD Holdings Ltd, is calling for a moratorium on the sale of Baha Mar to Chow Tai Fook over concerns of potential corruption with respect to the concessions granted by the Christie administration.

The company on Monday said it had reviewed the Heads of Terms regarding concessions agreed upon by the previous Government of The Bahamas, and in their view, found the documents confirmed “that the previous administration had engaged in the wholesale giveaway of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax waivers and concessions that the country could not afford.”

According to BMD, such concessions included Chow Tai Fook's demands for increased power generation from Bahamas Power and Light, for the city dump, and for its demands from the Water and Sewerage Corporation, as well as granting 1,200 new Chinese work permits instead of hiring locally, to finish the resort.

“The giveaways laid out in the Heads of Terms by the Christie administration to China EXIM Bank and Chow Tai Fook are egregious and an insult to the Bahamian people,” said the company in a statement.

“These permits literally take food out of the mouths of Bahamians to reward the same Chinese construction company that had failed to meet multiple opening dates that it had set.”

BMD Holdings Ltd has called for a moratorium on the completion of any sale of Baha Mar, so that “the public can thoroughly assess the extent of the toxicity of these arrangements”, and is also calling to reopen the casino license investigations, “given the extensive, disturbing public record about the potentially extensive criminal associations of Chow Tai Fook's owners.”

“What else did the former administration do in its desperation to get any kind of a deal to announce related to the sale of Baha Mar to try to win reelection and feather the economic nest of its members?” said the company.

Bricks & Mortar Sale