WEEKEND FRIDAY
Guava Crème Pie HIGH 83ºF LOW 69ºF
i’m lovin’ it!
CARS! CARS!
The Tribune Established 1903
Biggest And Best!
L AT E S T
Volume: 120 No.38, February 24, 2023
N E W S
O N
T R I B U N E 2 4 2 . C O M
THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: PRICE–$1
‘TELL ME HOW MY SON’S BODY WAS BURNED’
GRAND LUCAYAN HOTEL TO COST TAXPAYERS ADDITIONAL $9M By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE FAILED $100m Grand Lucayan sale is set to cost Bahamian taxpayers a further $9.1m with subsidies to the resort for the full fiscal year near-doubling in the 2022-2023 mid-year Budget. The Davis administration is increasing funding for the hotel from the originally-forecast $10.3m to $19.4m, an 88.3 percent rise, which has almost certainly resulted from the Government having to hold the property for longer than anticipated after its sale to Electra America Hospitality Group collapsed in November 2022.
Mother still waits for answers on condition of her son’s remains By DENISE MAYCOCK
Tribune Freeport Reporter
dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
AFTER the death of her seven-year-old son in the hospital last December, Bianca Wilkinson is still trying to understand how her child’s remains were severely burned while in the morgue at the Rand Memorial Hospital. Ms Wilkinson said her son, Dkarter Gibson, was admitted to hospital in early December for shortness of breath and detained at the
Paediatric Ward. He later died on December 16, 2022. On January 18 of this year, the hospital released her son’s body to a local mortician, who immediately contacted her after receiving the remains. “I got a call asking me to come to the funeral home because they had just received my son. When I went there, it was unbelievable. It did not look like my son; his skin was off his body, it was burned like
FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
DELTEC CALLS $8BN FRAUD ACCUSATION ‘FRIVOLOUS’
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
SEE PAGE FIVE
GOVERNMENT TO MEET WITH RETAILERS ON PRICE CONTROL By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net
GOVERNMENT hopes to soon meet with food retailers to come up with a permanent expanded price control list or other solutions before its existing price control regime ends on April 17, Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis said yesterday. He conceded that the
status quo has largely affected smaller retailers compared to larger ones, saying officials are seeking to figure out the best way forward. Mr Halkitis was asked for an update on ongoing talks with retailers during yesterday’s press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister. He said: “That expanded
CLASSIFIEDS TRADER
A MOTHER is asking for answers after her son’s remains was returned with unexplained burns on his body. Seven-year-old Dkarter Gibson passed away on December 16, 2022 after going to the Rand Memoria Hospital with respiratory issues. The family has not received any response on why her son’s body was burned.
SEE PAGE THREE
MOULTRIE: AG PINDER ‘OVER-REACHING’ ON PAC
By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
FORMER House Speaker Halson Moultrie believes Attorney General Ryan Pinder is indirectly trying to overturn his 2021 decision on the Public Accounts Committee. He said Senator Pinder is incorrect in his position on the limits of who the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) can summon and what it can investigate,
FORMER Speaker of the House Halson Moultrie adding that he is “overreaching”. Mr Moultrie said
the PAC has “unfettered” investigatory powers. However, Mr Pinder thinks otherwise. “As far as I know, the rules of the House have not been amended to read anything more than what was in my letter. Mr Moultrie should appreciate the Speaker doesn’t have unilateral authority to change the rules of the House,” Mr Pinder told The Tribune yesterday.
Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper
SEE PAGE THREE
A BAHAMIAN bank and its chairman yesterday pledged to “vigorously defend” themselves against a class action lawsuit’s accusations that they helped “perpetuate” an $8bn fraud by FTX’s founder. Deltec Bank & Trust and Jean Chalopin, in a statement issued to Tribune Business, called allegations against them as “frivolous claims” after it was asserted that they and other financial institutions knowingly provided a platform that allowed Sam BankmanFried to “loot” client funds from the now-collapsed crypto exchange. FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
DIANE PHILLIPS:
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
SEE PAGE NINE