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TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2025
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Broker/dealer ordered to pay $850,000 over e-mail fraud By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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A BAHAMIAN broker/ dealer has been ordered to pay $850,000 plus interest in compensation to a trustee and its client after all fell victim to an e-mail fraud that caused a $1.5m loss. Sir Ian Winder, in an April 25, 2025, verdict awarded damages to Fidgen SA, trustee for the Three-Year Grat Trust, over its claim “for breach of statutory and contractual obligations and/ or negligence” against Lydda Capital involving the inadvertent transfer of trust funds to a fraudulent imposter. Fidgen, which has its own Bahamian financial and corporate services provider affiliate, cut its claim to $1m after Lydda Capital paid it $500,000 in early 2021. The Bahamian broker/dealer had asserted the payment was not an admission of culpability, or “acknowledgement of any sums due”, but merely an “inter-related payment”. And the Chief Justice further slashed the compensation demanded by 15 percent in finding that Fidgen was “not blameless” for the loss “as, with vigilance, it too could have uncovered the fraud” given that the bogus e-mail that facilitated the scam first appeared in exchanges with its Bahamas-based managing director, Desiree Terrell. Detailing the background to the dispute, Sir Ian recorded that the Three-Year Grat Trust was established on June 17, 2020, by Carlos Piani as its settlor. However, the trust document named Alexandro Ferraresi as the authorised signatory for the trust and its accounts, with Maria Fernanda Ferraresi identified as its sole investment director.
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SIR IAN WINDER Fidgen, as trustee, was already an existing client of Lydda Capital. It opened an account for the trust with the Bahamian broker/dealer on the same day that Mr Piani settled it, with some $3.7m in trust assets initially deposited. Around three weeks later, Mr Piani instructed Fidgen to transfer $1.5m from the Lydda Capital account to a US firm, HPX Capital Partners, via an account owned by Pershing LLC at Bank of New York. The Bahamian broker/ dealer was “expressly reminded and instructed” that it was required to “call back” to verify the transaction’s legitimacy, and the relevant details, before it executed the transfer of the funds. However, one day letter, on July 9, 2020, Mr Piani instructed that the $1.5m transfer “be put on hold” and Lydda Capital was duly informed. Then, on July 13, 2020, Mr Piani issued new instructions for the
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‘Back to drawing board’ on stopover visitor drop By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas will likely endure “subdued” stopover visitor numbers in 2025, a major bank has warned, with a former tourism minister yesterday urging the nation to “go back to the drawing board” in this segment. Dionisio D’Aguilar, speaking after the Ministry of Tourism’s director-general revealed that stopover or land-based visitor numbers were around 4 percent down for the 2025 first quarter, told Tribune Business “that for whatever reason we’re not attracting a growing number of stopover visitors” and this is being reflected in The Bahamas’ slowing economic growth now the post-COVID recovery has been completed. Latia Duncombe’s report on the three months to endMarch 2025 also reflects the just-released April
DIONISIO D’AGUILAR
KERRY FOUNTAIN
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2.9 percent compared to 2024 levels. This followed a year when stopover tourist arrivals were essentially flat with 2023, falling just 0.2 percent to 1.7m arrivals. Mr
ROBERT SANDS D’Aguilar, though, challenged whether the flat to slightly declining stopover visitor numbers are a function of insufficient room inventory, as his successor, Chester Cooper, has frequently asserted or a sign of lower demand and more fundamental, deep-rooted issues with the Bahamian tourism product. “I think that, for whatever reason, we’re not attracting a growing number of stopover visitors. The growth in that area is extremely anemic,”
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Sales forecast to ‘explode’ at Windsor Lakes project By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net REALTORS yesterday predicted residential sales at a south-western New Providence development will “explode” once roads and other infrastructure are completed with a further $27m in gross income forecast. Ryan Knowles, founder and chief executive of Maison Bahamas, told Tribune Business following the latest weekend open house for Windsor Lakes that buyer demand seems likely to largely withstand the Trump tariff
uncertainty with the community’s first three homes set to break ground on vertical construction shortly. Estimating that around 50 percent of the 173 available lots have now been sold, or are under contract, he voiced optimism that the entire development could be purchased by year-end 2025 as - once all infrastructure and amenities are completed - buyers will be able to see the reality rather than simply a vision relayed to them. The developers, well-known Bahamian businessman Robert Myers and his partner, Michael Huttman, are also still
planning to develop a “small scale commercial village”, featuring retail, offices and even a restaurant component, to complement Windsor Lakes but that is thought to be “at least a couple of years out”. “The community is essentially about 75 percent complete in terms of the infrastructure, layout and all of the amenities,” Mr Knowles told this newspaper. “The utilities are all completed. Road paving is going to start in the next four weeks; the paving of all the roads. The guardhouse at the entrance is nearing completion, and
Contractor chief estimates $5m-$10m city fire damage By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president yesterday estimated the property damage and loss caused by last week’s downtown Nassau fire as ranging from $5m to $10m. Leonard Sands told Tribune Business he estimates the replacing the roof of Victoria Court alone could cost up to $2m, while the damage to multiple derelict buildings still would represent up to $300,000 in losses for the owners. It is unclear whether Victoria Court can be saved and rebuilt, or will have to be torn down. “Nothing is more costly than a whole building that is still servicing the needs of people. I would estimate the damage at least upwards of $5m to $10m, that’s a conservative estimate. The roof of Victoria Court alone would’ve cost north of over $1.5m. Just the size and structure of it would be at
least $1.5m to $2m.” said Mr Sands. “The other buildings probably saw a net loss of LEONARD SANDS about at least $250,000 to $300,000 each, and then, of course, when you add all of the structural damage and the contents in the units of Victoria Court... Mr Sands said there is a lack of city planning in downtown Nassau due to the age of the area and its structures, and called for more comprehensive studies of emergency access routes to Bay Street and the installation of more fire hydrants throughout the city. “We have Town Planning, we don’t have city planning. We’ve inherited a city that was never
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that will be done in the next few weeks. “The first three homes are breaking ground as we speak. In the next 45 days there will be at least ten homes under construction, and those are expected to be completed by November/December. It’s going to ramp up pretty quickly. We’ll have three homes going vertical in the next few weeks. Some of the first purchasers are going ahead and building, and they’ll be the first residents in Windsor Lakes by the end of the year. It’s about 50 percent sold.”
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Mortgage delinquent cuts BOB damages by $100k By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A DELINQUENT mortgage borrower has successfully slashed the damages awarded to a BISX-listed bank by more than $101,000 after the Supreme Court deemed the ‘penalty on interest’ to be “impermissible”. Renaldo Toote, the acting Supreme Court registrar, in an April 30, 2025, ruling cut the debt claimed by Bank of The Bahamas from $664,220 to under $563,000 after Mark Oscar Gibson Senior, who had defaulted on his loan repayments, argued there was no clause in the mortgage agreement that permitted the lender to levy a penalty on unpaid interest and principal. Setting out the background to his damages calculation, Mr Toote said: “Mr Gibson was an existing customer of the bank when, in or about November 2006, he applied for and obtained a commercial loan in the amount of $80,000. This
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