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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2025
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‘Scam artist’ deceives firm with fake licence By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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“scam artist” allegedly deceived a Briland tourism operator into procuring a “fraudulent Business Licence” despite being paid a $2,000 sweetener to ensure its speedy issuance. Pablo Conde, the nowestranged US partner in Conch & Coconut, asserted in an October 20, 2025, affidavit, that he was duped into thinking the fake permit - which caused the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Department of Inland Revenue to shut the company down - was a genuine and legitimate document. Suggesting he and his associates were seeking to help Julian ‘Shaq’ Gibson,
* Conch & Coconut: $2,000 bribe paid for ‘fraudulent’ Business Licence * US partner: PLP Golden Isles candidate aided effort ‘to force me’ out his former Bahamian partner with whom he is now embroiled in an increasingly bitter legal battle playing out in both this nation’s and the US courts, exhibits attached to Mr Conde’s affidavit reveal they made a $2,000 underthe-counter payment to “expedite” obtaining the Business Licence and beat the Department of Inland Revenue’s “backlog”. Also featuring in Mr Conde’s affidavit, but with no involvement in
NASSAU PORT OPERATOR’S $6M INVESTMENT IN ENERGY REFORM By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Nassau Container Port’s BISX-listed operator has near-tripled the value of its investments by injecting $6m into The Bahamas’ energy reform strategy in a bid to “earn returns on surplus cash” holdings. Dion Bethell, Arawak Port Development Company’s (APD) president
and chief financial officer, in e-mailed replies to Tribune Business inquiries said the investments in Bahamas Grid Company and Island Power Producers are part of an “overall financing strategy” that aims to “offset” interest payments on debt with returns from outlays outside its core port operations and management business.
ENERGY - See Page B8
Conch & Coconut’s Business Licence caper, is Senator Darron Pickstock, the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) recentlyratified Golden Isles by-election candidate, who was the tour operator, destination management and visitor “concierge” provider’s Bahamian attorney. The former US partner alleged that Mr Pickstock, who he claims to have been responsible for hiring, and Scott Silverman, Mr Gibson’s father, had “tried to
force me into giving up the entirety of Conch & Coconut’s business to” his Bahamian partner on the basis the company had been structured as an “illegal ‘fronting scheme’” to evade the National Investment Policy’s stipulations that such operations are reserved exclusively for 100 percent Bahamian ownership only. Mr Conde provides no evidence to back-up his claim of bring pressured to exit, and there is no
$5.48 GB CRAB CRAWLING: $40M PROJECT EYES HUNDREDS OF JOBS By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
suggestion that Mr Pickstock has done anything wrong in relation to the Conch & Coconut affair. He is now campaigning ahead of the November 24 by-election, and Tribune Business calls and messages sent to his cell phone were not responded to before press time last night. However, it is the allegations regarding Conch & Coconut’s Business Licence that will likely receive most
A $40m aquaculture project targeted at Grand Bahama’s northern shore is aiming to create 113 fulltime jobs, and up to 200-300 spin-off posts, once it reaches full-scale commercial production. Florida Stone Crabs Inc’s environmental impact assessment (EIA), which was released yesterday ahead of the November 11 public consultation, disclosed that if approved the development will be located on a 1,500-acre site east of Dover Sound on land jointly-owned by the Grand Bahama Development Company (DevCO) and the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) affiliate, Port Group Ltd. The project, which is designed to produce native
SCAM - See Page B4
JOBS - See Page B6