Izmirlian hails $1.6b judgment | Business

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BML Properties Ltd. yesterday responded to a major ruling by a New York court awarding it $1.6 billion against China Construction America, saying the size of the verdict not only demonstrates the scale of the loss to the Izmirlian family but the extent of the wrongdoing by CCA.

“The decision once and for all sheds light on the true events of Baha Mar and how the unscrupulous actions of CCA, and the then Bahamian government, ousted Sarkis Izmirlian and the Baha Mar management team to the detriment of The Bahamas,” said a statement released by a public relations firm representing the Izmirlians.

The statement noted that Justice Andrew Borrok of the Supreme Court of the State of New York ruled that CCA, the U.S. business unit of China State Construction Engineering Corporation – China’s largest construction group, defrauded BML Properties as well as breached the parties’ investment agreement, directly resulting in the complete loss of BML’s $845 million investment in Baha Mar.

Responding, Sarkis Izmirlian, chair and CEO of BML Properties and the original developer of Baha Mar, said, “I first conceived of Baha Mar more than 20 years ago, only to see it ripped out of my hands at the brink of opening by CCA”.

The evidence showed that rather than fulfilling its promise to have the resort ready for paying guests, CCA covertly used money to buy the British Colonial Hilton in Nassau rather than paying subcontractors.

It also showed that the entities secretly cut hundreds of workers during the critical run-up to the project’s grand opening and diverted resources and key personnel to Panama to start a new project rather than finish Baha Mar.

In addition, the evidence showed that the companies intentionally slowed and stopped work on Baha Mar in attempts to extort exorbitant and illegitimate payments.

The court found that the liquidity crisis faced by BML was caused entirely by the defendants.

“In addition, the credible evidence indicated that Mr. Izmirlian acted honorably and commercially reasonably and willing to work out a deal as long as the defendants committed to a substantial completion date (as they had fraudulently done in November 2014),” the ruling says.

“This they refused to do and again only tried to shake down Mr. Izmirlian for more money before they would even discuss completion.”

As a result of the liquidity crisis caused by the defendants, BMLP was pushed out of its $845 million investment and thus Baha Mar’s “Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June of 2015 was a foreseeable and natural consequence of the Defendants’ actions”.

The ruling also outlines how the defendants used CCA consultant Leslie Bethel to access his father, Sir Baltron Bethel, then senior advisor to then-Prime Minister Perry Christie, in a bid to secure the government’s favor, and support in getting rid of BML.

In one correspondence, Leslie Bethel assured Daniel Liu, senior vice president of both CCA, Inc., and CCAB, that his father “is one of CCA’s biggest supporters” and promised to provide further help with the defendants’ interactions with the Bahamian government.

The ruling adds, “Later on, after the March 27, 2015 deadline had been missed and in advance of a planned negotiation meeting with BML, Sir Baltron Bethel asked Mr. Liu for advice as to the ‘[m]anner in which you would wish negotiations to proceed’.

“Later, in a July 22, 2015 email (apparently inadvertently copying representatives of BMLP) Sir Baltron Bethel proposed ‘[o]ne way of making up the equity shortfall of Baha Mar would be for the bank to advance the idea of an additional equity partner with hotel and casino experience being brought in within say 90 days,” the ruling says.

“He was careful to add that ‘[s]uch a suggestion should preferably come from [the] bank and not government to prevent Baha Mar taking the position government is trying to push lzmirlian out’.”

In its press statement yesterday, BML noted the ruling called CCA’s “empty, fraudulent” promise to achieve a March 27, 2015 opening date “phony” and “an absolute sham and shake down of Mr. Izmirlian” who “at all times...acted commercially reasonably, honorably, and in the best interest of the project.”

In the statement yesterday, Izmirlian said,

“We are grateful to have finally had our day in the US judicial system and thank Justice Borrok for his fair and thoughtful approach to the case, and we intend to proceed with the enforcement of the judgment in an equally thoughtful and prudent manner.”

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