The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian realtor has accused the former receivers for Abaco’s Orchid Bay project of “an extensive and outrageous invasion of privacy”, and denied inferences that he or his family had “behaved in any way fraudulently”.

Chris Albury, in an affidavit filed to support a successful court application to remove (at least for the moment) Orchid Bay’s receiver, alleged that privileged legal advice sent to his family and himself by their attorney, Roy Sweeting, was now being used as evidence against them.

Mr Albury, the beneficial owner of Coastal Property Services (CPS), which holds a debenture secured on property at the Great Guana Cay-based project, said they would be “hopelessly prejudiced” if this was used against them in court.

Describing himself and his family as “outraged” that the former receivers, Grant Thornton (Bahamas) partner Paul Gomez, and Derek Sweeting, appeared to have accessed their computer records, Mr Albury said they were “not shamed or embarrassed in the least” at the content.

“Neither my father, my mother, Roy Sweeting, CPS nor myself have defrauded anyone or behaved in any way fraudulently,” Mr Albury alleged, adding that the advice exhibited as part of the former receiver’s court documents related to his father’s efforts to buy certain assets from Orchid Bay’s parent, Great Guana Cay (Abaco) Development Company (GCAD).

Although the receivers were appointed by the Supreme Court, and are set to challenge their removal, Mr Albury’s affidavit describes them as agents of Synovus, the US bank that is seeking to enforce a $6 million judgment against William B. Johnson, Orchid Bay’s owner.

“Synovus’s occupation of the premises is a wrongful interference with CPS’s rights as secured creditor, and that interference is causing loss each day to CPS, Albury’s Property Management and my parents,” Mr Albury alleged.

“It has also kept my parents out of their home and publicly humiliated them. In addition, the agents of Synovus have taken advantage of the circumstances in order to perpetrate an extensive and outrageous invasion of the privacy of the plaintiffs, including accessing their bank records and viewing privileged legal advice given to them.”

Elsewhere, Mr Albury challenged Mr Gomez’s assertion that the $1.23 million sale of real estate secured under the debenture was a significant undervalue, believing it was really worth $16 million.

Mr Albury alleged that the land secured under the debenture was appraised on April 23, 2012, by Robin Brownrigg, Bahamas Realty’s president.

Based on the results, “the combined individual value of the various parcels of land that GCAD owned was $8.1 million”, Mr Albury alleged.

“If the properties were sold together to a single purchaser, Mr Brownrigg estimated they should fetch a price of $6.48 million, and in a ‘forced bulk sale’ (a ‘distress’ sale) a price of $4.86 million.”

Mr Albury admitted he worked for Damianos Sotheby’s International Realty, which was selected to market the Orchid Bay real estate secured by his own company’s debenture, for sale.

“For the next year we made extensive efforts to find a purchaser for the property who would pay an acceptable price for the entire development,” he added.

“Those efforts were unsuccessful, despite several near misses. We also tried to sell the marina compound alone at a price of $1.6 million, but the only seriously interested purchaser eventually backed out when its principals decided that the revenue from the marina was insufficient for them to make a profit.”

Mr Albury said all offers received for the property were “too low”, but in May 2013 he decided to sell beachfront land as well as inland lots to Moradvis Ltd, a company owned by an existing homeowner at Orchid Bay.

“The transaction was completed on June 6, 2013. The sale price was $1.23 million, which I considered fair and reasonable in view of the condition of the land and the very depressed state of the Abaco real estate market,” Mr Albury alleged.

He admitted, though, that there was effectively no evidence to back up his father, Jimmy Albury’s, belief that he owned a 50 per cent beneficial equity interest in GCAD and Orchid Bay.

“The land on Great Guana Cay which became Orchid Bay was originally purchased by GCAD with money contributed by a group of Japanese investors assembled by Mr Johnson, and work began on Orchid Bay in 1992,” Mr Albury alleged.

“At that time, my father was the registered owner of all the shares of GCAD, but he and Mr Johnson had made a verbal agreement to the effect that they would share equally in the benefits of the Orchid Bay project and any other projects which they might pursue in the Bahamas.

“My father now admits that this agreement was never well defined and he was never sure whether he was to receive a share of the net profits once all the land had been sold, or a share of the company after all the debts had been paid.

“Although he was the legal owner of the shares at that time, he did not consider that this was anything more than a formality, as he had not contributed any cash toward the original land purchase. Nonetheless, he did consider that he had a proprietary interest in the project, and he trusted that he and Mr Johnson would do right by each other once the project was complete.”

Mr Albury also sought to explain why Orchid Bay’s operating revenues, from its marina and restaurant assets, were going into accounts set up by his father rather than those belonging to GCAD.

Pointing out that his father never had signatory authority over GCAD’s Bahamian bank accounts, nor had sight of their records, he added that an account had to be opened in his name after CPS appointed Jimmy Albury as receiver over its debenture.

“The easiest thing to do was to open a second account in the name of Albury’s Property Management, since Albury’s Property Management was already a customer in good standing with RBC,” Mr Albury alleged.

“That account is the one into which GCAD’s revenue is deposited, and from which its expenses are paid, including payroll. The records of this account form the basis of the accounting of my father’s receivership.

“Revenue from the marina and restaurant is kept entirely separate from Albury’s Property Management’s revenue from golf cart rentals and the other services it provides to homeowners.

“It is worth noting that neither Synovus, Mr Gomez nor Derek Sweeting has the benefit of an Order which might even remotely entitle them to examine Albury’s Property Management’s bank records, the bank records of the receivership or any other person’s bank records.”