DNA Leader Branville McCartney
By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
THE Democratic National Alliance yesterday called on Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis to “come clean” and clarify the party’s involvement in the contentious lawsuit against Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard.
DNA Deputy Leader Chris Mortimer said Dr Minnis “needs to explain his house” and account for FNM Chairman Michael Pintard’s alleged complicity with environmental group Save The Bays (STB) and at least one of its directors in bringing legal action against the Canadian tycoon.
Mr Mortimer told a press conference yesterday that in light of the controversy surrounding Mr Nygard, which includes him allegedly sponsoring the Progressive Liberal Party with $5m in the run-up to the last general election, the country desperately needs campaign finance legislation as well as a National Parliamentary Commission to oversee campaign finance reform.
Dr Minnis, when questioned outside the House of Assembly yesterday, did not speak in depth on the matter. In a previous statement, however, Dr Minnis said there is “nothing untoward in the party chairman’s involvement with a non-profit environmental group and their firm of Bahamian attorneys”.
Mr Mortimer’s statements were in reference to Mr Pintard being named in a 400-page affidavit by Florida investigator John Joseph DiPaolo, who was hired by Lyford Cay billionaire Louis Bacon and lawyer Fred Smith to investigate Mr Nygard’s connection to self-proclaimed criminals Livingston “Toggie” Bullard and Wisler “Bobo” Davilma.
In that affidavit, Mr Pintard was said to have assisted in tracking down Bullard and Davilma - both of whom have claimed to have relationships with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister - and was responsible for alerting Mr Smith that the two men were suspected of being behind the various protests against STB.
The affidavit noted that Mr Pintard, a friend and colleague of Mr Smith and longtime STB supporter, was requested by Mr Smith to assist him in his efforts to find out who had organised a series of “hate rallies”. During his enquiries, Mr Pintard met Bullard and Davilma, who told him that they were hired by Mr Nygard to organise the rallies and also to kill or cause harm to certain persons.
Mr Pintard reported the information to Mr Smith, who with Mr Bacon, decided not to go to the police but to launch a private investigation.
Notwithstanding that, Dr Minnis, in a statement over the weekend, called on the government to “clear its name” and “repudiate” its association with Mr Nygard or any “suggested gang affiliations, association or interactions”.
“Well I turn around and say to the leader of the opposition, he needs to explain his house too, because what’s happening with respects to the government isn’t the only issue here,” Mr Mortimer said yesterday. “There are things that are in the pubic domain that deals specifically with the Free National Movement, and I call on him to account for those as well.
“So when he talks about the alleged corruption or cronyism that is happening within the PLP, you know like the Bible says ‘take the splinter out of your own eye before you tell someone else to take the beam out of theirs’? I call on him to do the same.
Mr Mortimer added: “So when the leader of the opposition decides to call for the government to be clean, we want to hold him to the same standard that he is holding the government to, and we want him to be clear as to exactly what is going on in his party because they have national implications as well.”
Dr Minnis also said in his statement over the weekend that the FNM has “always been made aware” of the relationship Mr Pintard has had with STB as “a member thereof from its early days,” and also with the law firm Callenders & Co, of which Mr Smith is a senior partner who has provided Mr Pintard with “professional services for the past four years”.
Therefore, Dr Minnis said, there was “nothing untoward in the party chairman’s involvement with a non-profit environmental group and their firm of Bahamian attorneys”.
Yesterday he added that “the FNM may have been the responsible entity for this matter to have been brought forward to the public,” and that the Bahamian people will “thank the FNM for doing such a good job in bringing in the openness what is happening”.
A Supreme Court writ was filed against Mr Nygard and lawyer Keod Smith by STB directors Joseph Darville, Romauld Ferreira, Mr Smith and Mr Bacon, and Reverend CB Moss on Wednesday. They allege that the defendants orchestrated a two-and-a-half-year campaign of fear and violence to “kill or scare off” activists Mr Nygard saw as opponents to development plans for his Lyford Cay property.
According to the court documents, the plaintiffs compensated Bullard and Davilma for being whistleblowers in exposing Mr Nygard’s alleged criminal activities.
Comments
bluesky 8 years, 8 months ago
DNA Deputy Leader Chris Mortimer may be on to something here. The DNA can kill two birds with one stone.
Observer 8 years, 8 months ago
Mr. Bacon and Mr. Smith, Q.C. took it upon themselves to conceal alledged criminal activities by not reporting same to the RBPF? Who are these people?
GrassRoot 8 years, 8 months ago
I am sure you are not naïve, so lets say you are plain funny. This is a country where the PM "orders" an investigation. This means also that there is no investigation without the PM orders. So why would anybody go to the police? So Greenslade can "quiz" the PM? I would love to have been a fly on the wall during this quiz. Going to the court directly, to have the judiciary confirm the facts (even if it is in a civil case) was the smartest thing to do to get around the corrupt gang of politicians, prosecutors and police in this country.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 8 months ago
When you have money ................ you have an air of arrogance ........ that you are above the Law ............... both Nygard and Bacon have acted in this manner ....... and they should be invited to leave our country
sealice 8 years, 8 months ago
alot of this is old news though.... everyone knows Brave gets all his funding from his square grouper fishermen law firm customers and they in turn have always provided muscle and bully tactics to keep him "popular" What should be most repugnant is that this crew of liars we call gubmint always crying about selling out to foreigners lined up and personally went through a NYGARD spank machine as they prostrated themselves for him on video even.
cmiller 8 years, 8 months ago
Interview with primeminister: Greenslade: I must ask point-blank if any of the Nygard accusations are true? Are you Nygard's b---ch as portrayed in the released tapes?
Christie: I here-for-to am attempting to coagulate the velocity at which the alleged combinations of negative portrayals of myself and my esteemed government are categorically being reported as truth. Until such a time as these unfortunate inflamatory utterances are devolved and delineated, I must categorically deny all emerging utterances from detractors.
Greenslade: Ummmmm... that's good enough for our records. Thanks for taking time out from your busy schedule to meet with me.
bluesky 8 years, 8 months ago
cmiller, naughty, naughty, naughty
proudloudandfnm 8 years, 8 months ago
I dont care
I want to know how much Nygard bought Perry and Brave for....
GrassRoot 8 years, 8 months ago
don't matter. one single dollar is wrong already.
avidreader 8 years, 8 months ago
What seems to me to be so strange about most of the comments appearing relative to these recent stories is that few people seem to realize that this is part of a recurring pattern in this country. Big foreign money can cause some serious entanglements. Who remembers the late Robert Vesco from the mid 1970s? Some time after he moved to Costa Rica there was a full page newspaper advertisement in one of the local papers demanding that he be expelled from that country. I saw the newspaper in early 1975. Our younger readers should research his numerous adventures and learn about his "unfortunate" end in a Cuban jail cell. Many people come to this country in the knowledge that they can get away with here what they would not even dare attempt in their home country. The sad part is that our poorly educated young people (and many not so young) know little or nothing of past events and so are condemned to remain "present dwellers" with no historical perspective with which to evaluate current affairs.
Zakary 8 years, 8 months ago
The sad part is that our poorly educated young people (and many not so young) know little or nothing of past events and so are condemned to remain "present dwellers" with no historical perspective with which to evaluate current affairs.
True, but I always like to tell some that our present reality reflects our history, that is one thing that the young people do realize. In addition, the fact that the youngsters know little or nothing of past events is laid squarely to blame on the generations who had the ability and duty to do so, but failed in that regard.
But you’re right, in the end, with no historical perspective, the highest form of evaluation of current affairs is through that same old lens of PLP and FNM. I’ve since come to accept this.
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrades you do no service to the nation by making untruthful accusations against the PM & DPM. They had NO involvement, none at all.
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrade it could have been $10 million being it is quite legal for any individual or corporation to do likewise. The accusations are surrounded by serious criminal allegations, not donations to a political party.
The red shirt candidates accepted money's from the numbers men's. Didn't they?
Back in the 1990's, wasn't Nygard cozy with the red party?
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrade where is the evidence against the PM and DPM? You and the media can't just make it up.
GrassRoot 8 years, 8 months ago
Amen, yours sincerely Bishop Gomez.
GrassRoot 8 years, 8 months ago
correct, absolutely correct, because they still are involved.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 8 months ago
Has Bran ever taken "donations" from any of these undesirable characters ......... or was the DNA "self-funded" like Donald Trump????????
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrade Sheeprunner12 - the DNA isn't even a legit opposition party. Under which constitution was Bran elected party leader.
In fact, the Governor-general should strike the DNA from her list of recognized political parties.
GrassRoot 8 years, 8 months ago
who cares about the Constitution these days?
sheeprunner12 8 years, 8 months ago
I agree with you Tal .............. the DNA should not be considered a political party in reality, but I suppose it fulfilled its legal/business obligations
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrade even with Bran calling for the red shirts to come clean over their "Worst Than “Sorry ” involvement with these "WELL PAID" thugs, Bran is late singing for his political supper. This is week-old news.
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrade like campaign donations, its all legal.
Godson 8 years, 8 months ago
TO THIS EXTENT, FOREIGNERS AND THEIR FOREIGN INTERESTS, as well as, their disagreements and disputes over the use of a drive-way can become the center focus for our politicians including OUR GOVERNMENT and THE OFFICIAL OPPOSITION, and can also... force attention for discussions in debate in the halls of The Bahamas' Parliament while the interest and the survival of the Bahamians, for want of a more suitable word and expression, don't seem to mean a shit to them.
THIS IS THE ULTIMATE... use your own words to describe_______...
Greentea 8 years, 8 months ago
The Nygard/Bacon Row is known globally (http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/…) These egocentric narcissists are playing serious ball and what this article and these accusations tell me is that they have taken political sides - nothing more or less. Nygard has banked on the PLP and the FNM want to bring home the Bacon. That Pintard is paid by the STB group and Callender and Co- because he surely wasn't working for free - is an ethical problem. The criminal accusations are a really serious. But its all too convenient for me. Causing mayhem yes but if Livingston “Toggie” Bullard and Wisler “Bobo” Davilma were told to threaten and kill these fellas, why are they all walking around this place big as billy- not a hair harmed on one head? Why was DPM- of whom I am decidedly not a fan- the only one something happened to? Are we to believe the words of criminals who commit acts of violence against the good of the country for pay? I believe they were probably hired to cause some trouble, but the extra stuff, murder and physical harm- is probably an embellishment for a few extra dollars from the Bacon- noth that these fellas were incapable of actually doing this mess. The most shameful part of this is watching these billionaires make our politicians on both sides into their "b***hes, 5 dollar, or in this case 5 million dollar ho-ho-hos. Disgraceful.
proudloudandfnm 8 years, 8 months ago
Nygard has not filed any affidavits in court.
Perhaps Bran should wait for that to happen before he goes reacting to rumors?
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 8 months ago
If he was interested in being useful he would not have split the vote and given the PLP a free ride to victory. Useful would be disbanding the DNA today. History already has your number and it is shameful. The McCartney's were a well respected family in the Bahamas from time immemorial. Not so now. You have sullied the name of the whole family. Sorry to be blunt. !!
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