The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

AN environmental group accused of plotting to “destabilise” the Christie administration yesterday welcomed the government’s invite to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct an independent probe into its actions in relation to an ongoing feud between two Lyford Cay residents.

On Thursday, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald accused Save the Bays (STB) of working towards the government’s downfall, using money from billionaire Lyford Cay resident Louis Bacon, while masquerading as an environmental watchdog group.

However, STB dismissed these accusations as “totally untrue” and “an attempt to distract the public from the substance of recent court filings.” In a statement yesterday, STB officials said “nothing could please us more” than an investigation being done by the FBI.

Last week Mr Fitzgerald told the House of Assembly that Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson would request the FBI, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the US Department of State to investigate whether a US entity was working with STB to topple the Christie administration.

He also accused STB of being involved in a “hustle” to entrap Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard in a criminal plot.

“Save The Bays has done absolutely nothing wrong and would welcome independent scrutiny of this matter as we continue to seek justice and relief,” STB’s statement said.

“We hereby invite, challenge and call upon the government to bring in the FBI. Over the course of our investigation, STB has gathered a great deal of evidence, which we believe will prove very useful to law enforcement agencies. If the local authorities are not interested in investigating this evidence fully, we are happy to turn it over to their US counterparts in the interests of truth, transparency, justice and the rule of law.”

Meanwhile, the group maintained that central questions raised in an affidavit its directors recently filed in the Supreme Court “were conveniently unanswered.”

“Who instigated a two-and-a-half year campaign of harassment, intimidation and violence which allegedly included a murder plot against several individuals? “Who organised the KKK-themed hate rallies which terrorised our members and put them in fear for their safety? Who supplied the Ku Klux Klan costumes seen on display during the 2015 New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parade? Who paid for the ‘burning cross’ t-shirts?

“Surely, given the abundance of pertinent evidence filed with the courts, these ministers must know the answer. Yet rather than speak to this, they decided to launch their own savage, unwarranted attack on Save The Bays. We wonder – who could they be protecting?

“Needless to say, the harebrained suggestion that STB is involved in some plot to overthrow the government is totally untrue, beyond ridiculous and clearly nothing more than an attempt to change the story.

“The PLP will have to try harder – no one, aside from the party’s most rabid supporters - is buying it,” STB said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell has also questioned if STB is a legitimate environmental group or an “attempt to subvert” certain parliamentarians.

Last week in Parliament, he suggested that some $8.25m has been filtered through various organisations connected with STB - locally and internationally - from 2013 to 2015.

The claims by both PLP parliamentarians come amidst a controversy stemming from an ongoing feud between Mr Nygard and Mr Bacon concerning STB’s opposition to ongoing development of Nygard Cay. Mr Bacon is one of STB’s directors.

Mr Mitchell, in Parliament, sought to connect the dots as to how STB obtains its funding, claiming that the Moore Charitable Trust, of which Mr Bacon is president, allegedly funds international environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance, which in turn funds Waterkeeper Bahamas, which in turn funds STB.

However, STB stressed yesterday that it is a “cover for no one.”

“We are a social and environmental advocacy group that campaigns for: the adoption of an Environmental Protection Act and a Freedom of Information Act; an end to industrial pollution and unregulated development; and the upholding of due process and the rule of law in The Bahamas. We campaign in defense of these ideals aggressively, and without apology, because we believe the wellbeing of future generations of Bahamians depends upon it.”

On March 9, four STB directors - Joseph Darville, Romauld Ferreira, Fred Smith and Mr Bacon - and Reverend CB Moss, who is not a STB member, filed an affidavit by Florida investigator John Joseph DiPaolo to probe Mr Nygard’s connection to Livingston “Toggie” Bullard and Wisler “Bobo” Davilma.

The affidavit alleges Mr Nygard hired the two “gang members” to carry out crimes against those who opposed further development at Nygard Cay.