The Tribune

By Richard Coulson

A prominent column in the Freeport News on February 13 reminded me of the amazing qualities of Peter Nygard - enough to get him sanctified as our patron saint.

“Peter Nygard and his family have been a blessing to The Bahamas,” wrote columnist Nathaniel Lewis. “I know with authority, courage and conviction that Peter Nygard and his family will continue to be a blessing.” He is so close to us, “he is more than just a investor. He is family.”

One wonders of which family he speaks. Is it the one wife whom Nygard divorced many years ago? Or the seven children he sired from four women, one of whom resulted in years-long child support litigation in the Ontario courts?

Or is it the bevy of grade B starlets with whom he surrounds himself, as shown in multiple photos found on Google, including the late Anna Nicole Smith, the voluptuous beauty whom an unforgettable Tribune front page displayed cuddling with Shane Gibson, now our Minister of Labour? Mr Nygard can live whatever romantic life he chooses, but one wonders how well that sits with our thousands of devout Christian citizens. Enjoying his celebrity-studded life, he can simply dismiss the sexual harassment suits in Canada and the United States reported in a 2010 Forbes magazine article.

Columnist Lewis cites examples of “selfless altruism” that this “giant of a man”, “incredible human being” and “humble philanthropist” has bestowed upon our country. Our benefactor’s most significant contribution, as reported by the star-struck writer, is his support of stem cell therapy, even having allegedly made a donation to the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) for research..

In fact, his contributions to this promising branch of medicine (though still not certified in the US) have been more hype than reality. Aside from self-promoting videos on YouTube showing him self-injecting a brawny arm (with what?) to prolong his 72-year old life, tangible results of his efforts in the Bahamas are invisible. In 2013, when Prime Minister Christie first introduced rigid stem cell legislation, apart from foreign interests he referred to studies by two local hospitals and our Christian Coalition in hopes that we might become a world leader in this field; he made no mention of Nygard. In 2016, at a symposium held here, our Chief Medical officer Dr Glen Beneby joined Professor Joshua Hare, of the University of Miami Stem Cell Institute, in bringing stakeholders together, including four or five local facilities such as the successful Okyanos Cell Therapy Centre in Freeport; again the Nygard name made no appearance.

There’s no doubt that the Finnish-born entrepreneur who, early, moved to Canada is a self-made success in designing and marketing sportswear and women’s clothing, as his Slimfit jeans are international hot-sellers among many other creations. Despite occasional labour disputes in his Canadian offices, his privately-owned enterprise Nygard International has given him a probable billion dollar fortune. In the early 1980s, he arrived here virtually unknown, buying what was then called Simms Point in a sealed auction from the guardians of Shirley Oakes Butler (Sir Harry’s daughter) who lay in irrecoverable coma after an automobile crash. He beat another bidder who, by interesting coincidence, owned the same Point House later sold to Nygard’s neighbour and present nemesis, American Louis Bacon.

Since Nygard’s unspoiled five-acre Nygard Cay peninsulas had never been part of the Lyford Cay estate, it was not subject to restrictive design rules, leaving him free to build the looming architectural vulgarity of mixed Mayan-Polynesian style, of which I was once given a full tour, using a jeep-wide track to reach the top floor.

Again, there’s no doubt that Nygard Cay became a centre for nubile nymphets romping to deafening music and, to be fair, for Bahamian athletes practicing their volleyball skills and for entertaining underprivileged youths. His lifestyle of non-stop publicity has been hardly more bizarre than other wealthy eccentrics who have settled here, and only arouses public concern with his suspect influence over the PLP government, beginning with his infamous “We (sic) got the country back” film clip showing him in early 2013 entertaining Mr Christie, Jerome Fitzgerald and other Cabinet ministers. In the same year, he received an injunction to stop accreting new seafront land to his property, an injunction that has never been enforced and was still being litigated at a hearing two weeks ago.

The principal litigant has been the Bahamian incorporated charity Save the Bays, partially financed by Mr Bacon, who has had his own success in creating a major hedge fund and receiving conservation awards from The Audubon Society. Somehow, Mr Bacon, who rarely appears in public, has run afoul of vocal segments of Bahamian public opinion. Nygard’s legal counsel Keod Smith, also serving as imaginative publicist, produced countless Facebook scenes naming Bacon a “racist”, claiming his great grandfather owned slaves and was a founder of the Ku Klux Klan (Mr Smith recently lost his appeal from a verdict for defaming a local judge and is being pursued for legal costs.)

Education Minister Fitzgerald’s famous explosion in the House of Assembly last March claimed that Save the Bays was using Bacon’s megabucks to “destabilise”, even “overthrow”, our government, backed up by Minister Fred Mitchell’s dire warning of some $8 million transferred here to finance this fanciful insurrection. Neither gentleman has produced a shred of evidence for this hysteria. Even worse, after Mr Fitzgerald appealed a Supreme Court decision prohibiting him from disclosing the confidential papers he brandished to the House, the Attorney General stepped in to defend him - in my opinion a blatant misuse of public funds for private protection.

This pattern of PLP attack for Mr Nygard’s benefit has been followed by more examples of his friendly ties to the ruling party. In the transcript of a recent Save the Bays v Nygard hearing, corporate counsel for his company, and once a shareholder, was disclosed to be Zarina Fitzgerald, a partner of Higgs & Johnson and wife of Mr Fitzgerald. While she and her firm are perfectly entitled to represent any company in good standing, can it be coincidence that of the hundreds of qualified local attorneys, Mr Nygard chose one linked to the very Cabinet minister who uses his political position to vilify Nygard’s opponents?

The transcript also disclosed that Mr Nygard’s “agent” for managing Nygard Cay was Eric Gibson, brother of minister Shane Gibson and authorised to negotiate property permits for the Cay.

The Gibson brothers appear to have other dealings with Nygard, in the heart of downtown Nassau. The key property for developing derelict eastern Bay Street is the long-vacant Union Wharf site, finally sold very quietly a couple of years ago to a Barbados company called Galaxy Group. Although the true owner has never been named, a November 2015 press report revealed that the Bahamian director was - surprise - Eric Gibson. Real estate insiders learned that Galaxy was a front for Nygard, as financier of the reported $10 million purchase price. Having approved the sale to a foreign company, government should have demanded development of the site, but its valuable 3.9-acre waterfront acres remain silent behind locked gates - a visible rebuke to Mr Christie’s continual promises to renovate the surrounding zombie zone of decaying buildings.

It is a pity that Mr Nygard does not apply his undoubted talents as fashion designer and salesman to spread his business to the Bahamas. He could divert a small percentage of his garment production from Asia to Nassau and Freeport, opening a Nygard store in addition to the one at Mall at Marathon and teaching many Bahamians a new trade. Given our higher wage scales than China or Sri Lanka, this would of course increase his operating expenses - but apparently his vaunted generosity to our country does not extend to reducing his profit margin on our behalf.

• Richard Coulson is a retired lawyer and investment banker born in Nassau and from a long line of Bahamians. He is a financial consultant and author of A Corkscrew Life - adventures of a travelling financier.