The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

and FAY SIMMONS

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A senior China Construction America (CCA) executive who played a key role in the Baha Mar dispute appears to have further prospered through being appointed “a special envoy” by the Bahamian government.

Daniel Liu, CCA’s former senior vice-president, who featured prominently in the section of the New York State Supreme Court ruling that found the Chinese state-owned contractor “actively worked to curry favour with the Bahamian government”, has disclosed in his biography that the Davis administration last year made him a “special envoy to China”.

The revelation is made towards the back of a 16-page brochure for an entity named SilverStar Management Group Company, for which Mr Liu is named as the president and managing director. “In year 2023, Mr Liu has officially approved from Bahamas government as ‘special envoy to China’,” it proudly states.

However, Fred Mitchell, minister of foreign affairs, yesterday corrected this to confirm that while Mr Liu is indeed a “special envoy” for the Bahamian government it is not specific to China. “No, he’s not the special envoy to China,” Mr Mitchell replied when contacted by this newspaper. “No, that’s not correct.

“He may have a designation from time to time as a ‘special envoy’ but not special envoy to China. He’s a special envoy but not to China. I believe the way special envoy works is when a senior government official requires someone to be utilised from time to time that happens, so he can call himself that but not to China. That’s the issue.” 

However, a key ally of Sarkis Izmirlian, Baha Mar’s original developer, says Mr Liu’s biography details and appointment raise questions over whether he has been rewarded by the Government for his role in the dispute despite the recent New York court ruling which found CCA committed multiple frauds and breaches of contracts.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, who sat on Baha Mar’s Board prior to Mr Izmirlian’s ouster, raised multiple questions as he hit back at Mr Mitchell’s demands that he choose whether to support The Bahamas, and the then-Christie administration’s stance on the multi-billion dollar Cable Beach project, or the original developer.

“Mr Mitchell has a job to do as protector of the PLP brand, and clearly the PLP sided with the party that was found out in court to have committed a fraudulent activity, and found wanting and liable for its behaviour during Baha Mar’s construction,” the Minnis administration’s former minister of tourism and aviation blasted.

“I find it odd that one of the parties mentioned in the ruling as trying to curry favour with the Bahamian government, Daniel Liu, was appointed as special envoy of the Government of The Bahamas. Obviously there’s a relationship there. He’s [Mr Mitchell] asking me to pick country over commercial interests, and he’s obviously already picked his side.

“One has to ask what is the relationship between the Government of The Bahamas and someone mentioned in the ruling as attempting to curry favour with the Government of The Bahamas. Now that same person is ending up with a position from the Government of The Bahamas. What’s going on?”

Mr D’Aguilar said he was unaware whether Mr Liu’s position as ‘special envoy’ was a paid post or not as he also raised questions over whether the former CCA executive is now a Bahamian citizen or has attained permanent residency in this nation. He pointed out, though, that the former CCA executive’s biography also states he provides “construction management services for the University of The Bahamas”.

“This gentleman is getting a lot of contracts from the Government of The Bahamas and a lot of appointments from the Government of The Bahamas,” Mr D’Aguilar blasted. “One has to wonder. We obviously know where their [the then-government’s] loyalties lie. They already sided with CCA, and those elements have been rewarded with government positions.”

Judge Andrew Borrok, in awarding Mr Izmirlian some $1.6bn in damages over his fraud and breach of contract claim, said the “evidence establishes” that some $2.3m in payments by CCA were designed to “gain access” to Sir Baltron Bethel, then-prime minister Perry Christie’ senior policy adviser, and the administration’s decision-making core.

Sir Baltron previously denied any impropriety when Tribune Business first exclusively revealed on November 8, 2022, that CCA had paid $2.3m to Notarc Management Group, where his son, Leslie Bethel, was chief executive. The payments were made between December 2014 and January 2016, when the dispute between Mr Izmirlian and CCA was at its peak.

But, pointing out that Sir Baltron and the Christie administration “co-ordinated” with CCA during the unsuccessful negotiations to resolve the Baha Mar dispute, Judge Borrok said: “While CCA Bahamas was in negotiations with the Bahamian government over a Heads of Agreement in relation to the British Colonial development, Mr Liu forwarded an e-mail communication from Sir Baltron Bethel to his son, Leslie Bethel.

“Mr Liu confirmed in his deposition testimony that he did so because he was ‘looking for help’ from Leslie Bethel, and wanted Leslie Bethel to speak with his father, Sir Baltron Bethel, about proposed edits made by Sir Baltron Bethel to the Heads of Agreement.

“Leslie Bethel reassured Mr Liu that ‘Sir B is one of CCA’s biggest supporters’ and promised to provide further help with the defendants’ interactions with the Bahamian government. Mr Liu reciprocated the sentiment, saying: ‘I am sure about Sir Baltron and yourself as our best friend’.”

Judge Borrok also picked up on e-mail exchanges between Mr Liu and Sir Baltron over how Baha Mar’s financier, the Chinese state-owned China Export-Import Bank, could push for a new “equity partner” to be brought into the project. Sir Baltron urged that this idea come from the bank as the Government did not want to be seen as forcing Mr Izmirlian out.

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

“Later, in a July 22, 2015, e-mail, apparently inadvertently copying representatives of Mr Izmirlian, 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’.

“He was careful to add that ‘[s]uch a suggestion should preferably come from bank and not Gov’t to prevent Baha Mar taking the position Gov’t is trying to push lzmirlian out’.” Tom Dunlap, Baha Mar’s former president, told the two-week New York trial over Mr Izmirlian’s claim that he found Sir Baltron’s e-mail “ghastly” when he inadvertently received it.

And probing further, Judge Borrok noted how Mr Liu recommended to his CCA colleagues that the Chinese contractor ‘take advantage of The Bahamas government. If the Government, the Export-Import Bank of China and CCA join forces, that can turn passive into active’.

“This e-mail chain also references apparently bilateral meetings between the defendants and the ‘Prime Minister’s Senior Advisor’,” Judge Borrok said. “This e-mail chain is a clear endorsement of the strategy of pushing BML Properties and Baha Mar out of the project, and contemplates having the Bahamian government’s assistance in doing so.”