The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The contractor developing the Government’s flagship Carmichael Village affordable housing project is owned by the company linked to the election-day plane crash drug accused, corporate records reveal.

Documents filed with the Companies Registry, which is maintained by the Registrar General’s Department, reveal that 4,999 of Complete Construction’s 5,000 shares are held by Top Notch Builders, the Adelaide Road-based contractor that listed Jonathan Eric Gardiner as its president and a director in 2017.

The paperwork, which has been obtained by Tribune Business following a database search conducted on its behalf, also discloses that Complete Construction’s officers and directors are virtually the same as Top Notch’s. Samson Hield, the former’s president, held the post of vice-president at Top Notch when the latter signed the separate ‘public-private partnership’ deal with the Government for the Eight Mile Rock administrative complex.

Other Complete Construction directors are listed as Marc Robinson, a financial consultant and its treasurer; Alecia Bowe, an attorney and its secretary; and Michael Cooper, an insurance executive who is named as its vice-president. The trio are also all named as directors and officers of Top Notch in the latter’s corporate filings, suggesting that Complete Construction is an alias or front created by the former as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) specifically to perform the Carmichael Village project.

There is no suggestion that any of Top Notch or Complete Construction’s officers and directors have done anything wrong, and there is nothing linking them to Mr Gardiner’s alleged activities or the charges against him.

However, the revelations are likely to provoke further scrutiny over the multi-million dollar construction contracts that the Government has entered into with Top Notch and its affiliates for both the Eight Mile Rock administrative complex, projected to cost Bahamian taxpayers more than $50m, and now the Carmichael Village housing subdivision for which an initial $20m loan financing was obtained from Jamaican sources.

The Tribune has previously revealed how Mr Gardiner, who is now in custody after being charged with involvement in a long-running conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the US, confirmed in a sworn affidavit that he was Top Notch’s president and director on February 13, 2017 - although he denied owning shares, or having any beneficial interest, in the company.

Multiple sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have confirmed that the ‘Jonathan Gardiner’ named in the document is the same Jonathan Eric Gardiner now in US custody, which some even describing Top Notch Builders as “his company” - meaning Mr Gardiner’s - although the extent of his involvement post-2017 is not reflected in corporate records.

However, Michael Coleman, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent who swore the affidavit detailing the US government’s case against Mr Gardiner, alleged that the latter’s co-conspirators as recently as September 2024 said he “was currently building government buildings” and “reportedly trying to keep his involvement below the radar of law enforcement”.

“Based on my participation in this investigation, I understand that comment to be a reference to Gardiner’s company, which has bid on and secured Bahamian government-issued construction projects,” Mr Coleman claimed. “Gardiner owns a business that Gardiner uses to, among other things, bid on Bahamian government-issued construction contracts and launder his narcotics trafficking proceeds.”

The document sworn under oath by Mr Gardiner on February 13, 2017, appears to be an attempt to distance himself from any ownership involvement in Top Notch Builders by denying he has any beneficial interest in the company.

He testifies under oath that Top Notch Builders is instead owned 100 percent by Paradise Productions Inc Company, an entity fully-owned by Mr Hield, who has been listed in previous Tribune Business reports as the “lead contractor” for the Eight Mile Rock PPP deal.

Keith Bell, minister of housing and land reform, could not be reached for comment by phone call, message or e-mail before press time last night. However, he identified Complete Construction as the Carmichael Village contractor in a November 8, 2025, interview with the Nassau Guardian.

“There’s a tripartite arrangement,” Mr Bell said of the Carmichael Village project’s structure, featuring a financier, contractor and government oversight. “There’s Approved Lenders. There’s Complete Construction. Complete Construction is the contractor for the subdivision...and then there is the Carmichael Development Board, which is responsible for overseeing and acting for and on behalf of the minister of housing and the Government,” he said.

Allegations surrounding the involvement of Top Notch in Carmichael Village’s development have been swirling for some time, but have started to circulate with greater intensity following the May 12 election day plane crash that ultimately resulted in the US federal authorities detaining and charging Mr Gardiner - a passenger on the flight.

The saga has also been seized on by the Free National Movement (FNM), with Michael Pintard, the Opposition’s leader, demanding that the Government confirm whether any Cabinet ministers have previously served on Top Notch’s Board in the capacity of president and director - in effect, replacing Mr Gardiner.

The Tribune has seen purported Top Notch corporate documents naming a minister in that post in 2020 but, since the authenticity of the document could not be verified before press time, has received legal advice not to publish the name. The named minister also appears to have swiftly come and gone, as they were no longer listed among Top Notch’s officers and directors in subsequent filings.

Mr Pintard, meanwhile, questioned how much of the Carmichael Village project’s multi-million dollar financing went to Top Notch for construction. He asserted that a total $40.2m has been invested in the development to-date, including the $20m initial injection from Jamaican financing sources and the $20.2m in taxpayer monies shown as being paid into Carmichael Village Project Development Company, the Government-controlled SPV that oversees the housing build-out.

However, the Government will likely dispute the $40.2m figure as Mr Bell previously said the $20.2m provided to Carmichael Village Project Development Company was intended to repay the original loan, with almost half that sum - some $10m - generated by the proceeds of real estate sales.

Still, Mr Pintard persisted, telling Tribune Business: “The Government has multiple questions to answer in terms of how much of that $40.2m went to that individual and his company. The question is how much of that went to that individual or his company over the life of that project, and how far along and how much was expended on the project?

“What is the value of what is there in the ground that accrued under two ministers. They ought to answer how that money was disbursed. Was the individual in question, or Top Notch Builders or any subsidiary that they may have a beneficial interest in, or interest in any form, involved? They may try to hide behind the corporate veil.

“And to what extent is the Government prepared to comment on any minister who has served as a president or director of Top Notch?” Mr Pintard also referred to his comments during the 2024 House of Assembly debate on the Anti-Gang Bill, where he urged the Government and all politicians - including his and other parties - to set an example by not doing business or handing government contracts to alleged criminals and money launderers.

“The Government continues to do business with people of interest to the police locally and internationally, as if those persons are legitimate business persons,” the FNM leader asserted to Tribune Business. “They have done so in terms of multiple projects. They are helping to facilitate individuals who are believed to be engaged in nefarious issues that could bring reputational damage to the country.”

Documents obtained from the Companies Registry show that the Government’s Carmichael Village Project Development Company SPV and Complete Construction Investment & Development Company were incorporated within five months of each other on March 18, 2022, and August 8, 2022, respectively at a time when Jobeth Coleby-Davis - not Mr Bell - was minister of housing.

Both entities were incorporated by Bowe Partners, the law firm where Mrs Bowe, a director of both Top Notch and Complete Construction, is managing partner. Complete Construction’s registered office is given as Bowe Partners’ Caves Village address, while that of Carmichael Village Project Development Company is listed as Don Mackay Boulevard in Abaco.

And the initial subscribers for both entities are named as Adia Benita Roberts and Kenya Armbrister, whose address is also listed as Bowe Partners and who appear to be employees of the law firm. It is unclear why Bowe Partners incorporated both the Government’s SPV as well as Complete Construction given that the former task would likely have been a job for lawyers at the Attorney General’s Office.

Mrs Bowe, who also drew up the Government’s Eight Mile Rock PPP contract rather than the Government’s attorneys, could not be reached for comment before press time last night. The two office numbers listed for Bowe Partners were either not working or appeared to be permanently engaged, and Mrs Bowe did not reply to an e-mail sent to her work address asking for confirmation of Top Notch/Complete Construction’s involvement at Carmichael Village.

Tribune Business records show that, in summer 2022, some $20m was secured from Jamaican finance house, Proven Wealth Ltd, to finance the 365-lot Renaissance at Carmichael subdivision with the transactions arranged through Bahamas-based alternative financing provider, Simplified Lending. The sum involved is the same as what the Government later provided to Carmichael Village Project Development Company.

However, the financing was dogged by controversy more than three years ago, after then-housing minister, Mrs Coleby-Davis, told the House of Assembly “there is no agreement with Simplified Lending and Proven Wealth Management” from the Government’s perspective. This was just weeks after the deal was hailed with great fanfare at a press conference featuring both the Prime Minister and Mrs Coleby-Davis, who said it will set “a new standard” for housing public-private partnerships (PPPs).

At the time, Mrs Coleby-Davis said in written House of Assembly answers that the $20m loan proceeds had yet to be received and disbursed, with the monies set to finance the development and build-out of a 70-acre site set to feature 200 homes in its first phase at Renaissance at Carmichael. The reliance on Jamaican financing is another similarity between the Carmichael Village and Eight Mile Rock administrative complex.