The Tribune

BY NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE SUPREME Court has refused to freeze the assets of a Bahamas-based investor being pursued over a $232.121m court judgment connected to a failed COVID-19 mask and personal protective equipment (PPE) deal.

Justice Franklyn Williams KC, in an August 28, 2026, verdict ruled that a US healthcare equipment supplier had failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify its “urgent” demand for an Order that would prevent Anthony Lyons, an Old Fort Bay resident, from transferring, disposing of or hiding assets that could be used to pay the judgment.

Acknowledging that there “is a serious issue to be tried”, Justice Williams’ ruling revealed that Mr Lyons, a British citizen who earned his wealth from UK commercial and residential property deals, had been locked in a four-year legal battle in the US courts with Dre Health Corporation over their disputed medical equipment deal that took place as the COVID pandemic was ending.

Mr Lyons and his Berkeley Equity Ltd vehicle, a British Virgin Islands (BVI) domiciled company which appears to use the same PO Box number as the Lyford Cay Club and Lyford Cay Property Owners Association (both unconnected to the court case), agreed on September 2, 2021, to purchase six million boxes of face masks per week from Dre Health Corporation over a six-month period.

When the deal foundered, the US supplier initiated legal action against Mr Lyons and his company in the western district of Missouri federal court, alleging breach of contract and misrepresentation claims that included purported “fraudulent inducement” against the UK investor who lives at 18 Ocean Drive in Old Fort Bay.

Following a three-and-a-half year legal fight, Dre Health Corporation obtained a final court $232.121m Order and judgment from the US court against Mr Lyons and Berkeley Equity during April and May 2026. Over that period, the US healthcare provider sought to obtain an injunction against The Bahamas-based investor and his assets on the basis it “faced faced a threat of irreparable harm ‘because Mr Lyons is attempting to dissipate assets and render himself judgment-proof’.”

This, though, was rejected by the US western Missouri court because the $59.5m Old Fort Bay home at the centre of Dre Health Corporation’s injunction bid had already been sold by Mr Lyons one year earlier prior to the judgment award.

“The evidence in support of this assertion was that the Old Fort Bay mansion and grounds known as ‘Jungle Cove’, purportedly owned by the second respondent [Mr Lyons] was at that time being listed for sale via Christie's International Real Estate offering for $59.5m,” Justice Williams recorded.

“The US district court refused to issue the preliminary injunction, finding that the standard establishing irreparable harm, that is that ‘the harm is certain and great, and of such imminence that there is a clear and present need for equitable relief’, had not been met, and finding that Lyons had sold Jungle Cove on August 23, 2021.”

US legal documents obtained by Tribune Business show that the US court was not persuaded by Dre Health Corporation’s “speculation” that Mr Lyons had not sold Jungle Cove, and/or it was “not an arm’s length transaction, or that he retained (and currently retains) any sort of interest in the property or would have any interest in the proceeds of the sale of the property”.

Jungle Cove, one of the most expensive and high-end residential properties in The Bahamas, has again been listed for sale, but the western Missouri court ruled: “The March 25, 2026 listing of Jungle Cove makes no reference to Mr Lyons. Dre’s only documentary support that Mr Lyons owned or had some interest in Jungle Cove after June 2021 is a wire transfer form concerning an August 23, 2021, wire transfer which lists Mr Lyons’ address as the Jungle Cove residence.

“Mr Lyons explained in his testimony that this was an error or oversight by him or a bank involved in the wire transfer due to the recency of his sale of the property two months earlier.

“Defendants provided certified records from the Bahamian Registrar General reflecting the 2021 transaction, including the indenture of conveyance, (Doc. 361-2); correspondence from Stephen J. Melvin, of the Bahamian firm of Higgs & Johnson - the buyer’s authorised representative in the 2021 sale - stating that the buyer’s purchase of Jungle Cove was an arm’s length transaction, and other documents reflecting the June 2021 sale of Jungle Cove.

“While Dre argues that Mr Lyons’ claim that he sold Jungle Cove in 2021 is ‘dubious’, and that the evidence presented by the defence supporting an arm’s length transaction is ‘unreliable, unverifiable and inadmissible’, Dre has not provided any support for its contention that Mr Lyons did not sell Jungle Cove, that the sale was not an arm’s length transaction, or that Mr Lyons retained or retains some interest in Jungle Cove and/or in the proceeds from the sale of Jungle Cove under the current listing.”

The end result was that Dre Health Corporation ultimately came to The Bahamas via a July 21, 2026, application to the Supreme Court seeking a similar freezing Order over Mr Lyons’ assets to the one they had unsuccessfully sought to obtain on Missouri. The US healthcare equipment supplier hired attorney Colin Jupp and the Peter Maynard & Company law firm to represent them.

Justice Williams noted Dre Health Corporation’s assertions that, during the US court proceedings, Mr Lyons allegedly under oath “repeatedly professed ignorance of matters which would ordinarily be expected to be within his personal knowledge, including his solvency, his net worth, the disposition of substantial sums of money and the source of funds used for significant investments, while repeatedly seeking to distance himself from responsibility by attributing knowledge of his affairs to his advisers and assistant”

The Supreme Court verdict also noted that the UK High Court, on June 9, 2026, rejected Mr Lyons’ appeal to overturn a bankruptcy order made against himself over a £26.6m debt purportedly owed to a Canadian finance company now in receivership over a failed UK real estate deal. The lower UK court, which made the initial bankruptcy order, had found his evidence to be “inherently implausible”.

The appeal judgment, meanwhile, revealed: “On October 17, 2022, Mr Lyons was personally served in The Bahamas with a statutory demand. He filed an application to set aside the statutory demand on various grounds, including as to jurisdiction, which was eventually withdrawn before a final hearing on December 7, 2023. On 19 July, 2024, Bridging Finance presented a bankruptcy petition and obtained permission to serve it out of the jurisdiction.

“Witness statements were served by Mr Lyons and his associate, Simon Conway. The petition was listed for a final hearing on 16 and 17 June, 2025. Mr Lyons and Mr Conway were ordered to attend for cross-examination failing which their evidence would not be read save with the permission of the court. Neither attended.

“At the trial, Mr Lyons disputed the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the petition as he had emigrated from the United Kingdom in 2010 and was now domiciled and resident in The Bahamas.”

Mr Lyons enjoyed early real estate investment success when he and Mr Conway purchased the well-known Earls Court & Olympia exhibition centre in London for £245m in 2004, making a major profit by selling it a few years later for £380m. He then established Matterhorn Capital, an investment firm that focused on real estate in the UK, France and the US, and also invested in data centres and renewable energy lighting solutions. Mr Lyons’ net worth was at one point estimated at £600m.

Justice Williams, meanwhile, rejected Dre Health Corporation’s Bahamian freezing bid on the basis that it failed to provide solid evidence of Mr Lyons seeking to dissipate his assets. “The Certificate of Urgency speaks simply to a risk, not a serious or grave risk,” he ruled. “At any rate, the statement does not provide evidence of the risk. It does not speak to dissipation of assets, or imminent or irreparable harm.”