The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMAS-BASED investor battling a $232m US court judgment yesterday asserted he is the victim of “a rip-off”, and vowed: “Every single person who has brought this pain to my life will pay.”

Anthony Lyons, a British citizen who lives in Old Fort Bay, told Tribune Business he had been “screwed by the US legal system” in the fight with Dre Health Corporation, an American medical equipment supplier, which has withheld his $3m deposit despite failing to deliver a single COVID-19 mask from the five million boxes per week he had ordered over a six-month period starting in late 2021.

Hitting out after this newspaper revealed Dre Health Corporation had come to The Bahamas in a second failed bid to freeze his assets, he said he had been “unanimously acquitted” following a ten-day jury trial before the western Missouri federal court only for a US judge to subsequently overturn that verdict and award the medical equipment supplier the $232m it is now seeking to collect.

Legal documents seen by Tribune Business reveal that Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark, in a March 20, 2026, verdict overturned the jury’s decision due to purported “improper trial strategy and trial conduct” by Mr Lyons’ then-US attorney. However, court papers confirm that the Bahamas-based investor is pursuing two live appeals before the US eighth circuit court of appeals seeking “at minimum… a complete new trial” before a different judge.

Mr Lyons, who has lived in The Bahamas since 2010 after amassing wealth from UK property investments, yesterday challenged how he can now be facing a $232m judgment when Dre Health Corporation has both retained his deposit and failed to deliver any of the COVID-19 masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) it was contractually obligated to provide.

Separate legal documents show Dre Health Corporation retained $2m of the $3m paid by Mr Lyons and Berkley Equity, his BVI-domiciled corporate vehicle, but the British investor vehemently asserted that he “doesn’t owe these people a penny” and pledged: “I will prevail. I will win.”

He was also unaware that the US medical equipment supplier, after the Missouri federal court rejected its initial bid, had applied to the Bahamian Supreme Court for an Order freezing his assets until Tribune Business’ report yesterday. This, attempt, too, was shot down by Justice Franklyn Williams KC on the basis there was insufficient evidence to prove Mr Lyons was seeking to transfer, dispose of or hide assets that could pay-off the judgment.

Mr Lyons, who affirmed his US appeal is seeking to set aside the $232m award, blasted: “These people took my $3m deposit and they never produced the goods. I do not owe these people a penny. They have got a judgment against me and nothing could be further from the truth. We are appealing it in the eighth circuit court of appeals in the US.

“Nothing in the history of the world could be more unfair and more unjust. This is completely 100 percent wrong. I have had a whiter than white business reputation in my 59 years. I’ve lived in The Bahamas for more than 15 years, and have never had to deal with anything like this.”

Mr Lyons said he is far from the only person or entity to endure such problems in their dealings with Dre Health Corporation as he accused the firm of leaving “a trail of destruction behind them”. He again questioned how it was “humanly possible” that most of his deposit was retained for goods never received, yet the US federal courts have turned around and awarded the medical equipment supplier $232m.

“I have been screwed, plain and simple, by the [US] legal system and I am going to win,” Mr Lyons promised, revealing he was blindsided by Dre Health Corporation’s bid to obtain a freeze over his assets in The Bahamas and was only made aware of it by Tribune Business.

Pointing out that it had sought a similar injunction in the Missouri federal court, only for the application to be dismissed, the Bahamas-based investor said Dre Health Corporation’s application had focused on a $59.5m Old Fort Bay residence, Jungle Cove, which he sold in 2021 before their dispute erupted and has not been part of his assets for five years.

“It was no secret that I sold it five years ago to a guy called Eric Pike of Pike Electrical,” Mr Lyons added, revealing the buyer to be the recently-departed head of Bahamas Grid Company’s management firm. “I’ve never met him, spoken to him or seen him. Dre are trying to manufacture a story that I am trying to dissipate my assets.”

Mr Lyons said the COVID-19 mask deal with Dre Health Corporation has its origins in a Miami medical exhibition held five years ago in August 2021. He added that himself and Berkley Equity agreed a deal where the medical equipment supplier agreed to deliver the ordered masks “in 14 days”.

“To this day I have not received one mask,” he blasted. “I ordered five million boxes of masks per week and have never had one mask; not one. These people never had the production capacity. I did nothing wrong here. I got ripped off for $3m by these guys in Kansas. It should never have happened.”

Recalling the two-week trial he endured in the western Missouri federal court, Mr Lyons said he found it “absolutely shocking” that a judge would subsequently completely overturn the jury verdict in favour of himself and Berkley Equity.

“I got dragged to court and would rather have spent two weeks in Chernobyl than Kansas,” he told Tribune Business. “The jury unanimously, completely acquitted me and here I am dealing 18 months later with a $232m judgment.

“It is an absolutely thoroughly disgraceful act of the US legal system. I will prevail, I will win and every single person who has brought this pain to my life will pay. How can a $3m deposit, never returned, turn into a $232m judgment against me? There are no persons I owe a penny to in the world.”

Mr Lyons, though, said “thank God for the judge in The Bahamas” in response to Justice Williams’ rejection of Dre Health Corporation’s asset freeze bid, which was made with no notice to himself and only the medical equipment supplier’s attorneys, Peter Maynard & Company, present.

“I don’t know who the judge is,” he added. “I didn’t know anything about this. I did not know they had gone to court. It’s outrageous. I have nothing to hide. I have been screwed by the Missouri and US legal system. I am not letting this go… They [Dre] have taken $3m. They admit to a breach of contract, they admit to never having the production facility and here we are, five years later, with a $232m judgment. It’s insane. This has ruined my life.”

Mr Lyons spoke out over concerns that the original Tribune Business article, which was based on court judgments and documents, had given an incomplete and “biased” impression of his battle with Dre Health Corporation.

“Berkley Equity, owned by Anthony Lyons, agreed to purchase $196m of COVID-19 face masks from Dre,” the Bahamas-based investor’s appeal asserts. “Dre misrepresented that it possessed the facilities, personnel and capacity to supply them.

“Berkley paid a $3m deposit under an agreement requiring timely satisfactory delivery, inspection and documentation. Dre did not timely deliver the promised product or required documents. The parties memorialised Dre’s default in an addendum, which extended its time to perform and required it to pay Berkley $1.5m. Dre paid only $1m and then sued Berkley for the remaining price and more than $169m in damages.”

During their protracted four-year legal battle, the western Missouri federal court initially awarded Dre Health Corporation some $14.4m for breach of contract while rejecting its allegations of “misrepresentation” by Mr Lyons and Berkley Equity. However, this was followed by “a ten-day trial [that] ended in a unanimous jury verdict awarding no contract damages” against the Bahamas-based investor and his firm.

Yet the western Missouri court “14 months later…replaced that verdict with a $232m judgment, conditionally ordered a new contract damages trial, ordered a new tort trial and imposed liability personally on Mr Lyons”.

The Bahamas-based investor, in his appeal, is arguing: “This was error. This court should reinstate the original judgment or, at minimum, order a complete new trial, reverse the personal liability order and reassign the case to a new district judge.”

Detailing the background to the dispute, Mr Lyons and Berkley stated: “On September 2, 2021, Dre and Berkley signed a sale and purchase agreement identifying Dre as producer and Berkley as buyer. The SPA contemplated an initial order of five million boxes of blue masks and one million boxes of black masks, with 50 masks in each box, followed by recurring weekly purchases in quantities measured in millions of boxes.

“Berkley agreed to make an initial deposit of $3m, and Dre agreed to begin production on confirmation of that deposit. The agreement required ‘satisfactory delivery’ of five million boxes within ten business days after the deposit and made an additional deposit due only after that delivery.

“It also required invoices, packing lists, shipping information and inspection or video evidence before specified payments, and it allowed Berkley to terminate and obtain return of its deposit if Dre breached or failed to deliver.”

While “Mr Lyons personally supplied the $3m Berkley wired to Dre on September 3, 2021, Berkley then had no executed end-buyer contract, no end-buyer funds in escrow, and ‘zero assets’” and the two parties “disputed their pre-contract representations”.

“Dre maintained that Berkley represented it had committed buyers, escrowed funds, and the ability to pay, which Mr Lyons denied, while Berkley alleged that Mr. Bawany [Dre’s principal] represented that Dre had the facilities, personnel, materials and financing to fill the order,” the court document reveal.

However, Mr Lyons and Berkley Equity are arguing that Dre did not challenge evidence by two of its former employees who asserted that it “did not actually have facilities capable of filling an order of this size, planned to import masks from China and box them in California, and needed to increase its capacity”.

The deal allegedly foundered over production and delivery delays. “Dre maintained that Berkley’s refusal to pay for available product caused a cash shortage that prevented further production,” court filings allege. “Berkley maintained that Dre’s admitted default, incomplete documents, deficient inspection and inability to produce the agreed volume excused further payment…

“Berkley never paid for or took delivery of the imported or boxed masks, no end buyer paid Berkley for them, and Berkley delivered no product under the one end buyer agreement it ultimately executed.”