‘Worst deal in history’ to give Gov’t $78m in 2023

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

NASSAU Cruise Port yesterday estimated it will generate more than $78m for the Government during the 2023 calendar year after a Cabinet minister blasted the project as “the worst deal in Bahamian history”.

The Prince George Wharf operator, in a late afternoon statement, forecast that the Government will earn multiple millions more from cruise passenger activity than the sums given by Keith Bell, minister of labour and Immigration, during his presentation in the 2023-2024 Budget debate.

The House of Assembly was treated to a situation where Mr Bell, in seeking to portray the Minnis administration as having given the cruise port away for next to nothing, attacked an agreement the very Cabinet of

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FTX chief: I’ll tie US up in Bahamas ‘for years’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FTX’s founder has warned he will use the Bahamian judicial system to block efforts to bring additional fraud, bribery and corruption-related charges against him “for years” by going all the way to the UK-based Privy Council.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the embattled crypto exchange chief, warned US prosecutors in Tuesday filings in New York that he “intends to pursue” his legal rights all the way through the Bahamian judicial network to the system’s highest court in a bid to slash the charges against him by almost half.

Noting that this process, and the multiple hearings it will require, will take “potentially months

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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Wendy’s and Marco’s Pizza operator last night asserted it has not abandoned its Paradise Island ambitions despite the planning appeals board overturning the approvals previously granted for the former Scotiabank site.

Gail Lockhart-Charles KC, attorney for the Aetos Holdings affiliate behind the restaurant “change of use” application, told Tribune Business the decision had merely “delayed” her clients plans as it now requires them to go back before the Town Planning Committee for a full public hearing.

She argued that the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, in yesterday’s verdict, had overturned the preliminary “change of use” approval from the Town Planning Committee on a “technicality”. Pointing out that the Wendy’s/Marco’s Pizza application was heard in March 2022, when COVID restrictions were still in effect, she said the earlier permission was set aside due to Town Planning’s failure to hold a public hearing or carry out adequate public consultation.

Mrs Lockhart-Charles, in a statement sent to this newspaper, said Aetos Holdings and its principals, Chris and Terry Tsavoussis,