NASSAU, Bahamas — The Bahamas Government has paid “several million dollars” to a private developer to “bring order out of chaos” and secure the homes of several hundred families who were swindled in a massive land scam, The Tribune, one of The Bahamas’ leading newspapers, reported on Monday, January 4, 2021, in an article written by Business Editor Neil Hartnell.
Attorney General Carl Bethel QC confirmed to Tribune Business that the Government has purchased more than 250 lots from Arawak Homes in the Sir Lynden Pindling Estates area as a means to safeguard persons who — rather than acquiring their properties from the developer — had purchased them from unscrupulous fraudsters who did not have title to the land they were selling.
Disclosing that the Government is seeking to bring closure to the fall-out from a three-decade fraud that has impacted hundreds of lives, and cost millions of dollars in legal fees and other costs while leaving many unsuspecting Bahamians out-of-pocket, Mr Bethel said it had hired a surveyor to ensure what exists on the ground matches approved plans for the area’s development.
“The Government purchased all lots on which there were homes or parts of houses,” he explained of the settlement mechanism agreed with Arawak Homes. “We’re trying to bring order out of chaos, and it’s a long and fraught process.”
Asked how much the Government paid to acquire the lots, Mr Bethel replied: “I would only say several million. It was several good million, but less than $20m. I really don’t want to put a figure on it, but it was around $9m or so to the best of my recollection. The money is to be paid over time.”
The attorney general warned, though, that final resolution was facing “some delays” that had forced the Government to hire a land surveyor to determine whether what exists on the ground in Sir Lynden Pindling Estates today — in terms of the lots acquired from Arawak Homes — conforms to the so-called “Pinewood plan” that was approved to guide the area’s development. He said the survey would be completed this year.
With the Government paying for the lots upon which homeowners have effectively built illegally, given that they did not purchase from Arawak Homes as the land’s rightful owner, The Attorney General’s Office issued a notice just before the New Year urging those impacted to provide it with more information “in order to regularise property title issues” for those impacted. See full story in The Tribune at http://www.tribune242.com/news/2021/jan/04/govt-pays-millions-solve-land-scam/
