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Sandals Documents

Office of the Contractor General Writes to Prime Minister to Recommend Halt of Sale of Sandals Whitehouse Hotel to Gorstew Limited Kingston; January 19, 2011; The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has today written to Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding, and to the Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer in the Office of the…

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Sandals Butch Stewart
Sandals Butch Stewart

Office of the Contractor General Writes to Prime Minister to Recommend Halt of Sale of Sandals Whitehouse Hotel to Gorstew Limited
Kingston; January 19, 2011; The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has today written to Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding, and to the Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer in the Office of the Prime Minister, Ms.Onika Miller, to formally recommend that urgent steps be taken to halt the Administration’s proposed sale of the Sandals Whitehouse Hotel to the Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart owned and controlled Gorstew Limited. The OCG has also recommended that the Government should, thereafter, re-start the divestment process, and subject same to the transparent and structured scrutiny and supervision of the OCG…read more.

OCG Questions Legitimacy of and Motive for Gorstew’s Sandals Whitehouse Court Challenge
Kingston; September 10, 2012 – The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has taken note of a story which appeared in yesterday’s Jamaica Sunday Observer newspaper which is entitled: ‘OCG has no power to probe Sandals Whitehouse’. The story asserts that Gorstew Limited, which is owned by the Hon. Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, OJ, has filed an Application in the Supreme Court to challenge the powers of the Contractor General to investigate the circumstances which led to the Government’s sale of the Sandals Whitehouse Hotel to Gorstew Limited in early 2011…read more.

26 responses to “Sandals Documents”

  1. Back in Time Jack Avatar
    Back in Time Jack

    Humm…………..history is the best predictor of the future.

  2. ac Avatar
    ac

    in that case ,,history has already been a predictor for butch with much success! and some in the hotel business can benefit just by learning observing understanding how many of butch business plans have worked in his favour ….

  3. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    I can’t shake the feeling that this Government only got In bed with Sandals after it learned that Sandals had to pay $12 million to settle a case of corruption in Turks & Caicos.

    Jack

    You are so right History is a predictor of future action.

  4. Back in Time Jack Avatar
    Back in Time Jack

    Caswell

    Are you saying the $12 million payout for corruption was like offering cake to the hungry?

  5. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    AC you are extremely SICK in the head!

  6. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Jack

    I am suggesting that if Sandals bribes government here like they did in Turks & Caicos, they might not be caught. It is easier to bribe local officials and there would be no repercussions.

    >

  7. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    How ever you look at it….to ….

    -buy an abandoned hotel for $100M
    -Pay to knock it down
    – BORROW FOREX
    -Build it back for $500M to a stranger’s specifications
    -GIVE it to a foreigner who pissed on Paradise beach
    -GIVE that foreigner every possible tax exemption

    Only makes sense if there is an unknown agenda.
    Wuh…
    Not even a brass bowl would be so foolish.

  8. David Avatar
    David

    <

    p>OCG questions legitimacy of and motive for Gorstew’s Sandals Whitehouse court challenge

    <

    p>
    Office of the Contractor General of Jamaica | 2012-09-10 00:00:00

    <

    p>The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has taken note of a story which appeared in yesterday’s Jamaica Sunday Observer newspaper which is entitled: ‘OCG has no power to probe Sandals Whitehouse’. The story asserts that Gorstew Limited, which is owned by the Hon. Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, OJ, has filed an Application in the Supreme Court to challenge the powers of the Contractor General to investigate the circumstances which led to the Government’s sale of the Sandals Whitehouse Hotel to Gorstew Limited in early 2011.

    <

    p>Gorstew’s Court Action, the timing of the Action, the reasons which have been advanced by Gorstew for same, and certain germane facts which are unknown to the public, have raised significant concerns for the OCG and have brought the legitimacy of the Application and the motive for same into question.

    <

    p>http://go-jamaica.com/pressrelease/item.php?id=1054

  9. ac Avatar
    ac

    talk about clutching at straws to build a brick house

  10. David Avatar
    David

    ATL case: big money, big names

    Sunday, May 05, 2013
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    THE highly anticipated trial of three former Appliance Traders Limited (ATL) executives charged with conspiracy to defraud the group’s pension fund and Gorstew Ltd got underway last Monday in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew.

    Patrick Lynch, former chairman of the ATL Pension Fund; Dr Jeffrey Pyne, former managing director of Gorstew Ltd, the holding company for chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s companies; and Catherine Barber, former general manager of the ATL Pension Fund, are being tried on a 16-count indictment before Resident Magistrate Lorna Shelly Williams.

    The three are accused of conspiring to have over $1.5 billion distributed from the surplus in the pension fund to workers and, in so doing, they allegedly benefited from the distribution, using forged documents to defraud the pension fund.

    It is further alleged that the distribution was done without the approval of Gorstew Ltd. They were arrested in April 2011.

    The case features some of Jamaica’s top legal names and led a court orderly to comment: “It’s the first time that this court is seeing so many high-profile lawyers at one time.”

    On Monday, the three pleaded not guilty to the charges, clearing the way for the marshalling of evidence by Gayle Nelson who, along with R N A Henriques, QC, Raymond Clough and Garth McBean appear for the Crown on a fiat.

    Lynch is represented by Queen’s Counsel Frank Phipps and his daughter Katherine; KD Knight, QC, John Junor and Matthieu Beckford appear for Pyne; and Barber is being represented by Deborah Martin and Valerie Neita-Robertson.

    The case, after only a week of trial, also drew attention for the unprecedented publishing by the Jamaica Observer of a news report of the case run in The Gleaner newspaper, side-by-side with that of the Observer, demonstrating that there was apparent bias against Stewart who is also chairman of the Observer.

    http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/ATL-Pension-fraud-case–big-money–big-names_14205480

  11. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    I have to ask YET AGAIN whether our Government performs any or adequate due dilligence before it agrees to granting unprecendented concessions. The quote in the Barbados Advocate today ‘Sinckler also stated that the hotels presently enjoy 90 per cent of all the concessions that Sandals is obtaining’ is absolute nonsense. 90 per cent of value or quantity?

  12. David Avatar
    David

    BU finds it amazing that the Jamaica media has been covering this matter but in little old Barbados their counterpart has shown litttle interest.

  13. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    Sorry, unprecedented…

  14. Nostradamus Avatar
    Nostradamus

    @ David
    “…..in little old Barbados their counterpart has shown little interest.”

    Don’t you know the Nation is celebrating 40 years of something or the other so they don’t have time to cover or inform their readership with reports and stories of any importance.

    Just like the Police being busy wasting time and taxpayers money with some foolish investigation of something said in Parliament and reported by a journalist and not dealing with the real crime etc that they should be.

  15. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    AC……..is walking around WITHOUT A HEAD.

  16. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    Besides, these local Bajan politicians are so careless that sooner or later they will slip up and Butch Steward will sue them up the WAZOO…..the Myrie case and the CJJ easily comes to mind.

  17. Triangle Bangle Avatar
    Triangle Bangle

    David
    Bizzy said um was Mark Maloney of Preconco who bring Butch and Sandals to Barbados. Wunna gots to done know the plan for Almond (Sandals) Heywoods………………………………..them only use Sandals as the front to put a lash in and lick the feet from underPolly Doyle at Crane. You feel dem does mak joke, that Heywoods land is for the 3rd private marina from Bjerkham, Maloney & Tempro.

    Stay tune folkes. I hear a politician say the ‘good’ can tief money but the ‘pros’ does tief money and land.

  18. ac Avatar
    ac

    Looks like butch stewart gonna wunna yardfowls damm nervous and f..ing crazy……

  19. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    David

    This is the best Sandals post ever.

    You, or your source, are to be commended for your due diligence that dug up these documents.

    Secret meetings, secret commissions, misappropriation of pension fund surpluses, improprieties, irregularities

    Corruption is not a Jamaican thing, but it certainly appears to be the Gorstew way of doing business.

    Of course, these allegations and the T&C settlement are not proof of similar behavior in Barbados.

    BUT – DEMS may have got demselves in a stew by getting in bed with Gorstew – “Butch” to come up with a quick fix.

    So, just in case; where is the Barbados Independent Anti-Corruption Commission with mandate to monitor and investigate the award of Government contracts to ensure they are awarded in the national interest impartially and on merit, and in circumstances which do not involve impropriety or irregularity.

    On another Sandals matter I see in the media that according to Acting Minister of Tourism, Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner additional airlift out of Canada may be on the horizon for Barbados.

    “We are going to see an increase in airlift because of the Sandals advent. So Sandals and an airline are negotiating to ensure that the traffic from Canada is increased and that is welcomed news for us,” she said.

    Sandals is currently operating a 280 room plant at Casuarina.

    Assuming that Canada would be the source market for 30% of those rooms at Casuarina, and assuming the guests (2 to a room) all stay for 1 week, they would require 168 airplane seats per week (84 X2). But they will not all arrive the same day, so there would be need for a maximum of 50-60 seats per day.

    The Casuarina property is included in the Sandals website; but to date DD has seen no newspaper or television promotion in Canada. So expecting 168 Sandals vacationers to choose Barbados over St. Lucia, Grenada, Antigua, T&C etc, which are heavily advertised is certainly a big stretch.

    There is no way Air Canada or WestJet will ad seats to accommodate a potential of 84 guest per week for Sandals.

    BTW, it seems the MOT is MIA. Anybody know his whereabouts?

  20. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    DD-
    its a point I have beeen trying to get across. Almond Casuarina, Couples and now Sandals has 280 rooms. There has been no increase in room stock, so any additional airlift will currently deplete existing loadings. To make up for lost airlift during the last year we need an additional 60,000 seats, which climbs to 80,000 from 16th January, when we lose the American Airlines JFK flight. The acting MOT stated in the Advocate today ‘that arrivals are up over the same period last year’. This is simply not true when you compare long stay visitors which are in fact more than 27,000 down (until end of November). This on top of the 36,000 plus less long stay visitors in 2011.
    You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time.

  21. ac Avatar
    ac

    There is nothing secret about what david has posted .moreover than not when this subject was brought up on BU against the purchase of la source grenda by butch david and others were “then” touting Butch stewart as the “greatest saviour” for grenada tourism albeit that said information by others when brought to the attention on bU was castigated and poo- pooed. there is nothing new about this info the only difference is the way it is used against a different backdrop as scrotched earth by BU and yardfowl

  22. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    Could it be that the Acting MOT is in over her head?

  23. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    AC

    Butch was advertising La Source in Toronto media for three months before it opened in December, and continues to advertise weekly.

    So far no ads for Sandals Barbados in Toronto.

    Is he waiting for BTA to step up and pay for the ads?

  24. ac Avatar
    ac

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2535929/Rum-turtle-hatchlings-hotel-luxury-included-bountiful-Barbados.html

    first class promotion

  25. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    The irony of it. The day after American Airlines pull their direct service to Barbados from New York, JFK airport report record numbers of passengers for 2013. Over 50 million people, of which 26 million were overseas passengers.

  26. A Peak at Local T&T Investment | Barbados Underground

    […] in media reports that Sandals bought the Casuarina Hotel but did it?  SRI/Gorstew (see – Sandals Documents) being privately owned by “Butch” do not disclose financial information.  Comments like “the […]

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