In a press statement yesterday, Mr Lindroth pointed out that he was born in Sweden in 1948 – three years after the end of the Second World War.
And he revealed that his father, Arne, served in the Swedish Army during the war, spending the years 1939-45 in Sweden.
The statement followed publication in The Tribune yesterday of comments made by Mr Smith in the House of Assembly, when he linked Mr Lindroth with Hitler’s masterrace ideas and the Hitler Youth movement.
Mr Smith also accused Mr Lindroth of using “Gestapo tactics” and of having racist attitudes.
In his response, Mr Lindroth said he was born in Sweden in 1948 and arrived in the Bahamas in 1952 at the age of four where he attended St Andrew’s School.
He was graduated from the London School of Economics in 1970 and is a permanent resident of the Bahamas, where he runs Lindroth Development Company. He holds dual Canadian and Swedish citizenship.
His father, Mr Arne Lindroth, was born in Sweden in 1908 and died in 1987. He served in the Swedish Army during the Second World War and spent the years 1939-45 in Sweden. “Arne Lindroth arrived in the
Bahamas in 1951 where he headed Bank of Bahamas and Andros Bahamas Development Company for Axel Wenner-Gren. He developed the Lighthouse Club and Andros Yacht Club at Fresh Creek (Andros Town).
“He subsequently developed Paradise Beach and the Ocean Club while president of Huntington Hartford’s Beachhead Development Company. He also managed various offshore investments for Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Mr Arne Lindroth retired to Europe in 1969.”
Mr Lindroth said Axel Wenner-Gren founded the Electro-Lux Group of companies and arrived in Nassau on his yacht, the Southern Cross, in 1939.
By then Wenner-Gren had retired from active business and wrote a book, Call to Reason, which was critical of Nazism, he said.
“On his way to the Bahamas he rescued hundreds of survivors from the SS Athenia, a passenger ship which had been torpedoed by the Germans in September, 1939, in the North Atlantic.
“He founded Wenner-Gren Foundation, a renowned social sciences foundation in New York, and Wenner-Gren Centre and Wenner-Gren Institute, both in Stockholm. In 1960, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Weizmann Institute in Israel.”
Mr Lindroth also outlined his links with New Providence Development Company, which also featured in Mr Smith’s parliamentary attack.
“Orjan Lindroth has no connection to the Charlotteville project. Lindroth Development Co created a master plan for the New Providence Development Company which sold the land to New Dimension Properties Ltd, a licensed mutual fund which is administered by Winterbotham Trust.
“I am told that Dale Bronstein is the managing developer for New Dimension and is one of many shareholders. I am also told that Mr Peter Bascom, who is a Bahamian, is the project engineer for Charlotteville.
“Further, Mr Bascom advises that he met with Kean Smith, brother of Keod Smith, as mentioned in the affidavit referred to by Keod Smith in his personal attacks on me and my family.”
Source: οΎ The Tribune
