Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Leslie Miller on Thursday again defended three investors he said were the victims of a “vicious” attack launched in the House of Assembly recently by Member of Parliament for Mount Moriah Keod Smith.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Smith went on the defensive in the House of Assembly after he said Minister Miller intimated that he was indecent.
It came after the minister apologized to the investors for the stinging attack Mr. Smith had launched on them during an earlier sitting of the House.
On Thursday, Minister Miller said that Mr. Smithﾴs attack pained the investors and he said the wife of one of the investors was so hurt by what the Mount Moriah MP had to say, she left The Bahamas, promising never to return.
“It bothered me as a Bahamian,” Minister Miller told The Bahama Journal.
The investors in question are Dale Bronstein, Orajan Lindroth, and another identified only as Mr. Uolla. Mr. Smith accused them of causing the social and professional demise of many Bahamians “through lies, defamatory innuendos and high-handed vicious trickery which is foreign to our way of life in The Bahamas.”
Mr. Smith also accused Mr. Lindroth of using Gestapo tactics in his actions and activities on behalf of the New Providence Development Company, a company which he runs, which is reportedly owned by Jewish billionaire, Joe Lewis, a British national who is a homeowner in Lyford Cay.
On Wednesday night, Minister Miller indicated that he was disheartened by the attack. He said he has known Mr. Lindroth for 30 years and considers him “a gentleman and a friend.”
“Apparently, I was not present when this incident took place, but [it was] an unfortunate attack, in my opinion, on a good gentleman by the name of Mr. Lindroth, whoﾴs a friend of mine,” the minister said.
“Mr. Bronstein happens to be a Canadian of Jewish extraction, who was called certain names, Mr. Speaker, and another gentleman named Mr. Uolla, who are three major investors in The Bahamas.
“It appears to me that the attack that was launched on them was most unfortunate to three investors of great means in The Bahamas.”
Minister Miller said he was speaking on behalf of all “decent, fair-minded Bahamians” when he said it was unfortunate that the attack was launched.
It was at that point that Mr. Smith rose to his feet and said, “I will not allow the honourable member to speak on such matters about me. Is he suggesting that Iﾴm not decent? Mr. Speaker, the honourable member needs to withdraw that statement now. Mr. Speaker, call on the honourable member to withdraw that statement now.”
In response, Minister Miller said, “All I said is all fair-minded Bahamians. I wasnﾴt alluding to the member and if he took it differently, I apologize.”
He never withdrew the statement.
When he contributed to debate on the Speech from the Throne on February 22, Mr. Smith drew attention to three articles appearing in The Punch tabloid during the first three weeks in January.
He said the focus of the articles was an affidavit sworn by Mr. Bronstein on August 18, 2005 and filed in a particular action before the Supreme Court.
Mr. Smith, an attorney, explained that one of his clients sued a company named West Island Properties Limited, owned and operated by Mr. Bronstein and Mr. Lindroth, who is reportedly a citizen of Sweden, although Minister Miller said on Thursday he has been in The Bahamas since he was a boy.
While launching his attack, Mr. Smith explained that the matter before the court arose from an arbitration in which his client successfully sued West Island Properties Limited for a 17-month delay in completing a $1.36 million house.
As directors of the company, Mr. Bronstein and Mr. Lindroth refused to pay the $374,000 judgment delivered by the arbitrators, Mr. Smith claimed.
“As a result, my client sought to enforce that judgment through the Supreme Court,” Mr. Smith said.
“During these proceedings, we uncovered that the company owned by these foreigners and doing business with Bahamians, was nothing more than a shell company with no assets or money capable [of] paying the judgment.”
He said that by virtue of engaging in the arbitration process, Mr. Bronstein and Mr. Lindroth, as directors of West Island Properties Ltd., had given the impression that the company had the capacity to pay.
“They made a mockery of the process in that they disrespected the possible result which the rule of law of this land could have yielded,” Mr. Smith said. “This left us to pursue certain enforcement measures against directors Bronstein and Lindroth in their personal capacities as is allowed by the rules of the Supreme Court.”
The Mount Moriah MP then told House Members that during those proceedings, the Bronstein affidavit made certain allegations advanced by both investors, which “fabricated information; created fictitious people; dubiously misled the court; and on the face of it, had absolutely no relevance to the Supreme Court proceedings for which we were appearing.”
He went on to say that on application by his law firm on October 3, 2005, the court struck down the Bronstein affidavit.
In doing so, he said, the court, among other things, considered the affidavit sworn on November 2, 2005 by Kean Smith (Mr. Smithﾴs brother, who is a partner in his law firm).
“The Smith affidavit not only dispelled each allegation made by the Bronstein affidavit, it also showed that the person who Mr. Bronstein and Mr. Lindroth had accused my brother of approaching for business, was someone going by the name of Peter Bascur. But he was actually fictitious,” Mr. Smith said.
He added, “All indication is that [these investors] were and are dedicated to raping Bahamians of their birthright while siphoning our economic wealth, the foundation of which was created by generations of Bahamians who toiled, struggled and suffered.”
Mr. Smith said he was satisfied that a “brazen strategy” of “slinging truth” while smearing with defamatory innuendo was authored and implemented by Mr. Lindroth who “simply used Mr. Bronstein, his cohort and sidekick, to depose the Bronstein affidavit”.
“You see, Mr. Lindorth has a long history in The Bahamas of employing these same tactics to destroy Bahamians, particularly those with African heritage or who are not purely European,” he claimed.
On the day he launched the attack, the Mount Moriah MP told House Members that Mr. Lindroth is the son of Arne Lindroth, “reportedly the World War II finance manager of Swedish industrialist, Axel Wenner-Gren, owner of Paradise Island during that time and a suspected money-launderer of more than $100 million of Nazi money derived from the spoils of war and the possessions of those who perished in the Jewish holocaust.”
On Thursday, Minister Miller told The Bahama Journal that it was unfair of Mr. Smith to make such statements and he reiterated that all fair-minded Bahamians cannot support them.
This is not the first time that Minister Miller and Mr. Smith, who are on the same political team, have locked horns. In the past, they have faced off over proposed liquefied natural gas projects, as Minister Miller is the minister under whose portfolio such projects would fall.
Mr. Smith is the Chairman of the Bahamas Environment Science and Technology Commission (BEST) and ambassador for the environment.
By Candy Dames, Bahama Journal
