Serial fraudster Allan May was arrested Saturday, almost three months after a warrant was issued for his arrest by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
Mr May was one of the people involved in a smear campaign against Canadian garment manufacturer Peter Nygard allegedly orchestrated by billionare hedge fund operator Louis Bacon.
An arrest warrant remains in effect for his wife, Michelle May, who police believe is hiding out in St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Mays, who once worked for Mr Nygard in the Bahamas, made headlines in Canada after making accusations against the fashion designer in an interview that appeared on a CBC Fifth Estate programme in April of last year.
Mr. Nygard has sued the CBC, Bacon and numerous other parties in relation the programmame, entitled “Larger The Life”.
St. Lucia police have labelled the Mays as “serial fraudsters”.
The Winnipeg Sun newspaper reported that the Mays were found in contempt of court last fall after failing to repay $189,000 to five investors following a civil fraud conviction in April 2009.
“According to police in St. Lucia, the couple has ‘a history of committing frauds in other Caribbean islands, leaving each jurisdiction for the next island when identified by law enforcement officials’,” the Sun reported recently.
The warrant provides for the Mays to be committed to prison for two weeks.
In November, 2010, Mrs. May was arrested and imprisoned in Antigua on a contempt of court charge and brought before the ECSC in Antigua which sent her to Saint Lucia where she was arrested again.
She was released on a technicality, and given until January 16, 2011 to comply with the order of the Court, or a fresh Committal Order and Arrest Warrant would be issued. She failed to comply and escaped the jurisdiction again.
Mr. Nygard has sued the CBC, Bacon and numerous other parties in relation the programmame, entitled “Larger The Life”.
Mr. Nygard’s actions have also led to direct criminal prosecution for defamatory libel of the CBC and the programme’s producers.
“The arrest is further evidence of the CBC building their tabloid story on fabricated information provided by Allan and Michelle May,” an England-based spokesman for Nygard International said told The Sun. “Nygard’s lawyers had provided the CBC pages of facts on the past fraudulent conduct of the Mays. In spite of this, CBC’s Fifth Estate chose to base 50 per cent of their tabloid-style story on false testimony from the Mays.”
An affidavit filed in the Supreme Court earlier this year, connected the documentary to some of Bacon’s Bahamian associates based on testimony from Alick Morrison, a former Scotland Yard detective turned security consultant/private investigator.
The affidavit also states that:
“Bacon apparently enlisted the support of the Lyford Cay Property Owners Association (LCPOA) and its general manager, Mary Braithwaite to attack Nygard.
“He has additionally engaged a prominent Bahamian lawyer, Pericles Maillis – who also represents LCPOA – to attack Nygard on various grounds. An investigation has revealed that CBC used corrupt and discredited sources for the purpose of an expose story. Those sources had the further aim of forcing Nygard out of The Bahamas,” said the court document.
