Izmirlian family prevails in case finding that CCA fraudulently thwarted the Baha Mar project opening to serve its own interests

BML Properties Ltd. has been awarded over $1.6 billion against China Construction America in its long running New York lawsuit concerning the Baha Mar project, prevailing on all claims. The size of the verdict not only demonstrates the scale of the loss to the Izmirlian family but the extent of the wrongdoing by CCA. The decision once and for all sheds light on the true events of Baha Mar and how the unscrupulous actions of CCA, and the then Bahamian government, ousted Sarkis Izmirlian and the Baha Mar management team to the detriment of The Bahamas.

The honorable Justice Borrok ruled that CCA, the U.S. business unit of China State Construction Engineering Corporation – China’s largest construction group, defrauded BML Properties as well as breached the parties’ investment agreement, directly resulting in the complete loss of BML’s $845 million investment in Baha Mar.

Sarkis Izmirlian, Chair and CEO of BML Properties and the original developer of Baha Mar, said, “I first conceived of Baha Mar more than 20 years ago, only to see it ripped out of my hands at the brink of opening by CCA.” The evidence showed that rather than fulfilling its promise to have the resort ready for paying guests, CCA covertly used money to buy the British Colonial Hilton in Nassau rather than paying subcontractors, secretly cut hundreds of workers during the critical run-up to the Project’s grand opening, diverted resources and key personnel to Panama to start a new project rather than finish Baha Mar, intentionally slowed and stopped work on Baha Mar in attempts to extort exorbitant and illegitimate payments, and ultimately conspired with corrupt Bahamian government officials to oust BMLP, with catastrophic effects on Baha Mar.

The decision called CCA’s “empty, fraudulent” promise to achieve a March 27, 2015 opening date “phony” and “an absolute sham and shakedown of Mr. Izmirlian” who “at all times…acted commercially reasonably, honorably, and in the best interest of the Project.” Further, the court found that CCA’s actions caused “a liquidity crisis pushing BMLP out of its $845 million investment” and thus Baha Mar’s “Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June of 2015 was a foreseeable and natural consequence of the Defendants’ actions.”

“We are grateful to have finally had our day in the US judicial system and thank Justice Borrok for his fair and thoughtful approach to the case,” said Izmirlian, “and we intend to proceed with the enforcement of the judgment in an equally thoughtful and prudent manner.”

Case: BML Properties Ltd. v China Construction America, Inc., Supreme Court of the State of New York, Index No. 657550/2017 (Andrew S Borrok, J.S.C.)

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