A firm that collaborated with Genting on Resorts World Bimini in the Bahamas has claimed that the Malaysian casino giant is using “fraudulent accounting practices,” which have burdened the project with “hundreds of millions of dollars of illegitimate debt.”
A civil lawsuit submitted on Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Genting’s US branch, Genting Americas, alleges that Resorts World Bimini has turned into a “financial wasteland” allowing the company to conceal a “variety of fraudulent activities.”
According to the lawsuit, this encompasses "the artificial inflation of profits and valuations of Genting subsidiaries and other affiliates, as well as the manipulation of debt-to-equity ratios for its projects both in the US and internationally."
Holiday Spot
The complainant in the case is RAV Bahamas, a business owned by the Capo family from Florida. In the late 1990s, RAV acquired more than 700 acres of land on the island of Bimini, in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, located approximately 45 miles from Florida's coast.
The lawsuit states that the intention was to create a holiday spot for Floridians “teeming with residences, hotels, and dining options, all surrounded by Bimini’s white-sand-emerald shores.”
Starting in 2002, RAV commenced development on the northernmost section of North Bimini, and by 2011 had completed the Bimini Bay resort, which consists of villas, marinas, and leisure spaces.
In 2012, Genting persuaded RAV to collaborate on a casino project aimed at enhancing the Bimini Bay Resort. RAV consented to establish a company with Genting, BB Entertainment, which would possess and advance the project, and it conveyed more than 20 acres of land to the new organization, according to the agreement.
Resorts World Genting officially began operations in 2013. Currently, the island resort features a 10,000 square-foot casino, a hotel with 305 rooms, along with nearby restaurants, lounges, and a jetty for docking cruise ships.
Enigmatic Liability
However, RAV asserts that it has never earned a single cent in profits from the project since Genting Americas manages BBE’s finances, and the firm is more than $885 million in debt. To provide context, on December 31, 2022, BBE’s debts exceeded the total liabilities of Genting Malaysia and its roughly 150 subsidiaries.
“Only a massive and coordinated fraud could dump nearly a billion dollars of debt on a small island resort, where RAV had already developed most of the significant infrastructure,” argues the lawsuit, which asks for $600 million in damages.
"Genting Americas buried the nearly billion-dollar liabilities in consolidated statements using vague categories of expenses to conceal the fraud from RAV,” it continues. “Genting Americas, at every turn, has deliberately kneecapped RAV’s efforts to obtain clarity into the financials, including denying RAV full access to BBE’s financial records, and denying its requests for an independent audit.”
RAV asserts that Genting utilizes an extensive and “intentionally confusing” network of subsidiaries that “offer or claim to offer” services to its resorts.
“Genting Group’s opaque corporate structure, comprised of layer-upon-layer of subsidiaries, helps Genting Americas to conceal its financial improprieties and obfuscate its fraud,” claims the lawsuit.
At the time of publication, Casino.org had not received a response from Genting Americas regarding their request for comment.
