A long-running, nasty but otherwise frivolous legal feud between two Bahamas billionaires has turned deadly serious.
Fashion tycoon Peter Nygard has been accused by his neighbor, New York hedge fund mogul Louis Bacon, of hiring two convicted criminals to kill him, court papers claim.
Nygard hired Livingston “Toggie” Bullard and Wisler “Bobo” Davilma to whack Bacon and others opposed to the apparel executive’s plans to expand his Lyford Cay compound, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Bahamian court.
Nygard’s wrath was directed at Save the Bays, a nonprofit organization committed to preserving the marine environments of Nassau’s Clifton Bay, court papers allege.
Nygard and Bacon have abutting estates on the bay.
The suit, filed against the Canadian fashion mogul and his lawyer, was filed by Bacon, a director of the nonprofit, three other board members and a pastor.
The five claim Nygard was behind a gang assault of one director on a beach and the orchestration of “rent-a-crowd” hate rallies to smear Bacon as a racist.
Also, Nygard paid individuals to fire-bomb the pastor’s car, the suit claims. Bullard, in a sworn statement, admitted to setting the car on fire and getting $20,000 from Nygard.
Most serious, though, are accusations that Nygard entered into discussions with Bullard and Davilma to kill Bacon and other perceived adversaries.
“He [said] if we kill Louis Bacon he’ll build us two house[s],” Bullard said in a deposition, speaking of him and Davilma.
In a separate deposition given earlier this year, Bullard’s partner in crime, Davilma, said that at the time the sworn testimony was given Nygard’s contract on Bacon was still open.
For finishing the hit list, Nygard promised to pay an unspecified but “huge, huge amount,” Davilma said in the deposition.
A spokesman for Nygard denied the allegations.
“There is evidence that these convicted criminals were paid millions of dollars by Louis Bacon and/or his operatives in exchange for this false testimony,” the spokesman said. “There’s also evidence that these convicted criminals offered to recant their false testimony if Mr. Nygard paid them a significant amount of money.”
Bullard and Davilma started cooperating with the nonprofit’s probe into Nygard’s alleged actions a year ago in return for protection and compensation for their families, sources said.
As paid whistleblowers, they helped covertly record audio and video of five meetings with Nygard, transcripts of which are included in 400 pages of exhibits filed with the suit.
The suit extends years of litigation between Bacon and Nygard — not only in the Bahamas but in New York and California.
The all-out legal battle started innocently enough when Nygard sought to repair the damaged driveway the two share.
Since, Bacon accused Nygard of running a mini-brothel and Nygard accused Bacon of trying to float $67,000 worth of cocaine up on his property.
When a suspicious 2009 fire destroyed much of Nygard’s estate, Bacon claimed his neighbor accused him of settling the blaze.