09112025 BUSINESS by tribune242

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FRONTING “deprives”

The Bahamas of muchneeded growth and development, an exCabinet minister blasted yesterday, adding that the practice is “thrown in your face” in some industries.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, former minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that such arrangements - where Bahamians act as the ‘front’ for foreign investors so the latter can secretly operate businesses in areas of the economy reserved solely for 100 percent local ownership - inevitably sucks all the proﬁts out of this nation as the overseas owners seek to make “the quickest buck”. This, he added, results in The Bahamas losing

monies that would otherwise be reinvested in the local economy to generate more jobs and boost living standards. Slamming ‘fronting’ as “a lazy way to circumvent the well-intentioned” National Investment Policy, Mr D’Aguilar said foreign investors are also less inclined to seek new growth and expansion opportunities within The Bahamas.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11,

Top funeral home among targets on tax auction drive

By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A TOP Bahamian funeral home was among the businesses and properties targeted for signage by the Department of Inland Revenue warning they were in danger of being auctioned off over tax delinquency.

Asserting that “there’s no doubt” the practice is retading The Bahamas’ growth and national development, the Superwash chief conceded that it has been a practice “from time immemorial” but told this newspaper: “Fronting is really a lazy way to circumvent a well-intentioned law (National Investment Policy).

Briland resort’s Board split on condo owner ‘oppression’ bid

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor

A TOP Harbour Island resort is enduring a Boardroom split amid an escalating dispute with its condominium owners who have obtained the Supreme Court’s permission to pursue a claim for “oppression”.

Sir Ian Winder, in a September 8, 2025, verdict found that Harbour Island Villas Phase I and Phase II Management Company,

which operates and manages the 41 condo units at Valentine’s Resort & Marina, has the necessary standing to initiate such action against the hotel’s ownership and Board over claims that “deducted” monies are not being used for their intended purpose. The condo owners are alleging that Valentine’s ownership and management allowed the resort’s Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) arrears to increase three-fold over the ﬁvemonth period to January

2024, rising from $36,055 to almost $142,000, despite collecting 85 percent of the bill from themselves via deductions from their share of the rental revenue generated by their units

They are further claiming that Valentine’s again failed to pay the BPL due for June 2024, with arrears hitting $90,011 as at September 1 last year. Resort management and ownership have also been accused of “skipping” monthly insurance premium payments on

policies covering the 41 condo units, beginning in November 2023, and failing to pay Harbour Island Villas’ $150,000 “contingency fund assessment”. Valentine’s ownership and management asserted that the $150,000 “assessment” was subsequently paid on January 3, 2025, but the condo owners also alleged that around $140,000 in contributions due to the Bahama Out Island Promotion Board

Nassau resident to pay $9.3m penalties over SEC’s lawsuit

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A NASSAU resident and founder of a Bahamasheadquartered investment ﬁrm yesterday agreed to pay $9.31m in penalties to settle claims he made “material misrepresentations” to investors.

Tomislav ‘Tom’ Vukota, who is alleged to have lived in the Bahamian capital since 2017, settled the lawsuit launched against himself and two of his investment management ﬁrms, one of which

is domiciled in The Bahamas, “without admitting or denying the allegations” by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) that he “received more than $6.9m of ill-gotten proceeds” due to his actions.

Research by Tribune Business showed that VCM Global Asset Management, the Bahamian-domiciled ﬁrm, lists its address as Suite 706 at the Albany Financial Centre located in south-western New Providence. Founded in 2010, its Linkedin page asserts that it “focuses on alternative

Restview Memorial Mortuary & Crematorium was among those initially targeted by the Bahamian tax authority’s power of sale enforcement, but the sign posted outside its property was later removed after its moved to resolve the tax arrears.

John Williams, the Department of Inland Revenue’s spokesman, conﬁrmed to Tribune Business that the signs were erected earlier this month as part

of the agency’s ongoing tax enforcement and compliance efforts against properties in arrears on real property tax payments.

“We spoke to the owner and they came in and made arrangements for their account, and subsequently the sign was removed by the department,” said Mr Williams. “Beginning September 1, we placed signs on that property and several others and, once property owners come in and make arrangements, then we would go ahead and remove the signs.”

The sign, placed outside Restview’s and other properties, warned they had been identiﬁed for possible power of sale action.

The Department of Inland Revenue began exercising its power of sale

‘Unpleasant news’: Resorts World staff warned to vacate

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BIMINI’S largest employer was yesterday urged to “step up to the plate” and ensure the 150200 staff members it has asked to move by month’s end ﬁnd adequate alternative accommodation. Omar Isaacs, the Free National Movement (FNM) candidate for West Grand Bahama and Bimini, called on Resorts World Bimini to safeguard the welfare of employees it has asked to leave resort-provided

dormitories by end-September in a move the hotel operator admitted “is not pleasant news” for those impacted.

The Opposition’s general election, asserting his belief that “the workers were not treated with respect”, said the reasons for Resorts World’s issuance of the vacation notice were “unclear” to both himself and staff. Given the lack of suitable alternatives on Bimini, due to a limited residential housing stock, he warned that the resort’s

Look before you leap in making your investment

When selecting a business investment, it is crucial to assess several key criteria to ensure you are making a sound decision. Unfortunately, some people venture into entrepreneurship without a clear vision or understanding and path of how to get there.

First, examine the relevant industry to ascertain its market trends and growth potential in addition to the business model. Determine whether it has a clear value proposition and a sustainable competitive advantage. Next, it is essential to analyse the ﬁnancial health of the targeted business or venture. Understanding metrics such as return on investment (ROI) and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITA) can aid in evaluating proﬁtability and risk.

Due diligence before investing

Consider the specific needs of the business. Does it require a significant capital infusion to scale operations, such as determining the amount of investment? This observation is important due to risk tolerance, and to ensure you do not endanger financial stability.

Additionally, when considering a business investment, it is crucial to evaluate the company’s ﬁt for your skill set. Ponder whether the business ﬁts your interests and expertise. Do research, and conduct a

DEIDRE BASTIAN

SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), which provides a clearer picture of the company’s position in the market.

Another significant concern or risk is financial instability. Some businesses often face cash flow issues, especially if they have poor financial management practices. By recognising these risks, you can develop strategies to minimise them, such as diversifying your investments.

Ultimately, investing in either large or small businesses can be a truly rewarding endeavour and succeed in a competitive market. However, before diving into a potential investment, here are some factors to consider:

Industry growth and competitiveness: Research the competitive landscape.

Establish whether the business can maintain a competitive edge and how it differentiates itself from rivals. A unique selling proposition (USP) is vital in a crowded market.

Assess market demand: Ensure the business offers products or services that people genuinely want

or need. Analyse market trends. Understand what products or services are in high demand and gather insights into consumer behaviour and preferences.

Evaluate scalability: A proﬁtable business should have the potential to grow and expand without incurring disproportionate costs.

Consider income stability: Look for businesses with steady and predictable sources of income, such as long-term contracts or recurrent business models. This stability helps resist market ﬂuctuations.

Examine proﬁtability: Predicted proﬁt margins, demand for the product or service, and market size are key indicators of profitability. Assess launch and running expenses, as well as the degree of competitiveness.

Diversify your investments: Do not put all your eggs in one basket so as to mitigate risk. As a ﬁnal point, do your homework. The more information you gather, the better your results will be.

In conclusion, choosing the right business to invest in is a thoughtful process that could result in a lucrative ﬁnancial gain and pave the way for future success. Stay engaged and monitor the company’s performance and other industry trends. Until we meet again, live life for memories rather than regrets. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game.

welcomes feedback at deedee21bastian@gmail.com

graphic designer/brand marketing analyst, international award-winning author and certiﬁed life coach.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE - BUT NOT A LOT FROM WSC

By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business

THE Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) yesterday warned customers in central and eastern New Providence that they may suffer reduced water pressure for 48 hours starting from yesterday.

Blaming weather-related disruptions for the newlyimplemented measures, WSC urged consumers to conserve water to ensure easier access when needed. It said that beginning September 10, water pressure measures would be put in place for 48 hours.

“The Water & Sewerage Corporation wishes to advise that weather-related electrical disruptions have critically impacted water storage levels,” the WSC update said. “As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, we have implemented reduced water pressure measures over the next 48 hours beginning today, September 10, 2025. We urge all customers to conserve water daily to ensure water remains accessible when needed most.

Meanwhile, a failure at Water & Sewerage Corporation’s Tarpum Bay plant in Eleuthera prompted the area’s FNM candidate to call for improvements on the island.

Tarpum Bay, Rock Sound and Waterford in southern Eleuthera yesterday experienced water interruption

due to what WSC described as a “critical failure” at the Tarpum Bay plant. A water barge carrying 280,000 imperial gallons of water was dispatched and sent to Eleuthera to facilitate both the Tarpum Bay and Waterford plants.

“Due to a critical failure at the Tarpum Bay plant, the water production and distribution came to an abrupt halt,” a WSC update stated. “The storage levels quickly became critical, which prompted distribution to services earlier than anticipated at approximately 8.30pm. The teams are on the ground addressing the matter with the operational mechanisms.

“The Waterford plant continues to experience challenges meeting full production capacity, however, our teams have also been deployed to remedy this matter.

“In the interim, we have coordinated a water barge shipment carrying 280,000

imperial gallons of water to facilitate both Tarpum Bay and Waterford Plants. The barge is slated to leave New Providence by midday. This will augment storage production at the desalination plant and assist in restoring supply to the affected communities.”

The interruption has led to students on Eleuthera having been let out of school early or schools having been cancelled altogether.

Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin, advised by the district superintendent on Eleuthera, said schools including Rock Sound Primary School and Tarpum Bay Primary School were yesterday impacted.

“I have been advised that it has variously impacted schools in different areas at different times and becomes a greater challenge if electricity is tied to water. Today [yesterday’s] challenges were faced at two schools - one of which had early dismissal. Schools try so far

as possible to keep classes ongoing unless it becomes impossible where there is no water.”

Noting that they experienced a power outage and water interruptions yesterday, teacher Yasmine Michel at Rock Sound Primary school said students were sent back home as they arrived.

“It was rough for us,” Ms Michel said. “We had to use the fresh water, our drinking water in order to bathe this morning. And I’m actually a teacher, so school got out early because there’s no water in order to use the bathrooms or to stay in school. So right when the parents dropped them we had to turn them away.

“Last week, we was still schools ﬁve days, and three of those ﬁve days we were out early because of the power or the water issuers. And yesterday it was the power at a certain time, but then today it was the water. So we’ve been to school three full days for the last two weeks.”

FNM candidate for Central and South Eleuthera Phillipa Kelly blasted the government stating “these renewed calls should not be necessary, yet here we are”. She questioned how many school days children will have to miss and pointed out that utility woes have caused ﬂight disruptions as well.

“For weeks, I have been calling attention to this crisis and pressing for action,” Ms Kelly said. “We are now in a critical month as school

begins, yet there is still no water in parts of South Eleuthera. Passengers at Rock Sound International Airport have been blocked from using restrooms because there is no running water. Tarpum Bay Primary and Rock Sound Primary were not able to have school due to the water being off again. Preston Albury High is also unable to hold regular classes from the start of the term due to an electrical issue that should have been addressed before the start of the school year. The loss of instruction time, the health risks, and the indignity people are facing should alarm every national leader.”

Concerning Preston Albury High School, Central and South Eleuthera MP and Minister of Works, Clay Sweeting said he is aware of the situation and ministry teams as well as local contractors have assessed it. He added that work to upgrade the the electrical infrastructure began yesterday.

“I’ve been made aware of a major electrical failure at the Preston Albury High School which has resulted in the early dismissal of students,” a Facebook post from Mr Sweeting read.

“I am advised that the recent upgraded equipment to several classrooms to provide comfort for teachers and students have placed an additional electrical demand on the current supply and the school’s current electrical grid cannot handle this new demand.

SLOW SEASON EVEN SLOWER, SAYS LONG ISLAND HOTELIER

By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter

DECREASED airlift has led to this year’s slower than usual down season for the tourism sector, a Long Island hotelier has said.

The Stella Maris on Long Island, which normally closes during the slow period, around the end of August or early September, found itself closing its doors on July 15. Its operator, Jill Smith, reiterated the challenges Long Island faces, which she said contributed to the early closure. Her number one argument pointed at the low airlift to and from the island.

“Our hotel has been closed since July 15,” Ms Smith said. It’s been so slow. Normally, we always close around middle of August. It was so slow that we closed our doors on the 15th of July and only had, like, a few bookings. So we just kind of did like Airbnb style, and we had one restaurant open. But business has been

so terrible that we’ve been closed from July 15. It’s horrible.

“We close every year anyhow, like end of August and September, because it’s just a bad month because of hurricanes. So everybody closes in September. But business was so bad this year that we had to close early in July. And again, I attribute it exactly to what I had told you before, that we had no airlift. So number one, it was bad, in our opinion, because of what’s going on in America and nobody wanted to travel and Trump, and nobody knows if they’re having a job or not, and ICE and traveling in and out and immigration. So all of that contributed to the economy deﬁnitely slowing down for us. But for us, it was detrimental again, what we discussed about Southern Air and not having airlift to Long Island.”

The Bahama Out Island Promotion Board’s executive director, Kerry Fountain, said as airport developments on the island are completed, more services will be welcomed to ﬂy

into Long Island and other Family Islands. He also noted an increase in ﬂights through Makers Air into Long Island.

“Makers Air which flies from Fort Lauderdale Executive airport directly to Stella Maris this past season, they were flying in only two days a week,” Mr Fountain said. “And they now intend to fly starting, I think on November 1, they plan to increase their service from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport from two days a week to three days a week. We’re also hoping, once the airport in Deadman’s Cay and also Stella Maris, once those are fully developed, of course, we will be looking at more service ... But as of now, you have Makers Air making a commitment already to service Stella Mars three days a week, and that is from two days a week. They’re looking to increase it to three days a week.”

Bimini Big Game Club has also seen a slower that normal low season, however managing director Stephen Kappeler attributes it to the newly implemented

“Teams from the Ministry of Works as well as local contractors have visited the campus. The necessary work to upgrade the electrical infrastructure at the school started today.

“Consultation with Ministry of Education ofﬁcials will commence to discuss the best way forward to ensure that there is minimal interruption for the students during this period.”

Meanwhile, WSC yesterday also reduced water pressure in the central and eastern districts of New Providence with these measures set for a 48-hour time span.

Noting that weatherrelated disruptions is at the root of the newly implemented water measures, WSC cautioned consumers to conserve water to ensure easier access when needed. It informed the public that beginning September 10, water pressure measures would be put in place for 48 hours.

“The Water and Sewerage Corporation wishes to advise that weather related electrical disruptions have critically impacted water storage levels,” the WSC update read. “As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, we have implemented reduced water pressure measures over the next 48 hours beginning today, September 10, 2025. We urge all customers to conserve water daily to ensure water remains accessible when needed most.”

increased cruising permit fees, as well as the new anchorage and ﬁshing permit fees.

“It’s very bad,” Mr Kappeler said. “We’ve only had two or three boats in the marina each night for several weeks, and it’s looking like the same. This has really impacted the business, and I’m sure the island cash registers are feeling it.

“We’re going to adjust our rates down, which will be unfavorable. That’s less revenue at the end of the day and it is going to mean less stafﬁng and less coverage. But we’re going to be adjusting our rates down, which I think you’re going to see

some of the marinas doing. But I don’t really think dropping rates will make a difference, because we couldn’t drop enough rates to make up for what they’ve done to the fees.”

Captain Justin Dubowitz of Cape Eleuthera Resort and Marina added: “This the slowest and least marine trafﬁc we have had in the last four years.”

ROSEWOOD EXUMA OPPONENTS NOT DETERRED BY GROUND-BREAK

OPPONENTS of the $200m Rosewood Exuma development yesterday said they will not be deterred from voicing their concerns by its progress to last week’s ground-breaking.

The Save Exuma Alliance, local businesses and environmental advocates, in a statement pledged to persist with their campaign to force the developer, Miami-based Yntegra Group, to scale down a “vastly oversized project that will destroy the Exuma cays”.

They continued to question how a project that includes more than 90 structures, extensive dredging and a 390-foot seawall could have been approved

for a small cay with no existing infrastructure. The group is also asserting that Rosewood Exuma, in its current form, will change the sea and landscape that draws visitors to the Exuma cays, impacting both the island’s heritage and economy.

“Putting a shovel in the ground is no guarantee of success – far from it. There are many projects that have failed no matter what papers have been signed or ceremonies held,” said the Save Exuma Alliance (SEA). “We need to make the right choices, not the quick choices, and make sure of the right outcome.”

Keiran Miller, an Alliance member and owner of

Staniel Cay Adventures, said: “You ever heard of the Four Seasons? It was in Exuma, failed. Ever heard of Four Seasons failing anywhere else on Earth? I have not.” He is among those who say they would welcome the Rosewood brand if it scaled down to a size they feel is appropriate for the location.

The Alliance is arguing that the full scale of the Yntegra project has only recently become clearer, with a giant seawall - 390 feet long and 40 feet wide - revealed to be part of the development. It fears that seawall will negatively impact the coastal and marine habitats in the North Bay of Sampson Cay.

“There have been numerous projects which have started and were forced to shut down or change direction because of public pressure. That’s why every voice matters, why we are asking those who are appalled by what they are witnessing to speak up. We see the comments online, we know how people feel. Now it is more important than ever to let our leaders know how Bahamians feel,” said the Alliance.

“Until we knew about the seawall, we had no way to judge the full impact of the scheme. If people do not know the full details, how can they properly judge the project?”

David Hocher, an Alliance member and owner of Staniel Cay Yacht Club and Makers Air, said there are discrepancies between the plan and statements by Yntegra principals, adding: “If the public, like myself, can’t look at a plan presented by the developer at a community presentation and have conﬁdence that this is what will be

approved, what else can we not trust?”

The Alliance also reiterated the need to ensure that approval processes are followed properly. Just this year, a development project on Athol Island off Nassau was ordered to halt when it was shown to be in noncompliance with its permits.

Also, earlier in 2025, the Government ripped up a deal over moorings in the Exumas after public outrage. After a public outcry, the lease deal signed with Bahamas Moorings, a company with ties to staff in the Ofﬁce of the Prime Minister, was terminated.

“We must not let what has happened in the past be our way forward. If we are to avoid repeating the mistakes that have led to failed projects with nothing but destruction in their wake, we must be strong and make our voices heard,” said the Alliance.

Captain Tito Baldwin, an Exuma resident who knows the waters well around Sampson Cay, said: “As soon as we scar that crown jewel, it’s gone forever and ever.” And Joseph Darville, an environmental

Labor Department watchdog to audit jobs and inﬂation reports from embattled BLS

advocate, said: “The recently-announced seawall structure completely blocks a seven foot deep cut that is the primary source of tidal ﬂow into the bay.

“This is an absolute insult to the people of Exuma, and shows a total lack of appreciation or respect for the natural resources that support local businesses. This will dramatically change the North Bay of Sampson Cay.”

Marine biologist Alannah Vellacott has warned of the danger to coral reefs in the area, saying:

“These reefs are essential for coastal protection and ﬁsheries, sustainability and tourism, main industries of The Bahamas.”

Eric Carey, a former Bahamas National Trust (BNT) executive director who is now a consultant to the Rosewood Exuma’s neighbouring resort, which is challenging the planning and environmental approvals granted to the $200m project, has launched a petition that has already received more than 6,600 signatures. He said: “That massive seawall and service dock –if permitted - will forever

change the tidal ﬂow, alter nearby beaches and create a dangerous situation for ﬁsherman, recreational swimmers and local tour providers.”

The Alliance said: “The time to ﬁght is now. We can protect our environment, but we have to speak up right now. We urge people to speak to their MP, to sign the petition, and to make clear how they feel. A shovel in the ground is just one shovel – it does not mean anything. We need to make sure it stays that way until the full environmental impact has been assessed.

“Look at the environmentalists speaking up already – the experts along with the business owners, the nationalists, the people who have lived their whole lives in this landscape. When so many people and so many experts are raising the alarm, shouldn’t we listen?”

The Save Exuma Alliance is a coalition of community leaders, business owners and residents of the Exuma Cays working to safeguard the island’s ecosystems and quality of life from unsustainable development.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer

A GOVERNMENT

watchdog says it will review how a Labor Department agency compiles and reports some of the nation's highest proﬁle economic data, just two days after the agency made a sharp downward revision in its estimate of the number of jobs.

A spokesperson for the department's Ofﬁce

of the Inspector General said Wednesday that it is launching a review of "the challenges that Bureau of Labor Statistics encounters collecting and reporting closely watched economic data." The audit will focus on the agency's reports on inﬂation and employment, a Wednesday letter to BLS acting commissioner William Wiatrowski said. Both reports are considered deﬁnitive measures of those two key aspects of the U.S. economy. The letter was from Laura Nicolosi, assistant inspector general for audit at the Labor Department's inspector general. The audit is the latest example of increasing

scrutiny of the BLS as its recent jobs reports have shown a sharp slowdown in hiring over the summer. The agency has also made steep downward revisions in previously-published estimates of jobs and hiring, causing President Donald Trump to denounce the agency and to ﬁre its commissioner last month.

On Tuesday, the BLS released annual revisions to its employment ﬁgures that showed there were 911,000 fewer jobs created in the year ending in March 2025, a deep reduction that suggested the job market was much weaker in 2024 and earlier this year than previously thought.

SAMPSON CAY AERIAL

REGULATIONS MAY BE NEEDED FOR ONLINE PAYMENT ACCESS

By FAY SIMMONS

CENTRAL Bank Gov-

ernor John Rolle said the development of policies promoting digital inclusion in ﬁnancial services and access to digital government platforms may require regulations for internet and telephone service providers to enable universal payments.

Speaking at the Central Bank Digital Currency Conference yesterday, Mr Rolle said the broader discussion around ﬁnancial inclusion will necessitate collaboration between regulators and the government to consider legislation and subsidies aimed at ensuring universal access to ﬁnancial services.

“This is partly work that extends beyond the rigid

control of the Central Bank exclusively but it would deﬁnitely involve and likely required regulatory mandate for internet service providers and mobile phone service providers working with regulators in the industry and the government to deﬁne what digital inclusion could look like in an enhanced state for a country like The Bahamas. And in those contexts, addressing matters of cost and subsidy that may be required for universal access, basically with universal access to pay,” said Mr Rolle.

He said Central Banks in many jurisdictions that are promoting digital ﬁnancial services are exploring solutions to ensure users can access payment systems even when ofﬂine.

“The issue in terms of how people are able to make payments even when they lose connection to the

internet or to the cellular network, that is an area where there’s a lot of work going on in Central Banks that are looking at providing retail payment solutions. That really speaks to how persons are able to complete payments when they go ofﬂine,” said Mr Rolle.

“That’s a highly technical issue in terms of how it is resolved, but there’s a lot of work going on in that space, and as people start to make advances and progress, we expect that countries like the Bahamas and others would be able to take advantage of the progress.”

Mr Rolle said ﬁnancial inclusion efforts also involve expanding access and reducing costs for Family Island residents, as well as creating affordable business solutions for small businesses to help them grow and cater to tourists.

“Financial inclusion is about making the system in

Resort owner seeking Collaboration, not conﬂict

for the nine months to March 2024 were not paid despite resort guests being charged for this.

The dispute also appears to have provoked a Boardroom split between Lee Prosenjak, Valentine’s principal owner, and two of his fellow directors and ofﬁcers. Thomas Murphy junior and John Nichols, according to Sir Ian’s ruling, are both supporting the condo owners in their legal claim, and have sworn afﬁdavits accusing Mr Prosenjak of mismanagement.

The Valentine’s resort owner’s wife, Stephanie, who along with her husband and Mr Murphy and Mr Nichols is named as a defendant in the action, did not oppose the condo owners’ bid for Supreme Court permission to bring an “oppression” action under section 278 (c) of the Companies Act. This left Mr Prosenjak as the only opposition, but Sir Ian found in favour of the condo owners.

Mr Prosenjak, in a statement responding to Tribune Business inquiries last night, said Valentine’s vehemently disputes the condo owners’ allegations and pointed out that the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the merits of the claim. He added that the resort’s focus is “on collaboration - not conﬂict”.

“The court’s ruling was a preliminary procedural step granting the applicant leave to ﬁle a claim; it made no ﬁndings of fact or liability,” he said. “We

dispute the allegations and will address them in court. It is our company’s policy not to comment on ongoing litigation.

“We continue to evaluate all legal options. Our focus remains on collaboration - not conﬂict - and our commitment to our guests, team and home owner community is unchanged.”

Sir Ian, in his verdict on the “oppression” application, noted that the 41 condo units are located within the Valentine’s resort property. He added that the resort operates and maintains its amenities, including the marina, for the beneﬁt of both guests and condo owners, with the property mortgaged to RBC Royal Bank (Bahamas) as security collateral for its loan via a debenture.

Valentine’s, the chief justice added, maintains and manages the rental of the condo units to others on behalf of their owners.

However, the latter - via their Harbour Island Villas management company - are alleging that Valentine’s has not been living up to several of its obligations since Mr Prosenjak acquired the resort.

They are alleging that the more than $105,500 increase in BPL bill arrears between September 2023 and January 2024 occurred despite Valentine’s “having collected 85 percent of the said amount billed by BPL by deducting the same from the unit owners’ share of their rental revenue generated on a monthly basis”.

Harbour Island Villas asserted that Valentine’s

The Bahamas more equitable and inclusive around the conditions and the cost of access to services, especially for those who reside outside of this island New Providence and the capital of Nassau,” said Mr Rolle. “It also extends to inclusion of micro and small and medium-sized enterprises in proportion to their participation in receiving digital business with more affordable price to merchant services and increased access for these enterprises to tourists.”

He added that the Central Bank’s digital currency, the Sand Dollar, can spur further innovation by encouraging developers to build new services, noting that digital wallet providers have already demonstrated “greater agility” in onboarding consumers compared to banks and credit unions.

“failed to remit payment of the same to BPL. Harbour says that the company’s conduct constituted a diversion of Harbour’s funds”. The condo owners alleged that this occurred again in June 2024, leading to the $90,000-plus arrears on September 1, 2024.

And, besides the allegations surrounding non-payment of insurance premiums, the condo owners claimed that the $150,000 “contingency fund assessment” - which they had approved and requested - was deducted from their June 2024 statements but not paid by the resort “in accordance with its contractual and ﬁduciary duty” as at October 5, 2024.

Mr Prosenjak said the $150,000 “assessment” was paid on January 3, 2025, but the condo owners then alleged that Valentine’s had “failed to respond to the Bahama Out Island Promotion Board’s request for information” on the $140,000 due to it. They asserted that, as “a creditor

“The Sand Dollar can inspire accelerated private solutions to tackling costs and therefore extending services within a more modernised ecosystem,” said Mr Rolle.

“Digital wallet providers have already shown greater agility in implementing simpliﬁed customer due diligence guidelines than banks that enable them to onboard customers. This is in part because they were taking on these standards at their inception whereas the banks and credit unions has been more gradual, in part because the standard requires changes in those aspects to the existing internal compliances.”

He said that while there are still some “foundational issues” to be addressed, the Central Bank’s work on the Sand Dollar has helped identify necessary policy changes to drive adoption and ensure legislation

and signiﬁcant stakeholder” of the resort, Harbour Island Villas was entitled to pursue a claim for “oppression”.

“The relationship between the parties requires open, honest, timely and transparent communication and accounting by the company [Valentine’s] to the claimant with respect to his handling the affairs and funds of the claimant [Harbour Island Villas] and the unit owners,” the condo owners alleged in their legal ﬁlings.

“The company’s failures in this regard, under the defendant’s operation and management, continues to expose the claimant and the unit owners, as creditors and stakeholders of the company, to unfair prejudice, unfair disregard, oppression, loss, damage and undue risk.”

And Sir Ian, detailing the Valentine’s Board divide, said Mr Murphy and Mr Nichols had both sworn afﬁdavits that “the company’s failure under [Lee’s]

supports—rather than excludes—broader participation in the banking sector.

“While our work on retail CBDC’s still have some foundational issues to address that should increase the upside for adoption… the experience during this time has been incredibly visible in our work strengthening our policy framework,” said Mr Rolle.

“We acknowledge that a retail CBDC is supposed to be a digital representation cash and just like cash in every aspect except anonymity. But since cash is accessible to all by design work on the Sand Dollar has helped to reshape how we use our anti money laundering and various frameworks to govern universal access to - rather than excluded from - digital money.”

operation and management continues to expose [Harbour] and the unit owners, creditors and stakeholders of the company to unfair prejudice, unfair disregard, oppression, loss, damage and undue risk”.

The Chief Justice said Mr Prosenjak opposed the “oppression” claim on the basis that the condo owners and their company are not a creditor, as the $150,000 “assessment” has been paid, “and there is no case of oppression by the company”. However, such an action can be based on past - not present - actions.

Sir Ian, noting that he was not required to determine the “viability” of the condo owners’ claim at such a preliminary stage, ruled that Harbour Island Villas is “a true stakeholder” because of its position within the Valentine’s resort structure and the impact the hotel’s operation has on it. As a result, he found it was qualiﬁed to pursue an “oppression” claim.

Ex-minister says ‘deprives’ Bahamas of proﬁt impacts

“The fact that Bahamians, in industries reserved for Bahamian ownership only, are simply fronting - the foreigner comes in and the foreigner operates the business, selects all the people and runs it for you, paying you whatever the arrangement is, 5-10 percent of sales - that deprives the Bahamian economy of the beneﬁts of it being owned and operated by Bahamians.

“The benefits are the profits; more of the profits stay here and, then, second, Bahamians are motivated to train and bring on board more staff. And, third, you as a Bahamian are more likely than not to grow the business here and look for opportunities here. That might not be so attractive to a foreign owner with operations in other jurisdictions.”

The issue of Bahamian ‘fronting’ arose again this week after Julian ‘Shaq’ Gibson, the Bahamian operator of the well-known Harbour Island-based tourism business, Conch & Coconut, admitted he had been involved in this practice on behalf of Pablo Conde, a Florida-based US investor.

“When I was only 24 years-old, Mr Conde approached me to ‘cooperate’ on a golf cart/ boat rental and concierge business on Harbour Island. He set it up whereby all gross

Resort told:

receipts were sent to Conch & Coconut LLC in Florida, while I owned and operated Conch & Coconut Ltd, the operational company here in The Bahamas. As you know, this type of business is preserved exclusively for Bahamians,” he conceded.

“Mr Conde made millions while I made very little. As you know, I’m saddled with a large tax obligation due to his actions. I have negotiated a settlement with Inland Revenue. In May of this year, my business was again raided by Inland Revenue and shut down due to a fraudulent Business Licence provided by Mr Conde.”

The two are now embroiled in a furious US and Bahamian legal battle after their falling out.

“If you just front, it’s really lazy,” Mr D’Aguilar reiterated to Tribune Business yesterday. “If there’s one law that you attempt to abide by and use, and which really has an economic impact on the country, it is trying as a Bahamian to operate - if the industry you are in is reserved for Bahamians - you should try and operate it in that vein. You should not front. Run it as a Bahamian company.”

Bahamian entrepreneurs have for years complained that their foreign counterparts enjoy far better access to much cheaper debt capital, placing them at a signiﬁcant disadvantage against overseas rivals. The latter often also possess

‘Step

up to plate’ for 150-200 staff

NOTICE - from page B1

workforce may be forced to shrink with service quality undermined.

Resorts World Bimini’s public relations agency, responding to Tribune Business inquiries, said the hotel operator was preparing a statement but it was not received before press time last night. Kingsley Smith, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Grand Bahama and the present west Grand Bahama and Bimini MP, did not respond to phone calls or a text message.

However, Victor Karavias, Resorts World Bimini’s senior vice-president of operations, in a September 9, 2025, note entitled ‘team member housing changes’, blamed the notice to vacate on “circumstances beyond our control” without detailing what these are.

“It is necessary for us to vacate some of our team member housing facilities by the end of this month,” he wrote. “This applies to dorm buildings four and ﬁve, all of our management cottages, as well as the triplex. As a result, we will need to immediately begin

greater experience, and this combined with their ability to raise capital makes it attractive for some to enter ‘fronting’ deals with foreigners able to get such ventures started.

However, Mr D’Aguilar argued that there was nothing to stop Bahamian entrepreneurs from entering legitimate joint ventures or partnerships with overseas counterparts to access their knowledge, expertise and capital until they were ready to “break the umbilical cord” and stand on their own.

He also cited his Superwash laundromat chain as an example of the beneﬁts from a business being Bahamian owned and operated. “We don’t look at other jurisdictions to expand to. We are looking at opportunities in The Bahamas. We are focused on that goal,” Mr D’Aguilar explained.

“If that is Bahamian-run and operated, that business will look at more opportunities in-country. The Government wants to encourage the growth of businesses that are owned by Bahamians because they feel the connection the owner of that business has with the community.

“A foreign owner and operator, I don’t think, has that focus and intent. They are looking at ways to make the quickest buck they can and operate in a number of jurisdictions. The Bahamas

plans to relocate out of those buildings.”

Promising that the resort’s human resources department will inform impacted staff “about next steps”, Mr Karavias added: “In the interim, you should prepare your belongings for the move. While we know this is not pleasant news, unfortunately we have no available alternatives as it relates to these facilities.

“It is, however, important to note that this is in no way a reﬂection on our business operations and our future. Resorts World Bimini is in the midst of a very busy year and the future looks bright with our expanding cruise schedule and the expansion of the airport. We must all remain diligent to serve our customers with the level of service they deserve while

may be good for one opera-

tion, but not two, in their opinion. A Bahamian will, instead, be looking at how to grow my business here and expand to other islands,” he added.

“Fronting is a lazy approach to doing business here. It means you have no intent of bringing focus to this industry in which the business is operating. Someone has probably come to you because you have a good location, asking to operate the business from there. It diverts monies that would otherwise remain in The Bahamas to go out to the person participating in the front in a foreign location.”

Allegations of ‘fronting’ are frequently made in The Bahamas but are notoriously hard to prove. Conﬁrmation of proof typically surfaces when there is a legal dispute or some other falling-out between the Bahamian and foreign partners. “It’s been going on from time immemorial, but I haven’t any idea how prevalent it is,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business.

“You hear of rumblings in the retail sector. You have all those foreigners, Israelis and Indians, on Bay Street. It’s thrown in your face in these particular areas. I’m sure there’s a whole lot of other sectors in The Bahamas where foreigners participate in fronting with Bahamians. I have no idea how prevalent it is but am pretty sure it goes on.”

Tribune Business has previously revealed two cases of fronting in the Bahamian jewellery/luxury goods retail sector. In the ﬁrst, the late

being mindful of all of our resources.”

This was backed by a separate message from Alyson Nixon, Resorts World Bimini’s manager of human resources, who wrote: “Due to circumstance outside of our control, several housing facilities such as Dorm four, Dorm ﬁve, management cottages and the triplex will no longer be available to us, requiring us to begin relocation plans.

“While we understand this may be difﬁcult news, please be assured that these changes do not affect the strength of our business or our positive outlook for the future. Resorts World Bimini continues to grow, and we remain committed to supporting our team throughout this transition.”

Leon Grifﬁn, husband of

ex-Cabinet minister, Melanie Grifﬁn, allowed his Treasures International franchisor and its principals, Jitendra Keswani and Raj Chandiramani, to operate on his behalf the Parklane Lux on Bay Street and the Parklane Marina in the Atlantis Marina.

And, in March 2023, chief justice Sir Ian Winder disclosed in one of his rulings how “illegality was a major part” of a Bay Street retail ‘fronting’ deal involving the Skandaliaris family. ZRK Ltd, which they owned and controlled, signed an agreement with two US investors designed to “circumvent” the National Investment Policy’s stipulation that retail businesses are reserved for Bahamian ownership only.

The deal, which involved the operation of a Bay Street beauty and cosmetics store under the Truffoire/ Lionesse brand names, is “oft described in the Bahamian vernacular as a ‘fronting operation’”, Sir Ian said. He added that the venture appeared to have violated multiple Bahamian laws including those related to Immigration (work permits); the VAT and Business Licence Acts; payment of National Insurance Board (NIB) contributions; and exchange controls.

Tribune Business has over the years received multiple complaints and allegations of such practices, but those making the claims have either failed to provide supporting evidence or declined to place their assertions ‘on the record’. Records or a ‘paper trail’ of proof is often

Mr Isaacs, who said he had walked around the impacted accommodation and met staff as part of preparations for general election campaigning, estimated that between 150-200 persons will be impacted with no clarity yet from Resorts World Bimini on what the alternatives may be.

“They got the notice last [Tuesday] evening and have 20 days to vacate,” he told Tribune Business. “There’s absolutely not enough accommodation to absorb the 150-200 persons that have been asked to move out of those dormitories.

“Some of them have been there for seven to eight years, some even longer. Some of them call that place home. It’s unfortunate they have been asked to uproot their lives in such a short span of time.” Mr Isaacs added that some staff had become “skittish” earlier this month when the laundry facility adjacent to their dormitory ceased operations, leading them to suspect “something was in the pipeline”.

He said the FNM would seek to arrange ferry transportation off Bimini for those workers unable to ﬁnd or afford new residences “if Resorts World doesn’t step up to the plate. We’re hoping Resorts World steps up to the plate”. As to what this means for the resort’s operations, Mr Isaacs added:

absent, with any paperwork often held offshore or by lawyers under attorney/ client privilege.

This has made it extremely difﬁcult to investigate such arrangements, but Bay Street retailing - especially in the luxury goods and cosmetics areais a sector where ‘fronting’ complaints have frequently surfaced.

The case involving the Skandaliaris family only came to light as a result of the two foreign investors, Tal Nemzer and Zvi Yosifon, initiating Supreme Court legal proceedings against them in 2017 for alleged breach of the two sides’ management agreement and purported “negligence” in living up to its terms.

While Sir Ian gave the Skandaliaris family and their ZRK vehicle some credit for bringing the parties’ business relationship to an end, so as “to avoid becoming further embroiled in violations of the law”, he added that their involvement in an “invalid” deal “cannot be denied or ignored”.

Mr D’Aguilar yesterday acknowledged that ‘fronting’ deals are “bloody difﬁcult to detect”, although he voiced hope that some may be exposed by evertightening audit and reporting demands being imposed by the Department of Inland Revenue. Employee ‘whistleblowers’ also have a critical role to play, he said, as do increased penalties for violators, adding: “If the carrot doesn’t work, the stick does.”

“Resorts World is the largest employer in Bimini. For me right now, not knowing what their projected bookings and future bookings are looking like, I’m very concerned because their human resources are going to take a blow. If you have a skeleton crew, I’m sure the quality of service at the resort will be negatively impacted.”

Calling for “full transparency” from both Resorts World and the Government as to why the vacation notice was issued with seemingly “no safety net.... has been put in place”, Mr Isaacs said in a statement:

“This cannot stand.....

“I am outraged that hardworking Bahamians are being told to pack up and leave with no plan, no alternatives and no support. In less than three weeks, men and women who keep this resort running are expected to ﬁnd housing on an island where rental options are scarce and prices are already beyond reach.

“Resorts World Bimini is... the island’s largest employer. To displace such a signiﬁcant portion of its workforce overnight threatens not only the lives of the workers but the stability of the resort itself. Guests will feel the impact. Service will suffer. And Bimini’s reputation as a tourism destination will be tarnished. This reckless decision jeopardises both livelihoods and the island’s economic future.”

Tax authority uses new Method to target arrears

SIGNS - from page B1

under section 25 (a) of the Real Property Tax in 2023 in a bid to recover more than $700m in delinquent real property tax arrears. It is using the lien, or charge, it has over these properties to sell them via a public auction.

“The Department of Inland Revenue (DIR wishes to advise the general public that, effective June 2023, the department will

begin enforcement exercises regarding power of sale under real property tax act section 25A,” the Bahamian tax authority warned. “This means that DIR will have the power to sell properties whose real property tax has remained unpaid for seven months. This applies to all real property including commercial, residential and foreignowned vacant land with the exception of Bahamian owner-occupied property.”

The 2025-2026 Budget showed initial signs that the Department of Inland Revenue’s real property tax crackdown - and use of its statutory ‘power of sale’ to auction off properties to recover debts from tax deadbeats - was having some success. Because the arrears for both commercial properties and foreign-owned vacant land - the initial auction targets - were down year-over-year.

Bahamas-domiciled ﬁrm ‘misled’ over fund assets

SANCTIONS - from page B1

investments” and, together with its afﬁliates, manages $900m on behalf of institutional and high net-worth clients. Between the Albany ofﬁce and its other locations, VCM Global Asset Management was said to have between 51-200 employees, some 30 of whom were described as “corporate professionals”.

Its afﬁliate ofﬁces are said to be based in Canada, Switzerland and the US.

The $9.31m penalties are intended to satisfy a ‘consent order’ requiring Mr

Vukota and his two companies to pay around $10.5m in “disgorgement” of proﬁts and pre-judgment interest. The ﬁnes and sanctions are to paid in a series of installments spread over one year. The SEC, in its lawsuit, described VCM Global Asset Management as reporting to it as “an exempt reporting adviser” from December 2022. It “reports that it advises two funds... with total combined assets of approximately $35. VCM Global Asset Management was founded by, and is 100 percent owned by, Vukota who also serves as its chief executive”.

Detailing the allegations that spurred the SEC’s complaint, and led to the settlement, the lawsuit asserted that Mr Vukota, who formerly lived in Colorado, and his two investment ﬁrms “engaged in three distinct types of negligent misconduct”.

“First, from at least 2017 through May 2022, Vukota and Vukota Capital Management (VCM) caused various private funds they advised to make short-term loans to VCM at unfavourable, below-market rates to, among other things, cover cash shortfalls at other private funds,” the SEC claimed.

New data shows the US job market was much weaker than thought in 2024, and this year as well

By PAUL WISEMAN

AP Economics Writer

THE U.S. job market was much weaker in 2024 and early this year than originally reported, adding to concerns about the health of the nation's economy.

Employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March 2025, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The department issues the so-called benchmark revisions every year. They are intended to better account for new businesses and ones that had gone out of business. The numbers issued Tuesday are preliminary. Final revisions will come out in February 2026.

The revision showed that leisure and hospitality ﬁrms — including hotels and restaurants — added 176,000 fewer jobs than originally reported, professional and business services companies

158,000 fewer and retailers 126,000 fewer. The report comes after the department reported Friday that the economy generated just 22,000 jobs in August, adding to fears that President Donald Trump's erratic economic policies, including massive and unpredictable taxes on imports, have created so much uncertainty that businesses are reluctant to hire. Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets said the revisions painted "a much weaker portrait of the job market than initially thought. While the revision doesn't say much about what has happened since March, it suggests the labor market had less momentum heading into the trade war. And, recent data suggest the market has downshifted further." Since March, monthly job creation has decelerated to an average 53,000. When the preliminary benchmark revisions last

year showed 818,000 fewer jobs in the year ended March 2024, then-presidential candidate Trump declared the numbers had been rigged to conceal economic weakness and help Democrats in the 2024 election. However, he did not explain why the government would release the revised numbers two and a half months before voters went to the polls. (The ﬁnal revisions for the 12 months that ended March 2024, which came out in February this year, were less dramatic but still bad: Payrolls ended up 589,000 lower than originally reported.)

The latest revisions will likely increase pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate at its meeting next week to give the economy a boost. James Knightley, an economist at ING, also expects the Fed to cut again at its meetings in October and December.

Outstanding real property tax said to be owed on commercial properties declined by almost $19m over the nine-month period to March 2025, falling from $360.324m in June 2024 to $341.331m, a drop of 5.3 percent. And sums due on foreign-owned vacant land fell more narrowly, by $2.75m or 1 percent, from $309.945m in June 2024 to $307.173m in March 2025. While the reductions remain small, they nevertheless suggest incremental progress. However, real property tax arrears for residential property were said to have increased by 5 percent or almost $10m over the nine-month

“The private funds’ partnership agreements prohibited these loans, and neither the practice of providing such loans or the resulting conﬂict of interest was disclosed to the private funds’ investors. Second, during February and March 2021, Vukota and VCM drafted and sent misleading letters to the investors in four of the private funds in connection with Vukota’s attempt to buy the investors’ interests in these funds.

“The buyout letters failed to disclose Vukota’s conflicts of interest in connection with the proposed transactions, and Vukota and VCM failed to obtain investors’ consent to those conflicts.” The SEC then turned to the alleged misconduct involving VCM Global Asset Management, the Bahamian firm.

In a commentary, Knightley wrote that the Labor Department numbers "can be signiﬁcantly wrong'' when the economy is at a turning point. "In the early stages of a downturn they tend to overestimate the jobs created by new start-ups – 'births' – and underestimate the number of jobs lost by the 'death' of failing small businesses,'' he wrote. "These revisions suggest that jobs momentum is being lost from an

period, from $192.531m to $202.394m, while outstanding owner-occupied liabilities jumped from $190.107m at June 2024 to $208.549m this March, a 9.7 percent or near-$18.5m rise. Shunda Strachan, the Department of Inland Revenue’s acting director, said it planned to “move to other avenues of collection”.

She added: “Previously, we were relying on collection initiatives like calling persons, writing persons. We’re done with amnesties now; we’ve had so many of those.

“We’ve offered persons plans and easy payment plans and the like, but now we’ve moved to more aggressive means of

“Third, from at least 2017 through 2023, Vukota and VCM Global Asset Management made material misstatements in marketing and offering materials for the Vukota Multi-Strategy Fund (VMSF),” the SEC claimed. “Those materials misleadingly claimed that the fund was audited (it was not), inflated the assets under management by at least $20m, misstated the fund’s investment strategy - stating it was a public markets fund when it had significant investments in private assets - and misstated VCM Global Asset Management’s filing status as an exempt reporting adviser, stating it had filed as an exempt reporting adviser when it had not.”

The SEC added that this violated multiple US federal securities laws, and added: “The marketing

even weaker position than originally thought. It also reinforces the belief that even the poor numbers seen in 2025 are probably overstating the health of the employment market.'' After the Labor Department issued a disappointing jobs report for July, Trump ﬁred the economist in charge of compiling numbers and nominated a loyalist to replace her. He was especially enraged by revisions that took 258,000

collecting... Power of sale is just one thing that we’re going to utilise. It’s in the Act, it’s always been in the Act, it’s nothing new, it’s just that we didn’t use it before.

“We also plan to sell liens. That’s a new thing that’s never been done before. The plan is to put a group of properties that are in arrears in a bucket and offer it for sale. You have investors who will be interested in purchasing the lien. In that case, that investor who purchases the lien will purchase the rights that we would have had over that property to exercise certain things like the power of sale.”

decks contained a chart stating that VMSF had a ‘strategy assets under administration’ of $35m. A reasonable investor would have understood from this statement that VMSF had at least $35m in assets under administration.”

“The statement in the marketing decks relating to assets under administration was misleading because VMSF never had more than $14.1m of assets under administration.... From at least 2017 to 2023, Vukota and VCM Global Asset Management sent the marketing decks to investors and prospective investors that contained misleading statements concerning the fund’s strategy, whether it was audited, and the amount of assets under administration.”

jobs off May and June payrolls. Government economists have been struggling with a dramatic drop in the number of employers that respond to their surveys. Still, most economists and ﬁnancial analysts consider the ofﬁcial jobs numbers reliable.

The Labor Department compiles its monthly hiring report by surveying 121,000 employers, representing 631,000 individual worksites nationwide.

NOVO NORDISK, MAKER OF OBESITY DRUG WEGOVY, TO CUT 9,000 JOBS TO SHARPEN FOCUS, MEET COMPETITION

FRANKFURT, Germany

Associated Press

DANISH pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, maker of weight-loss drug

Wegovy, said Wednesday it would cut 9,000 jobs, 5,000 of them in Denmark, in order to strengthen the company's focus on growth opportunities in obesity and diabetes medications.

The restructuring, which would eliminate 11% of the company's workforce, aimed to reduce organizational complexity and speed up decision-making as the company faces a more

competitive market for obesity drugs.

The streamlining would save 8 billion Danish krone ($1.25 billion) by the end of 2026, savings that are to be redirected to diabetes and obesity, including research and development, the company said. Novo Nordisk also makes Ozempic, a diabetes drug that also can result in weight loss.

The company said implementation of the job cuts would begin immediately and that it would let the affected employees know over the next few months depending on local labor rules. The company, which

is based in Bagsvaerd just outside Copenhagen, has 78,400 workers. "Our markets are evolving, particularly in obesity, as it has become more competitive and consumerdriven," said President and CEO Mike Doustdar. "Our company must evolve as well. This means instilling an increased performancebased culture, deploying our resources ever more effectively, and prioritizing investment where it will have the most impact — behind our leading therapy areas."

Doustdar became CEO in May after his predecessor,

CBS News’ new ombudsman has background and duties

that differ from the job’s traditional deﬁnition

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer

CBS News has a new ombudsman assigned to look into public complaints, but the job being assumed by Kenneth Weinstein bears little resemblance to how this watchdog role has traditionally operated in journalism.

Weinstein, appointed Monday by CBS' parent company Paramount, has little background in journalism and his duties include no public role. He's the former head of a conservative think tank and has made several donations to Republican causes, including President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.

The company agreed to hire a person to investigate complaints about political bias this summer, days before the Federal Communications Commission

approved the merger of Paramount with Skydance Corp. "I am honored to serve as ombudsman for CBS News, one of the most respected journalistic institutions in the world," Weinstein said in a statement. "I look forward to supporting the talented team behind its reporting and to stewarding public trust in this critical institution." He's assigned to review complaints from consumers and employees and, if he determines action is required, raise it with Paramount president Jeff Shell and George Cheeks, the company's head of TV Media. Only then will they bring it to the CBS News president. Fewer news organizations have been employing ombudsmen In news organizations that employ ombudsmen

— and the number who do has been shrinking — the job effectively reports to the public, said Kelly McBride, expert in media ethics at the Poynter Institute and NPR's public editor. But Paramount said it does not envision Weinstein having any public-facing role.

Weinstein was president of the Washington-based Hudson Institute, which concentrates on foreign policy and national security issues. Described in his bio as a "political theorist by training," he was appointed to the Broadcasting Board of Governors by President Barack Obama in 2013 and elected chairman of that group in 2017, succeeding Shell.

That organization, now known as the U.S. Agency for Global Media, oversees government-run media outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/

Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, left the company after the share price fell and as the company faced competition from weight-loss

drugs from competitor Eli Lilly. Shares had skyrocketed after the introduction of Wegovy and Ozempic, which are both based on

Liberty, which are essentially being dismantled by Trump. Weinstein was nominated by Trump to be ambassador to Japan in 2020, but the Senate did not act on the appointment. He has donated to several Republican causes and candidates, including Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio, John McCain and Mitt Romney, according to the

Federal Elections Commission. Last year, he donated $6,600 to Trump, $5,000 to the Trump-aligned Save America PAC and $10,900 to the Republican National Committee. Skydance leader David Ellison and his team are being watched to see whether they establish a track record of bowing to Trump. Shortly before the merger was approved,

the same basic ingredient, semaglutide. At the peak, the company's market capitalization — or the combined price of all its shares — exceeded Denmark's annual gross domestic product and made it Europe's most valuable company.

Paramount agreed to pay the president $16 million to settle his complaints that a "60 Minutes" interview of election opponent Kamala Harris last fall was biased against him. Last week, following complaints by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about editing of her "Face the Nation" interview, CBS said it would no longer permit editing of its interviews prior to broadcast. Critics said they feared this would lead to the spread of disinformation. With his credentials, Weinstein seems "perfectly capable of doing the job" of ombudsman, McBride said. "The question is, 'What is the job?'" she said.

THIS photo shows Novo Nordisk headquarters in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, on Feb. 5, 2025. Photo:Mads Claus Rasmussen/AP

Radio

HUDSON Institute President & CEO Ken Weinstein speaks during the Herman Kahn Award Gala, Oct. 30, 2019, in New York.

Photo:Mary Altaffer/AP

Musk loses crown as the world’s richest person to Larry Ellison and then snatches it back.

By BERNARD CONDON AP Business Writer

THE battle among billionaires for bragging rights as the world's richest person got heated Wednesday with the surprising surge of an old contender: Larry Ellison.

In a stunning few minutes after markets opened, stock in Ellison's Oracle Corp. rocketed more than a third, enough for him to temporarily wrest the title from its longtime holder Elon Musk and hand it to the software giant's co-founder.

But the stock market is ﬁckle, and Musk was back on top by the end of the day, at least according to Bloomberg, as Oracle gave up a bit of its earlier gains.

For those keeping score, the difference now is a billion, which isn't much given the size of the ﬁgures: Musk's $384.2 billion versus $383.2 billion for Ellison.

The dueling fortunes are so big each could fund the lifestyles of 5 million typical American families for a year, about the entire population of Florida, allowing them to all quit their jobs. Or they could just tell all of South Africa to take a

vacation for year and produce nothing, based on its gross domestic product. The brief switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle powered by multibillion dollar orders from customers as the artiﬁcialintelligence race heats up. Musk became the world's richest person for the ﬁrst time four years ago. A big reason is his stake in a hot,

but now cooling, electric car maker, Tesla. Stock in the company has been moving in the opposite direction of Oracle's, dropping 14% so far this year. Musk also controls several private companies, including rocket maker SpaceX, his artiﬁcial intelligence company xAI and the former Twitter, now called X.

Amazon's Zoox launches its robotaxi service in Las Vegas

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer

AMAZON'S Zoox on Wednesday launched its robotaxi service in Las Vegas, offering free rides through parts of the entertainment mecca for anyone willing to gamble on the safety of a driverless vehicle that operates without a steering wheel.

The Las Vegas debut of Zoox's long-planned ride-hailing service reﬂects Amazon-owned robotaxi maker's conﬁdence in the safety of its boxy vehicles after two years of testing them in the city.

The robotaxis initially were only available to employees in Las Vegas before gradually expanding to friends and family

members. Now, anyone with the Zoox app will be able to request a ride to ﬁve designated locations, including Resorts World, the Luxor hotel and the New York-New York hotel.

The longest distance the Zoox robotaxis will travel is about three miles (4.8 kilometers) while carrying up to four passengers.

All rides will be provided for free for at least the ﬁrst few months to help promote the existence of the service in the perennially popular travel destination.

Once it begins charging for rides in Las Vegas, Zoox says its prices will be comparable to traditional taxis and ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

Zoox can afford to give free rides largely because

of Amazon's deep pockets. The e-commerce powerhouse, currently worth $2.5 trillion, bought Zoox for $1.2 billion ﬁve years ago as part of its efforts to establish a foothold in other ﬁelds of technology.

The Las Vegas market marks Zoox's ﬁrst step in its attempt to catch up with robotaxi leader Waymo, a Google spin-off that offers that already provides driverless rides in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin, Texas (where Tesla is still in the testing phase of a robotaxi service that its CEO, Elon Musk, has been hyping for the past decade).

While Waymo implants its driverless technology in vehicles built by traditional

Ellison owns about 40% of Oracle, which means its surging stock added $100 billion to his net worth in little over a half-hour after the stock market opened.

The night before after trading had closed the company announced in an earnings report that it had struck more than $300 billion worth of new deals, including contracts with the OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia and

and

Musk's xAI. It said that it now expects revenue from its cloud infrastructure business to jump 77% to $18 billion this ﬁscal year. then rise to $144 billion in four years after that. Ellison said in an earnings call that Oracle would not just be making money from its computing centers that help build the next chatbots, but from the dayto-day running of those AI systems to run robots in factories, design drugs in laboratories, place bets in ﬁnancial markets and automate legal and sales work at companies.

In other words, Ellison's surge in wealth Wednesday morning reﬂected investor expectations that computers will take over many jobs now done by humans — and Oracle will beneﬁt.

Or as the 81 year old said on the call, "AI Changes Everything."

Musk is hoping the same for Tesla and his own net worth, but he's been struggling to convince investors.

Ofﬁce

The company had been promising a big turnaround in electric car sales after they fell sharply earlier this year, but the bounce back hasn't happened. Musk has been downplaying the bad numbers by trying to shift investors' focus to Tesla's other business of making robots and advances in the artiﬁcial intelligence behind its cars and robotaxis.

While he keeps talking up the Tesla future, though, the bad news keeps coming. Tesla sales in the European Union plunged 40% earlier this summer, the seventh month in row of drops, as customers balked at buying his cars after he took to X to support extreme right-wing politicians there. The company has been losing market share in the U.S., too, as buyers angry with his embrace of Donald Trump have stayed away from Tesla showrooms. Oracle stock closed Wednesday at $328.33, a 36% jump. Tesla was up less than 1% at $347.79.

automakers, Zoox is manufacturing its distinctively designed robotaxis in a former bus factory located in Hayward, California — about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.

In a sign of its ambitions, Zoox hopes to manufacture as many as 10,000 robotaxis annually as it expands into other markets. While the company is currently testing its vehicles in San Francisco, it hopes to open up its service to all passengers next year. Some San Francisco passengers who signed up for Zoox's testing program are expected to be able to start getting driverless rides before the end of this year. Zoox is currently operating about 50 vehicles in Las Vegas and San Francisco, with most of them in Nevada for now. After it starts charging for rides in San Francisco, Zoox hopes to expand to Austin and Miami next.

LARRY ELLISON, chairman

chief technology ofﬁcer of Oracle Corporation, sits in the Oval

of the White House

President Donald Trump signs an executive order, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. Photo:Evan Vucci/AP

AMAZON-Zoox robotaxis are beginning to give free rides through parts of Las Vegas as part of its driverless service’s launch.

Photo:Zoox Inc./AP

Trump's plan for a drug advertising crackdown faces many hurdles

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer

HEALTH Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other administration ofﬁcials are vowing a crackdown on deceptive drug ads, but the effort is likely to face multiple headwinds, including pushback from industry and layoffs among regulators tasked with leading the effort.

President Donald Trump signed a memo Tuesday that directs the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies to step up enforcement against ubiquitous prescription drug ads on TV, websites and social media.

The industry's multibillion-dollar marketing efforts have long been a target for Kennedy, who previously suggested banning all pharmaceutical ads from TV. That step

would have almost certainly been struck down by federal judges, who have long accepted advertising as a First Amendment-protected form of speech. Instead, Trump's directive tells the FDA to use current laws to ensure "transparency and accuracy" in all ads.

But the FDA has long struggled to defend its actions against drug promotions in court. And reworking some of its key regulations — including those governing TV advertising — could take years. Here's a look at the administration's plans and some of the hurdles that may lie ahead.

A promise for more FDA warnings after years of legal setbacks

The FDA kicked off its effort Tuesday evening saying it was issuing

"thousands" of warnings to drugmakers over inaccurate or misleading ads.

But rather than individual notices citing speciﬁc violations, the FDA shared a generic letter that it sent to drugmakers, instructing them to bring "all promotional communications into compliance."

The form letter is different from typical FDA warning letters, which usually cite speciﬁc issues with company advertisements that run afoul of FDA rules and lay the groundwork for future legal action.

The FDA's press release noted that such warnings have fallen dramatically in recent years, with only one issued in 2023 and none in 2024.

Former FDA ofﬁcials say that reﬂects two trends. First, the drug industry has abandoned many of

Klarna shares rise 15%

in their ﬁrst day of trading on Wall Street

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer

KLARNA made a solid debut on the New York Stock Exchange, with shares of the Swedish buy now, pay later company rising nearly 15%, the latest in a run of high-proﬁle initial public offerings this year.

Klarna stock opened at $52 a share Wednesday, a 30% premium to the company's $40 pricing. It took roughly three-and-a-half hours for the specialists on the ﬂoor of the NYSE to manually price the ﬁrst batch of trades of the company. The shares rose as high as $57 before losing some momentum and ending at $45.82, up 14.6%.

More than 34 million shares worth approximately $1.37 billion were sold to investors, making it the largest IPO this year, according to Renaissance Capital. That's notable because 2025 has been one of the busier years for companies going public.

Other notable IPOs this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin. Investors are also looking forward to the expected market debuts of the ticket exchange StubHub and the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, which is majority owned by the Winklevoss twins.

Founded in 2005 as a payments company, Klarna entered the U.S. buynow-pay-later market in 2015 in partnership with department store operator Macy's. Since then, Klarna has expanded to hundreds of thousands of merchants and embedded itself in internet browsers and digital wallets as an alternative to credit cards. The company recently announced a partnership with Walmart. The company will trade under the symbol "KLAR."

While Klarna was founded in Sweden and is a popular payment service in Europe, company executives said they made the decision to go public in the U.S. as a signal that Klarna's future growth opportunities lay with the American shopper.

"It's the largest consumer market in the world, and it's the biggest credit card market in the world. It's a tremendous opportunity, from our perspective," said CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the IPO.

Over the years and in multiple interviews, Siemiatkowski has made it clear that Klarna wants to steal away customers from the big credit card companies and sees credit cards as a high-interest, exploitative product that consumers rarely use correctly.

Klarna's most popular product is what's known as

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL

The Public is hereby advised that I, EUGENA TERRYSA WOODSIDE of North Victoria Hill on the Island of San Salvador, The Bahamas, the parent of MICHAEL KHALEEL NAPOLEON WOODSIDE a minor intend to change my child’s name to KHALEEL NAPOLEON ANTONIO WOODSIDE. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Offcer, P O o , assa , aha as o ater tha thirt a s after the ate of p icatio of this otice

to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration/ Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 4th day of September 2025 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

the most egregious tactics deployed in the early 2000s, including the use of distracting sounds and visuals that often drew attention away from drug warnings and side effect information.

Additionally, the FDA has repeatedly settled legal cases challenging its authority to police drug promotions.

The agency often declines to pursue such cases due to the risks of losing in court, which could create legal precedent eroding its power.

Looking ahead, recent Trump administration job cuts have slashed stafﬁng in the FDA's drug advertising division, which handles warning letters.

A plan to curb TV ads could take a very long time

One major proposal by the administration involves reversing a nearly 30-yearold FDA rule.

Until the late 1990s, TV drug advertisements were impractical and prohibitively expensive because FDA regulations required drugmakers to list each medication's risks and side effects. A 1997 shift allowed companies to brieﬂy summarize that information and point viewers to more complete information on websites, in print ads or elsewhere.

The FDA said this week it will begin the process to eliminate that practice, calling it a "loophole" used

to "conceal critical safety risks."

But the FDA rulemaking process usually takes years — sometimes more than a decade — with multiple opportunities for public comment and revision.

For example, new guidelines ﬁnalized last year that require clearer and simpler language in drug ads took more than 15 years to develop and implement.

If the FDA tried to skip steps or rush, drugmakers could challenge the process in court. For its part, the industry maintains that TV ads are a way to educate and empower consumers.

"Truthful and nonmisleading DTC advertising is protected under the First Amendment and has documented evidence of advancing patient awareness and engagement," PhRMA, the industry's leading trade group, said in a statement Wednesday.

Inﬂuencers and other newer promoters may be beyond FDA's reach

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary also suggested his agency will be more aggressive about policing ads on social media platforms like Instagram, where drugmakers often partner with patient inﬂuencers or doctors.

The agency has long struggled to oversee those promotions, because FDA advertising rules only apply to drug companies.

Social media inﬂuencers who are paid to endorse or promote products are supposed to clearly disclose that relationship. But that requirement is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. And in some cases, inﬂuencers aren't being paid by anyone: They promote products in hopes of landing future endorsement deals.

The FDA has also been under pressure to crack down on advertisements from newer specialty pharmacies and telehealth companies. A Super Bowl ad from one company drew scrutiny earlier this year for promoting unofﬁcial versions of weight loss drugs, touting their beneﬁts without listing any of the risks or side effects. Disclosing that information is an FDA requirement.

Companies that connect patients to so-called compounded drugs say they are not subject to FDA rules because they are not traditional drug manufacturers.

A Senate bill introduced last year would bring inﬂuencers and telehealth companies clearly under FDA's jurisdiction, requiring them to disclose risk and side effect information. But the legislation has not advanced or received a hearing.

a "pay-in-4" plan, where a customer can split a purchase into four payments spread over six weeks.

The company also offers a longer-term payment plan where it charges interest. The business model has caught on globally, particularly among consumers who are reluctant to use credit cards. The company said 111 million consumers worldwide have used Klarna.

Klarna and other buynow-pay-later companies have attracted increased public interest in recent years as the business model has caught on. State and federal regulators, as well as consumer groups, have expressed some degree of worry that consumers may overextend themselves ﬁnancially on buy-now-paylater loans just as much as they do with credit cards.

Siemiatkowski says the company is actively monitoring how consumers use their products, and the average balance of Klarna user is less than $100. Because the company issues loans that are six weeks or less, Klarna argues it can more easily adjust its underwriting standard depending on economic conditions.

With Klarna going public, its co-founders are now billionaires. At Klarna's IPO price of $40, Siemiatkowski's 7% stake in the company is worth around $1 billion, while Victor Jacobsson, who left the

company in 2012, owns an 8.4% stake in the company now worth $1.3 billion. Siemiatkowski said he did not selling shares as part of the IPO.

But with Klarna's 20-year-long incubation period before going public, and several fundraising rounds, major parts of Silicon Valley are walking with a handsome return for their patience. Sequoia Capital, the storied venture capital ﬁrm that was an early backer in the company, has accumulated a 21% ownership in Klarna worth roughly $3.15 billion. Silver Lake, another major VC ﬁrm, owns roughly 4.5% of the company.

Klarna reported secondquarter revenue of $823 million in August before going public and had an adjusted proﬁt of $29 million. The delinquency rate on Klarna's "pay-in-4" loans is 0.89% and on its longer-term loans for bigger purchases, the delinquency

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL

The Public is hereby advised that I, EUGENA TERRYSA WOODSIDE of North Victoria Hill on the Island of San Salvador, The Bahamas intend to change my name to GENA TERRYSA A’MERAH WOODSIDE. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Chief Passport Offcer, P.O.Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that ANDY ANDRE of Wilton Street, New Providence, Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 4th day of September, 2025 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

rate is 2.23%. Those ﬁgures are below the average 30-day delinquency rates on a credit card.

Klarna will now be the second-largest buynow-pay-later company by market capitalization behind Afﬁrm. Shares of Afﬁrm have surged more than 40% so far this year, putting the value of the company around $28

billion, helped by a belief among investors that buy-now-pay-later companies may take away market share from traditional banks and credit cards. Afﬁrm fell slightly Wednesday. Klarna's primary underwriters for the IPO were JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

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NOTICE is hereby given that ODEILYS CARIDAD VILLA

of Nassau Village, Bahamas, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 4th day of September, 2025 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

KLARNA CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, center, accompanied by NYSE President Lynn Martin, left, and Klarna Chairman Michael Moritz, right, signs the guest book before ringing the New York Stock Exchange opening bell, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

Photo:Richard Drew/AP

CERVANTES

SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES TRUMP’S

FED BOARD NOMINEE, RAISING CONCERNS ABOUT ITS INDEPENDENCE

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer

A SENATE committee on Wednesday approved the nomination of White House economic adviser Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve's board of governors, setting up a likely approval by the full Senate, which would make Miran the third Trump appointee to the seven-member board.

The White House has pushed for an expedited Senate approval of Miran, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to replace former Fed governor Adriana Kugler. Kugler stepped down Aug. 1. Miran would, if approved, simply ﬁnish her term, which expires in January.

Miran may be approved by the full Senate in time for the Fed's meeting next week, when it is widely expected to reduce its key

short-term interest rate. The committee voted to approve Miran on partisan lines, 13-11, with all Democrats voting against conﬁrmation. Miran's nomination has raised concerns about the Fed's independence from day-to-day politics, particularly since he said during a hearing last week that he would keep his job as head of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers while on the Fed's board, a historically unusual arrangement. Presidents have nominated members of their staffs to the Fed's board before, but the nominees have always given up their White House jobs.

Trump has hoped to gain a majority on the Fed's board as part of his efforts to push the central bank to rapidly cut its key interest rate. Yet late Tuesday his goal was dealt a setback when a federal court blocked Trump's effort

to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, who he has accused of mortgage fraud. It is now likely that both Miran and Cook will be on the Fed's board when it meets next week. Members of the Fed's board of governors vote on all interest rate decisions as well as on financial regulatory policy. Trump appointed two other members of the board — Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman — in his first term. Waller has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Chair Jerome Powell, a frequent Trump target whose term ends next May.

Democrats on the committee criticized Miran for planning to keep his White House ties while at the Fed.

"The Federal Reserve was designed to make decisions free from political interference, guided by data and the long-term stability of our economy, not

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer

SANDWICH maker Potbelly is being acquired by the gas station and convenience store chain RaceTrac for $566 million.

Potbelly, which was founded in Chicago in 1977, has 445 restaurants across the U.S. The company said the deal with RaceTrac will help it reach its goal of quadrupling in size to 2,000 locations. Potbelly stores are both company- and franchise-owned.

"With RaceTrac's resources, we will unlock new opportunity for this incredible brand while staying true to the neighborhood sandwich shop experience that makes Potbelly special," Potbelly CEO Bob Wright said in a statement Wednesday.

Potbelly shares jumped more than 31% to $16.99 in early afternoon trading. Sandwich chains have struggled in recent years, starting with the pandemic that had millions eating at home when they would

the political agenda of any one president," Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said in a statement before the vote. "Donald Trump has made clear he wants to tear down that independence, just as he has with so many of the institutions that have kept our democracy and our economy strong."

Miran said he would step down from his White House position if he is chosen for a longer term. Yet he can remain on the board after Kugler's term ends in January, if no replacement is named. He has said in that case he would consider keeping his White House job even if he remains on the board after January, sparking fresh criticism from Democrats.

The jockeying around the Fed is occurring as the economy is entering an uncertain and difﬁcult period. Inﬂation remains stubbornly

above the central bank's 2% target, though it hasn't risen as much as many economists feared when Trump ﬁrst imposed sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports.

The Fed typically would raise borrowing costs, or at least keep them elevated, to combat worsening inﬂation.

At the same time, hiring has weakened considerably and the unemployment rate rose last month to a stilllow 4.3%. The central bank often takes the opposite approach when unemployment rises and cuts rates, to spur more borrowing, spending, and growth.

usually have dined out. That made them ripe for takeovers.

In 2021, Restaurant Brands International — which also owns Burger King, Popeye's and Tim Hortons — bought Firehouse Subs for $1 billion. Two years later, the private equity ﬁrm Roark Capital snapped up Subway for nearly $10 billion.

Roark specializes in franchised businesses and backs two holding companies that own multiple chains, including several sandwich shops. Inspire Brands owns Jimmy John's, while GoTo Foods owns Schlotzsky's and McAlister's Deli.

BUSINESS COMPANIES ACT, 2000 CALECE CO. LTD. (IN VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATION)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that in accordance with section 138(4) of the International Business Companies Act, 2000, as amended, CALECE CO. LTD. is in dissolution.

The dissolution of the said Company commenced on 9th day of September, 2025 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered with the Registrar General in Nassau, The Bahamas.

The sole liquidator of the said Company is Kim D Thompson of Equity Trust House, Caves Village, West Bay Street, P O Box N 10697, Nassau, Bahamas.

Kim D Thompson Sole Liquidator

Incorporated under the International Business Companies Act, 2000 of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas registered in the Register of Companies under the registration number 210309 B.

(In Voluntary Liquidation)

Notice is hereby given that the liquidation and the winding up of the Company is complete and the Company has been struck off the Register of Companies maintained by the Registrar General.

Incorporated under the International Business Companies Act, 2000 of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas registered in the Register of Companies under the registration number 208017 B.

(In Voluntary Liquidation)

Notice is hereby given that the liquidation and the winding up of the Company is complete and the Company has been struck off the Register of Companies maintained by the Registrar General.

Potbelly focused on a multi-year transformation plan coming out of the pandemic. The chain introduced new menu items, including a steak sandwich. It also increased its digital and delivery sales, redesigned stores and grew by attracting new franchisees.

In the company's second quarter, which ended June 29, same-store sales — or sales at locations open at least a year — were up 3%.

U.S. fast food trafﬁc fell 1% industry-wide during the quarter, according to Revenue Management Solutions Co., a consulting company for restaurants.

Powell signaled late last month that the Fed may focus more on risks to the job market in the coming months, which makes rate cuts more likely. Wall Street investors now expect three quarter-point reductions this year, which would reduce the Fed's short-term rate to about 3.6%, from its current level of 4.3%.

The Fed cut its key rate three times in 2024, but has kept it unchanged since then. Powell has said the central bank wanted to evaluate the impact of Trump's tariffs on the economy before making any moves.

Still, the future is cloudy for many restaurant chains. Inﬂation has hit restaurants hard as they pay more for ingredients and customers tighten their belts. National chains are also being pressured to lower prices with lower-income customers pulling back on spending. McDonald's said this month that it is cutting prices on some combo meals to woo back customers who've been turned off by the rising cost of grabbing a fast food meal. Some investors had been pushing Potbelly to consider a sale, saying the company's stock was undervalued compared to competitors. Immersion Investments, one of Potbelly's top shareholders, urged a sale in an open letter last fall and called on the company to slow its investments in technology and hiring. RaceTrac was founded in 1934 and is family owned. The Atlanta company operates more than 800 locations in 14 states. RaceTrac Chairman and CEO Natalie Morhous said the company is eager to expand its stable of brands. RaceTrac said it will acquire all of Potbelly's shares for $17.12 each in cash.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMPANIES ACT, 2000

Julia Holdings Limited (IN VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATION)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that in accordance with section 138(4) of the International Business Companies Act, 2000, as amended, JL Julia Holdings Limited is in dissolution.

The dissolution of the said Company commenced on 5th day of September, 2025 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered with the Registrar General in Nassau, The Bahamas.

The sole liquidator of the said Company is Kim D Thompson of Equity Trust House, Caves Village, West Bay Street, P O Box N 10697, Nassau, Bahamas.

Kim D Thompson Sole Liquidator

Incorporated under the International Business Companies Act, 2000 of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas registered in the Register of Companies under the registration number 210676 B.

(In Voluntary Liquidation)

Notice is hereby given that the liquidation and the winding up of the Company is complete and the Company has been struck off the Register of Companies maintained by the Registrar General.

STEPHEN Miran testiﬁes during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on his nomination to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, on Capitol Hill Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Washington.

Photo:Mariam Zuhaib/AP

THE ENTRANCE to Potbelly sandwich store seen in

TRUMP IS UPSETTING THE US ALLIES NEEDED TO COUNTER CHINA

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, DIDI TANG and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press

PRESIDENT Donald Trump's aggressive trade and immigration policies are undermining relationships that have been cornerstones of American foreign policy to counter China's growing inﬂuence, eroding years of diplomatic investments spanning administrations.

The latest fracture came Friday, when hundreds of South Korean workers were detained at a Hyundai manufacturing plant in Georgia, a facility that had been a showcase for closer economic ties between the two countries. Some of the workers, who were being investigated for visa issues, were shackled.

Administration ofﬁcials insist that trade will not be impacted, but foreign policy analysts have watched deteriorating relationships with alarm. Instead of following the conventional wisdom of building coalitions as a bulwark against China, Trump has reveled in turning the

screws on friend and foe alike.

"Treaty allies are developing fallback options if the United States disengages from the region," said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies U.S. strategy in Asia. "Some partners are hedging by cultivating better relationships with China."

Ties with India also have cooled despite a previously cordial friendship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump, a Republican, imposed tariffs on India as punishment for buying Russian oil during the war in Ukraine, and he's grown closer with Pakistan, a bordering rival.

Modi was recently photographed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a security summit in Tianjin, prompting a social media jab from Trump.

"Looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China," he wrote. "May they have a long and prosperous future together!"

It's possible that recent spats could blow over. Trump called Modi "my very good friend" when announcing trade talks between the two countries would continue in a Truth Social post. "I feel certain that there will be no difﬁculty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries," he wrote.

Modi responded by calling the two countries "close friends and natural partners" and said he was "conﬁdent that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership."

But concerns among Asian nations may not be temporary, especially if there's a sense that Trump's skeptical view of foreign engagement will linger after he's no longer in ofﬁce.

"Most countries in the region believe that Washington's protectionist policies, unilateral tendencies and greater skepticism of overseas engagement will outlast the Trump administration," Cooper said.

In a statement, the Chinese embassy in

COURT RULES LISA COOK CAN REMAIN A FED GOVERNOR WHILE FIGHTING TRUMP'S ATTEMPT TO FIRE HER

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press

A FEDERAL court has ruled that embattled Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook can remain in her position while she ﬁghts President Donald Trump's efforts to ﬁre her.

The ruling, which will almost certainly be appealed, is a blow to the Trump administration's efforts to assert more control over the traditionally independent Fed, which sets short-term interest rates to achieve its congressionally mandated goals of stable prices and maximum employment. Congress has also sought to insulate the Fed from day-to-day politics.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb late Tuesday granted Cook's request for a preliminary injunction blocking her firing while the dispute makes its way through the courts. Cobb ruled that Cook would likely prevail in the lawsuit she filed late last month to overturn her firing.

Trump, a Republican, said he was ﬁring Cook on Aug. 25 over allegations raised by one of his appointees that she committed mortgage fraud related to two properties she purchased in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta in 2021, before she joined the Fed. Cook is accused of saying the properties were "primary residences," which could have resulted in lower down payments and mortgage rates than if either was designated a second home or investment property.

The White House insisted Trump had the right to ﬁre Cook.

"President Trump lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause due to credible allegations of mortgage fraud from her highly sensitive position overseeing ﬁnancial institutions on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors," White House spokesman Kush Desai said Wednesday in a statement. "This ruling will not be the last say on the matter, and the Trump Administration will continue to work to restore accountability and conﬁdence in the Fed."

But Cobb ruled that the allegations likely weren't sufficient legal cause to fire Cook. Under the law governing the Fed, governors can only be removed "for cause," which Cobb said was limited to actions taken during a governor's time in office.

The "removal of a Federal Reserve Governor extends only to concerns

about the Board member's ability to effectively and faithfully execute their statutory duties, in light of events that have occurred while they are in ofﬁce," Cobb wrote. Cobb was appointed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

"President Trump has not stated a legally permissible cause for Cook's removal," the ruling added. The decision means Cook will be able to participate in the Fed's meeting Sept. 16-17, when it is expected to reduce its key short-term rate by a quarter-point to between 4% and 4.25%.

Federal Reserve governors aren't like cabinet secretaries and the law doesn't allow a president to ﬁre them over policy disagreements or because he simply wants to replace them. Congress sought to insulate the Fed from political pressure, the court noted, by giving Fed governors long, staggered terms that make it unlikely a president can appoint a majority of the board in a single term.

"Allowing the President to unlawfully remove Governor Cook on unsubstantiated and vague allegations would endanger the stability of our ﬁnancial system and undermine the rule of law," Cook's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a written statement. "Governor Cook will continue to carry out her sworn duties as a Senate-conﬁrmed Board Governor."

The court also directed the Fed's board of governors and its chair, Jerome Powell, "to allow Cook to continue to operate as a member of the Board for the pendency of this litigation."

Lowell had argued in court ﬁlings that Cook was entitled to a hearing and a chance to respond to the charges before being ﬁred but was not provided

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Washington said the country never engages "in zero-sum games or geopolitical confrontations where one wins and the other loses" but "is committed to maintaining world peace, stability and development, sharing development opportunities with countries around the world."

Trump has occasionally talked tough toward China, and he risked a trade war between the world's ﬁrst and second largest economies by announcing steep tariffs. However, both sides have stepped back from that confrontation, and Trump has been focused on seeking a summit with Xi.

After a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi over the summer, the State Department said both sides "agreed to explore areas of potential cooperation, while seeking to manage differences."

The tension between Trump and Modi has been particularly surprising given their closeness during Trump's ﬁrst term. However, Modi has declined to

unpopular things like lifting interest rates to combat inﬂation more easily than elected ofﬁcials.

indulge Trump's attempt to claim credit for brokering a recent ceaseﬁre between India and Pakistan, although Pakistan has nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize that he covets.

In addition, India has been caught in the crossﬁre of Trump's efforts to resolve the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In order to put indirect pressure on Moscow, Trump increased tariffs on India for buying Russian oil during the war.

Eric Garcetti, who served as U.S. ambassador to India under President Joe Biden, said years of diplomacy won't be reversed but said "a lot of damage can be done," and he warned that it would be a "very lonely world" if India and U.S. are not on the same page.

gain a 4-3 majority on the Fed's governing board.

"This is one of the most critical relationships for our success and for the world," he said. Rick Rossow, a senior adviser focused on India and emerging Asia economics at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S.-India relationship is at "a low point" but "such moments always feel like they are more signiﬁcant than they actually are."

However, tensions could jeopardize a planned visit by Trump to India to attend a summit that would also include leaders from Japan and Australia. The strategic grouping, known as the Quad, is viewed as a mechanism to counter Beijing's military and political inﬂuences in the region.

either. The court agreed that she was not provided due process by the Trump administration. Her lawsuit denied the charges but did not provide more details. The case could become a turning point for the 112-year-old Federal Reserve. No president has sought to ﬁre a Fed governor before. Economists prefer independent central banks because they can do

Many economists worry that if the Fed falls under the control of the White House, it will keep its key interest rate lower than justified by economic fundamentals to satisfy Trump's demands for cheaper borrowing. That could accelerate inflation and could also push up longer-term interest rates, such as those on mortgages and car loans. Investors may demand a higher yield to own bonds to offset greater inflation in the future, lifting borrowing costs for the U.S. government, and the entire economy.

If Trump can replace Cook, he may be able to

Trump appointed two board members during his ﬁrst term and has nominated a key White House economic adviser, Stephen Miran, to replace Adriana Kugler, another Fed governor who stepped down unexpectedly Aug. 1. The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on Miran's nomination.

Trump has said he will only appoint to the Fed people who will support lower rates.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell and the other members of the Fed's interest-rate setting committee for not cutting the short-term interest rate they control more quickly.

It currently stands at 4.3%, after Fed policymakers reduced it by a full percentage point late last year. Trump has said he thinks it should be as low as 1.3%, a level that no Fed ofﬁcial and few economists support. Powell recently signaled that the central bank was leaning toward cutting its rate at its meeting next week.

Cook is the ﬁrst Black woman to serve as a Fed governor. She was a Marshall Scholar and received degrees from Oxford University and Spelman College, and prior to joining the board she taught at Michigan State University and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

PRESIDENT Donald Trump speaks to the White House Religious Liberty Commission during an event at the Museum of the Bible, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Washington. Photo:Evan Vucci/AP

EU chief says it’s time for Europe’s ‘independence moment’ faced with war and major power tensions

By LORNE COOK Associated Press

THE European Union's most powerful ofﬁcial warned Wednesday that Europe is battling against a series of threats posed by Russia, new global trade challenges and even other major world powers and must stake claim to its independence.

In a State of the Union speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced new measures to help Ukraine ﬁght off Russia's full-scale invasion, and she called for trade restrictions and sanctions on Israel over the war in Gaza.

She also defended the deal she reached with U.S. President Donald Trump to limit the impact of his global tariff war, despite agreeing to a 15% duty rate for most European exports to the United States.

Fight for values

"Europe is in a fight," von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. "A fight for our values and our democracies. A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves. Make no mistake — this is a fight for our future."

"Battle lines for a new world order based on power are being drawn right now," she said, adding that the EU "must ﬁght for its place in a world in which many major powers are either ambivalent or openly hostile to Europe."

The commission is the EU's executive arm. It proposes laws that impact the lives of around 450 million people across 27 countries, and monitors whether those rules are respected.

In recent years, it has helped Europe to survive fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, break its dependency on Russian energy supplies and cope with a trade war launched by a traditional ally like the U.S.

Russian aggression

Turning to Russia's war on Ukraine, now in its fourth year, von der Leyen said that Russian President Vladimir Putin shows no sign of ending the war, and that "our response must be clear too."

"We need more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiation table. We need more sanctions," she said. The commission and EU member countries are working on a new raft of sanctions targeting Russia's energy revenues. Poland said Wednesday that multiple Russian drones entered its territory over the course of several hours and were shot down with help from NATO allies.

Von der Leyen condemned the "reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europe's airspace."

"Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland," she said. "Putin's message is clear, and our response must be clear, too. We need more pressure on Russia to come

"This must be Europe's independence moment," said the 66-year-old former German defense minister, who has become a prominent ﬁgure at summits with leaders around the world, despite her role as a political appointee who hasn't been elected to ofﬁce.

to the negotiation table. We need more sanctions."

Ukraine's economy

Von der Leyen also said that new ways to address Ukraine's ﬁnancial challenges must also come through the use of frozen Russian assets in Europe. Almost 200 billion euros ($235 billion) worth of those assets are being held in a Belgian clearing house. Interest earned on the assets – around 3.5 billion euros ($4.1 billion) were generated last year – are already being used to help prop up Ukraine's warravaged economy. Von der Leyen said that a "reparations loan" for damage inﬂicted by Russia is being weighed.

She also announced the creation of a "drone alliance" with Ukraine – drones have become a decisive factor in the war – with 6 billion euros ($7 billion) in funds for the effort.

Freezing support to Israel

To applause in the parliament, the commission chief said that she wants to freeze some ﬁnancial support to Israel, and to impose trade restrictions and sanctions on the government over the war in Gaza.

Breaking with her traditionally very strong pro-Israeli government stance, von der Leyen said that the events in Gaza and the suffering of children and families "has shaken the conscience of the world."

"Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity. This must stop," she said. She added that the commission will set up a new

US

supply chain prices unexpectedly fell 0.1% in August

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer

U.S. producer prices fell unexpectedly last month, dropping 0.1% from July. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which captures inflation in the supply chain before it hits consumers — showed that wholesale inflation decelerated in August after advancing 0.7% in July. Wholesale services prices fell 0.2% from July on smaller profit margins at retailers and wholesalers, which might be a sign that those companies are absorbing the cost of President Donald Trump's sweeping taxes — tariffs — on imports.

Compared with a year earlier, producer prices rose 2.6%.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core producer prices also fell 0.1% from July and were up 2.8% from a year earlier.

The numbers were lower than economists had forecast. Trump's tariffs were widely expected to send prices higher, but so far their impact has been muted. "The big picture remains that tariff effects are feeding through only slowly,'' economist Stephen Brown of Capital Economics wrote in a commentary. "Wholesalers and retailers have been slow to pass on the cost of tariffs," said

Bill Adams chief economist at Comerica Bank. "This could be due to foreign suppliers discounting to maintain market share, to weak demand in the U.S., or to businesses waiting to pass on costs until they have clarity about where tariff rates settle out.'' Still, Adams noted that some prices of imported products rose, pointing to a coffee prices — up 6.9% from July and 33.3% from a year earlier. The wholesale price report came out day before the Labor Department releases its consumer price index. The CPI is expected to show that consumer price inﬂation picked up slightly last month, rising 0.3% from July, an uptick from a 0.2% increase the month before. Compared with a year earlier, consumer prices are expected to have risen 2.9% in August, up from a 2.7% year-over-year increase in July.

Wholesale prices can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably measures of health care and financial services, flow into the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index. The drop in producer prices makes it even more likely that the

Palestinian donor group, with a focus on Gaza's future reconstruction.

U.S. tariff deal

Addressing criticism of the tariff deal with Trump, von der Leyen underlined that Europe depends on the United States as a major

trading partner, and that the position of European businesses was improved compared to other countries that got a worse deal.

EUROPEAN Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gestures as she delivers a major state of the union speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.

Photo:Pascal Bastien/AP

STUDY LINKS MORE FREQUENT AND SEVERE HEAT WAVES TO POLLUTION FROM MAJOR FOSSIL FUEL PRODUCERS

By ISABELLA O'MALLEY Associated Press

FIFTY-ﬁve heat waves over the past quartercentury would not have happened without humancaused climate change, according to a study published Wednesday.

Planet-warming emissions from 180 major cement, oil and gas producers contributed signiﬁcantly to all of the heat events considered in the study, which was published in the journal Nature and examined a set of 213 heat waves from 2000 to 2023. The polluters examined in the study include publicly traded and state-owned companies, as well several countries where fossil fuel production data was available at the national level.

Collectively, these producers are responsible for 57% of all the carbon dioxide that was emitted from 1850 to 2023, the study found.

"It just shows that it's not that many actors … who are responsible for a very strong fraction of all emissions," said Sonia Seneviratne, a climate professor at the Swiss university ETH Zurich who was one of the study's contributors.

The set of heat waves in the study came from the EM-DAT International Disaster Database, which the researchers described as the most widely used global disaster repository. The Nature study examined all of the heat waves in the database from 2000 to 2023 except for a few that weren't suitable for their analysis.

Global warming made all 213 of the heat waves examined more likely, the study found. Out of those, 55 were 10,000 times more likely to have happened than they would have been before industrialization began accelerating in the 1800s. The calculation is equivalent to saying those 55 heat waves "would have been virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change, the authors wrote.

"Many of these heat waves had very strong consequences," said Seneviratne. She said the series of heat waves that struck Europe in 2022 that was linked to tens of thousands of deaths sticks out in her mind as one of the events with particularly grave consequences.

Scientists calculate how carbon emitters inﬂuence heat waves

Climate scientists can use complex computer programs and historic weather data to calculate the connection between extreme weather events and the planet-warming pollutants humans emit. Climate change attribution studies often focus on how climate change inﬂuenced a speciﬁc weather event, but the scientists say this new Nature study is unique because it focused on the extent to which cement and fossil fuel producers have contributed to heat waves.

"They are drawing on a pretty well-established ﬁeld of attribution science now, which has existed for about 20 years," said Chris Callahan, a climate scientist at Indiana University who was

not involved in the study. Callahan has used similar attribution methodologies in his research and said the new study is appropriate and high-quality.

Scientists say the new study could be taken into consideration in legal cases.

Globally, dozens of lawsuits have been ﬁled against fossil fuel companies by climate activists, American state governments and others seeking to hold the companies accountable for their role in climate change.

For example, Vermont and New York have passed laws that aim to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their emissions and the damage caused.

TRUMP'S DEPORTATION PLANS RESULT IN 320,000 FEWER IMMIGRANTS AND SLOWER POPULATION GROWTH, CBO SAYS

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press

PRESIDENT Donald Trump's plans for mass deportations and other hardline immigration measures will result in roughly 320,000 people removed from the United States over the next ten years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Ofﬁce said Wednesday in a report that also projected that the U.S. population will grow more slowly than it had previously projected.

Trump's tax and spending law, passed by Congress and signed in July, included roughly $150 billion to ramp

"For a while, it was argued that any individual contributor to climate change was making too small or too diffuse a contribution to ever be linked to any particular impact. And this emerging science, both this paper and others, is showing that that's not true," said Callahan.

up his mass deportation agenda over the next four years. This includes funding for everything from an extension of the United States' southern border wall to detention centers and thousands of additional law enforcement staff. The CBO found that 290,000 immigrants could be removed through those measures, and an additional 30,000 people could leave the U.S. voluntarily.

Coupled with a lower fertility rate in the U.S., the reduction in immigration means that the CBO's projection of the U.S. population will be 4.5 million people lower by 2035

Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth College climate scientist who wasn't involved in the study, said the ﬁndings provide insight into the origins of the heat waves and how potential hazards from them could be minimized in the future.

"As we contend with these losses, the assessment of who or what's responsible is going to become really important," Mankin said. "I think there are some really appropriate questions, like who pays to recoup our losses, given that we're all being damaged by it."

than the nonpartisan ofﬁce had projected in January. It cautioned that its population projections are "highly uncertain," but estimated

that the U.S. will have 367 million people in 2055. Lower immigration to the U.S. could have implications for the nation's economy and the government's budget.

EMISSIONS from a coal-ﬁred power plant are silhouetted against the setting sun in Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 1, 2021.

Photo:Charlie Riedel/AP

This image from video provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via DVIDS shows manufacturing plant employees being escorted outside the Hyundai Motor Group’s electric vehicle plant, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga.

Photo:Corey Bullard/AP