by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:20 AM ET, Wed May 21, 2025
Part of the shuttered Sandals Emerald Bay Resort was allegedly erroneously listed as part of an auction by the Bahamas Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) this month, following months of legal battles between the Bahamian government and Sandals Resorts International over under-reported and unpaid taxes, a case which has led to the country’s Supreme Court.
A Notification of Sale by Public Auction was published by the Department of Inland Revenue on May 12, listing several commercial properties in Exuma under the same “Farmers Hill, Sandals Beach Units” that had been seized by the DIR for unpaid taxes and would be auctioned off for an assessed value between $1.51 and $2.7 million each.
Sandals Emerald Bay closed last August to be renovated and reopened as the family-friendly Beaches Exuma, which was expected to open sometime in the fall of 2024. The resort, however, is still shuttered.
We reached out to Sandals Resorts International about the potential seizure of the villas at Sandals Emerald Bay, which they denied.
“We are aware of recent media reports suggesting that private properties owned by Sandals in Exuma are slated for auction. We wish to state categorically that is an error stemming from inaccurate records at the Department of Inland Revenue,” a Sandals spokesperson replied.
“We have been assured that the mistake will be rectified and no bids for these properties will be accepted by the Department of Inland Revenue. Sandals remains fully committed to the Bahamas. We continue to invest heavily in the region and look forward to building on our longstanding partnership.”
The Department of Inland Revenue has since confirmed that issues with Sandals property listings are resolved.
The DIR’s communications lead, John Williams, told Tribune Business there had been a mistake in the listing. The DIR had apparently still had the properties’ previous owners on file, not Sandals Resorts International.
Sandals has proven it owns the properties, and it appears the properties will no longer be auctioned off.
The DIR began exercising its legal power of sale to recover over $700 million in unpaid property taxes last year, with the goal of auctioning off the properties of delinquent taxpayers in a public auction taking place on June 24, 2025.
While the issue with Sandals Emerald Bay’s property appears to be resolved, this isn’t the first warning sign for Sandals Resorts International.
Last year, a legal battle between Sandals Resorts International and the Bahamian government made its way into the country’s Supreme Court. The Bahamian government accused the resort of reporting only 40 percent of its revenue. A DIR audit analyzing Sandals Emerald Bay financials between 2017-2022 found that the resort had underpaid taxes by over $284 million.
Sandals’ defense was its unusual business model, leading to a complicated legal battle that has yet to be resolved.
Sandals Resorts International isn’t in the clear, however.
Sandals Resorts International was accused by Antigua and Barbuda of underpaying taxes by about EC$30 million, about USD$33.9 million.
The legal battles were so arduous that Antigua’s prime minister, Gaston Browne, called out the resort giant in a weekly radio program late last year, around the same time that Sandals was defending itself against the Bahamian government.
“I don’t want to go down this road with them again,” he said. “I want to appeal to them to please work with us. If we have to call them out again, we will. They’ve had similar issues in the Bahamas, where they engaged in practices that were completely inappropriate, and now they have to pay up. Everywhere they go, this seems to be their modus operandi, they feel entitled to reduce government taxes and keep all the profits for themselves.”
“You have staff who deserve fair wages, and the government needs to receive its fair share of taxes. You can’t just focus on exploiting concessions and pushing governments to the brink; enough is enough,” said Browne.
On May 5, a forensic accounting report analyzing Sandals Resorts International by FTI Consulting was made public. In it, the auditor found credible indications that Sandals’ business practices could be evidence of tax avoidance.
“My review identified red flags including flows of funds that appeared to exceed or diverge from contractual terms, inconsistencies between cash collections and distributions, unexplained high cash balances, and discretionary payments,” reported Edith Wong in her report. “These patterns raise concerns of potential profit-shifting for tax advantages and the possibility that certain related parties may have been favored at the expense of other stakeholders.”
On March 20, the Wall Street Journal was the first to report that Sandals was considering selling itself for a reported $6 to $7 billion.
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