Haiti’s richest man built an empire — and hid his wealth. He has died at 91

Secretive billionaire Gilbert Bigio, possibly the richest man in Haiti, built a business empire through the country’s port construction, agriculture and energy industries.

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But his legacy was also marred by the discovery of his elaborate shielding of his wealth from taxes through shell companies, which experts say may have hurt the growth of his nation. Canada also sanctioned him in 2022 for aiding armed gangs.

Although connected to his home country, Bigio at one point lived part time in the ultra wealthy village of Indian Creek near Miami Beach, remaining out of public view in what is known as the Billionaire Bunker.

Bigio died on Tuesday at age 91, according to Le Nouvelliste.

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In 2021, Bigio appeared in the Pandora Papers, a massive trove that exposed how some of the world’s ultra-wealthy, politicians and criminals use secret offshore accounts to conceal trillions of dollars in assets.

The Pandora Papers showed that the Bigio family used offshore accounts in multiple tax havens and moved wealth to Miami and Switzerland.

With little ability to collect taxes, Haiti doesn’t have the expertise to enforce its tax laws or understand the complex trusts used by Bigio and other elites to shield revenue, a Miami Herald analysis found. The inability to collect tax revenue limits what Haiti can spend on combating poverty.

The International Monetary Fund has made direct links between elites, such as Bigio, and income inequality.

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Bigio’s vast amount of wealth also afforded him the ability to purchase Jeffrey Epstein’s $132,000 Mercedes-Maybach when the sex offender and disgraced financier’s estate was collecting assets to compensate victims. The sale was buried near the end of a 418-page document detailing the estate’s finances for the third quarter of 2020.

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Bigio retired as CEO of the GB Group in 2018 and largely receded from public life, splitting his time between homes in Key Biscayne and the Dominican Republic.

He founded the GB Group, a conglomerate with economic ties throughout Haiti, in 1972. It provided construction supplies, fuel and household necessities such as cooking oil and food. The company recently rebranded as BGO.

The company’s website chronicles its growth. Today, it consists of 13 companies across six industries, including agriculture, construction, consumer goods, energy, infrastructure and logistics, and has over 5,000 employees.

The group’s holdings began with Aciérie d’Haïti, Haiti’s first steel mill, and later expanded to include the construction of Haiti’s private Port Lafito container terminal and free-trade zone.

A chapel service for Bigio will be noon Thursday at Levitt Weinstein Memorial Chapels and Cemeteries at Beth David, 3201 N. 72nd Ave. in Hollywood.

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