TO THE MEMORY OF A DAD PASSED AWAY TOO SOON
DAD LUIS
Dad Luis, whose full name was Luis Adalberto Facundo Gomez del Campo Bacardi, Lord of Bayfield Hall, mostly known as Lord Luis Bacardi, was a fascinating personality. His life included many remarkable stories and achievements.
From difficult beginnings to extraordinary achievements, he has an impressive biography.
His journey began at young age when he immersed himself in the world of business with ambition and a passion for entrepreneurship.
With his charisma and business acumen, he captured the hearts and palates of people around the world with the unique spirits of his famous Bacardi heritage.
Beyond his business success, he was also a philanthropist and actively involved in various charitable causes.
He supported multiple educational initiatives and helped to improve the lives of many people.
He passed too soon. His daughter Maria Luisa was only four. She still has vivid memories of him and unfortunately also his terrible suffering from his fatal illness and his worries about her future and that of her mother who was both leaving.
He will be remembered not only for his contribution to the business world, but also for his generosity and positive impact on society.
Conspiracy, deception and betrayal before and after his terminal illness
His mother Maria Ernestina Bacardi, owner of a stake of shares of 12% in Bacardi Ltd. had granted him the management of such shares since early 1960s, on the basis of partnership agreement between them. As a result Lord Luis Bacardi had significant roles within the board of directors of Bacardi Ltd., but caused a lot of jealousy in the other members of Bacardi family.
Indeed on 1979, the second husband of his sister Elena Bacardi, Jerry Lindzon in his capacity as a member of the board of directors Bacardi Ltd., under the pretext of planning the tax evasion of the potential Spanish inheritance tax of hundreds of millions of euros on her estate, convinced the mother of Lord Luis Bacardi to allocate her shares in Bacardi Ltd. in two different trusts. One to be established and constituted upon the Cayman Islands laws, named Cotorro Trust, where Elena Bacardi and her daughters were to be the beneficiaries and the other, to be established and constituted under Liechtenstein laws, named Corniche Trust, where Lord Luis Bacardi was to be the sole beneficiary. The crafty plan provided, however, in case Lord Luis Bacardi had no children in the years to come, the daughters of Elena Bacardi were to become the beneficiaries (contingent beneficiaries) of the Corniche Trust.
Both trusts had been established Maria Ernestina Bacardi on 1979 due to the pressure of the insistence of Jerry Lindzon.
Only a few years later, early 1980s, the contingent beneficiaries of Corniche Trust, namely the nieces of Lord Luis Bacardi, (daughters of Elena Bacardi and stepdaughters of Jerry Lindzon), commenced legal proceedings in Liechtenstein against Lord Luis Bacardi aimed at preventing Lord Luis Bacardi to receive the shares in Bacardi Ltd. from the Corniche Trust.
The nieces of Lord Luis Bacardi were represented in the legal proceedings against Lord Luis Bacardi by the Liechtenstein law firm Marxer & Partner.
In Spain, a trust was and is not recognized and is considered a foreign legal instrument contrary to public policy.
However, despite, the ineffectiveness of Corniche Trust and Cotorro Trust under the Spanish inheritance laws applicable to Maria Ernestina Bacardi’s estate, the Liechtenstein legal disputes within Corniche Trust ended only on 2001 by virtue the judgment of the Court of Appeal of Liechtenstein which established the rights of Lord Luis Bacardi to take the Bacardi Ltd. shares held by Corniche Trust.
It is worth noting that Corniche Trust had been defined and substantiated in court documents filed by one of the nieces of Lord Luis Bacardi in Florida, as an outcome of the conspiracy organized by Jerry Lindzon, and Bacardi Ltd. against Lord Luis Bacardi and any of his descendants.
Therefore, it is not surprising that during these legal disputes in Liechtenstein, Lord Luis Bacardi and later also his wife, Monika Waldner Gomez del Campo Bacardi, Lady of Bayfield Hall, known as Lady Monika Bacardi were repeatedly subjected to death threats, which were also documented in an internal minutes drawn up by Marxer & Partner on 13 December 2004.
Thus, near his end, again the skies darkened around Lord Luis Bacardi as him and his family became entangled in another opaque trust structures in Liechtenstein – most infamous – BASTILLE TRUST.
On 12 September 2002, Lord Luis Bacardi addressed a letter to his lawyer E.W. instructing him to set up a legal instrument, other than a trust, in light of his awful experience within Corniche Trust, to assign all his assets, including the shares in Bacardi Ltd., to his only daughter Maria Luisa Bacardi and his wife Lady Monika Bacardi.
Instead of taking Lord Luis Bacardi’s last wishes seriously, expressed, as soon as the disputes within the Corniche Trust were over, his lawyers Louis Mudry and E.W, involved in Bacardi Ltd., set up the purported BASTILLE TRUST through fraudulent actions. In doing so they also cynically abused Lord Luis Bacardi’s state of mind, during the last phase of his terminal illness.
This misconduct, led to Lord Luis Bacardi having great concern for the future of his daughter Maria Luisa Bacardi and his wife Lady Monika Bacardi.
The last year and a half of his life, Lord Luis Bacardi spent, despite his terminal illness, desperately trying to recover his shares in Bacardi Ltd. from the purported BASTILLE TRUST.
Unfortunately, he failed because he died shortly after commencing new legal proceedings in Liechtenstein, and his shares in Bacardi Ltd. are still locked up in this purported BASTILLE TRUST in Liechtenstein managed, in his capacity as leading professional trustee, by another Liechtenstein lawyer. Incredibly, this latter is Dr. Bernhard Lorenz who retained by the dying Lord Luis Bacardi, through his wife Lady Monika Bacardi precisely to divest BASTILLE TRUST.
Just over a year later from the end of the disputes within Corniche Trust, a series of further deceptions against Lord Luis Bacardi and his heirs was implemented in Liechtenstein (sic !!!!)
Actually, as recently discovered, from the outset, Dr. Bernhard Lorenz had concealed his conflict of interest from Lady Monika Bacardi (Lord Luis Bacardi was already very ill at that time), being, at the time, a partner of the law firm, Marxer & Partner, who had been acting against Lord Luis Bacardi for nearly twenty years to prevent him from taking his shares in Bacardi Ltd. held in the Corniche Trust.
However, since Lord Luis Bacardi death, many more legal questions have arisen about his last testament and the legality of the origins of the purported BASTILLE TRUST.
These issues are all the subject of court proceedings still ongoing.
Therefore, as Maria Luisa Bacardi and Lady Monika Bacardi have chosen to seek justice in all competent jurisdictions and put an end to an unprecedented outrage, all the more shocking topics are succinctly explored in other sections of this website to honor Lord Luis Bacardi’s unforgettable memory and to prevent other ill-fated people from incurring such astonishing and painful consequences.
SCENES OF
A DISPUTE
To understand the case in more detail and answer the questions how one of the largest shareholders of Bacardi Ltd. could end up being a trust based in Liechtenstein, one needs to go back to the root cause of the wealth of Lord Luis Bacardi, and the origins of his family.
Spain
The intriguing story of Maria Ernestina Bacardi, a Cuban matriarch whose last testament reveals a web of potential inheritance tax evasion and untraceable assets. Her heirs’ fight over Bacardi Ltd. shares, woven through a labyrinth of trusts (Corniche Trust and Cotorro Trust) and tied to the elusive purported “BASTILLE TRUST”, raises suspicions of hundreds of millions in unpaid taxes and a terrible reality of conspiracy, deception, abuse and betrayal. The truth of a legal odyssey will explore this questions and the implications of unregistered assets, and unfold in Madrid courtrooms in the coming months.
LIECHTENSTEIN
After the failure of the illegal appropriation of Bacardi Ltd. shares inherited by Lord Luis Bacardi from his mother Maria Ernestina Bacardi having been in the name of and managed by the ineffective Corniche Trust for over twenty years, (marked by court proceedings in Liechtenstein), BASTILLE TRUST was established in Liechtenstein against the express will and instruction of late Lord Luis Bacardi.
Since then, another 20 years of abuse and suffering passed.
Actually, on 14 July 2003, his Liechtenstein lawyers E.W. and Louis Mudry taking advantage of his steadily deteriorating state of health, and acting through their Liechtenstein fiduciary company, who acted on 2003 as formal settlor, set up the purported BASTILLE TRUST and transferred therein, without any legal title, Lord Luis Bacardi’s shares in Bacardi Ltd., in his alleged interest.
Recently, however, the same fiduciary company who established the purported BASTILLE TRUST has also declared in court documents that the constitution of such a legal instrument and its underlying vehicles was a fatal mistake.
Nevertheless, through deception and treachery, Lord Luis Bacardi assets and inheritance were removed from Lady Monika Bacardi and Maria Luisa Bacardi’s control.
Since then Lady Monika Bacardi and then also Maria Luisa Bacardi have been fighting against a network of Liechtenstein lawyers and professional trustees, lies and legal trickery, and every time Lady Monika Bacardi and Maria Luisa Bacardi believe the horror is over, they are fooled again by Liechtenstein professional trustees!
Years of ramified lawsuits, attempts to split mother and daughter, defamation, malicious legal advice, are only a small part of the whole terrible experience.
Their story illustrates the intolerable conditions in the Principality of Liechtenstein.
monaco
Being the jurisdiction of the last testament of Lord Luis Bacardi, the Monaco Courts play a crucial role in the attempts of Lord Luis Bacardi’s only child and wife to gain back control of the rightful inheritance.
With multiple legal proceedings, commenced in October 2021 and January 2023 respectively, Maria Luisa Bacardi and Lady Monika Bacardi claim the return of all assets from purported BASTILLE TRUST and further compensation in connection with the legal and other costs arising from the past and current proceedings. The total value of all claims amounts to approximately 1.7 billion euros.
Bahamas
The Court of The Bahamas on the application of my mother and me reinstated Baron’s Court Holdings Ltd, ruling that its dissolution was ordered in February 2004 by persons without authority.
Baron’s Court Holdings Ltd now finally restored and administered by my mother and myself will be able to sue in the Courts of The Bahamas and gain title to the shares in Bacardi Ltd that were assigned to it in 2004 by my father Lord Luis Bacardi.