Gilbert Bigio, mogul linked to global wealthy and Haiti’s gangs, dies at 91

Gilbert Bigio, the mogul who built one of Haiti’s largest private business empires, died Tuesday in the United States, according to local daily Le Nouvelliste. He was 91.

For more than five decades, Bigio was among Haiti’s most prominent private-sector figures who ostensibly amassed wealth and a network so vast that he was named in the infamous Pandora Papers exposé into the world’s most powerful people. 

Born into a Syrian family, Bigio began building his business network in 1972 with Aciérie d’Haïti, the country’s first steel mill, according to the GB Group Wikipedia page. He eventually expanded into energy, construction materials, consumer goods, telecommunications, real estate, infrastructure and logistics. The businesses grew into GB Group, whose holdings also included Huileries Haïtiennes S.A., an edible oil refinery, GB Energy, Telecom Solutions, Immocaraïbes and the Lafito industrial and port development. 

Port Lafito became Haiti’s first deepwater-capable port and one of the country’s largest private infrastructure projects, Le Maritime Executive reported in 2015. In recent years, the port drew scrutiny as an alleged channel for illicit trade, including arms and drugs. A 2023 U.N. Security Council report listed  the port among several Haitian ports used in the smuggling of firearms and ammunition. 

Bigio also expanded the family’s business interests beyond Haiti. GB Energy entered Caribbean fuel markets, including those serving Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. In 2015, the company acquired 67 Texaco service stations in Jamaica, The Jamaica Observer reported.

Appearance among world’s wealthy

Bigio was frequently described as one of the country’s wealthiest people, and even who may have been its only billionaire, although no independently verified public estimate of his personal fortune is available.

Still, his purported wealth and business network continued to draw scrutiny.

In 2023, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICFJ) reported in its Pandora Papers investigation that Bigio was connected to at least a dozen offshore companies and two trusts. The records showed links to companies and trusts in jurisdictions including the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands. 

In 2022, Canada sanctioned Bigio, alleging that he was among members of Haiti’s economic elite who may have provided illicit financial and operational support to armed gangs. The sanctions were government measures and did not constitute a criminal conviction. Bigio denied wrongdoing, according to reporting at the time.

In 2021, a Miami Herald investigation published as part of the Pandora Papers examined Bigio extensive business empire and described him as a major power broker in Haiti. The report detailed the Bigio family’s use of offshore companies and the movement of wealth to Miami and Switzerland.

In earlier decades, according to ICIJ, the U.S. government sanctioned Bigio and members of his family in the early 1990s over alleged support for a military coup in Haiti. ICIJ also reported allegations made years later by a former militia member linking Bigio to a 1993 assassination that Haitian authorities did not pursue.

Bigio’s funeral is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 1, in Hollywood, Fla., local media reported.

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