WALLACE GROVES 1901-1988.
Credited with being the founder of Freeport. Groves was a financier and fraudster with a murky past. A convicted felon with mob ties he moved to The Bahamas after his release from prison in 1944. He bought the Abaco Lumber Company which was relocated to Pine Ridge on Grand Bahama. With help from some dubious sources he founded and operated the ‘free-trade zone’, resort and casino development that became Freeport. He is associated with the Meyer Lansky crime syndicate, Lansky being the silent partner in Groves’ Bahamas Amusements.
The signing of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. Groves, seated left, had his lawyer and friend Stafford Sands (standing left) negotiate a deal with the government which allowed him to buy 211 square miles of GB land, most of it at the unbelievably low price of $2.80 (or one British pound) per acre. This agreement also allowed him special privileges including exemption from almost all taxes for up to 99 years. To organize his empire Groves set up the Grand Bahama Port Authority to create a deep water port, the GB Development Company (Devco) and Bahamas Amusements which controlled all the casinos (read big gambling!).
FREEPORT FRIENDS 