Here’s a salutory lesson on investing in real estate from the Caribbean, courtesy of Michael Winner and Simon Cowell.
Angry villa participants who’d put down massive cash to be embroiled in this mess wondered what fees Michael Pemberton and Robin Paterson had taken and if they were to be put back into the diminished pot. When I questioned what was going on, Pemberton wrote, “I have passed your communications to my lawyers.” His “clients” described him in language that made Gordon Ramsay sound like Listen with Mother. [..]
Then there’s the X-Factor: Simon Cowell. Simon, who I introduced to Barbados in 2000 when he was so unknown even his mother didn’t recognise him, has paid up for a sea-front villa. He’s too famous to reside in public. Every tourist ship disgorging 2-4,000 people onto the quayside in Bridgetown will be besieged by local taxi drivers saying: “Do you want to see Simon Cowell’s house?”