Hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon has filed a $50 million defamation suit in New York against his Bahamas vacation home neighbor'Canadian fashion magnate Peter Nygard.In the complaint, Bacon alleges that Nygard has waged an "obsessive and malicious" smear campaign against him since mid-2010.According to the complaint, Bacon alleges that Nygard spread "brazen lies" that he:murdered multiple individuals who died under suspicious circumstances, and then covered up those murders from law enforcement;He is a white supremacist and a member of the Ku Klux Klan ("KKK"), determined to exclude native Bahamians from Clifton Bay;He was charged by prosecutors and "accused of criminal conspiracy" in a "billion dollar scam" that is in "one of the biggest Wall Street insider trading cases ever," referring to the insider trading arrest of Rajat Gupta;He smuggled narcotics and fugitives;He possessed terrorist weaponry (such as illegal speakers) that pose a national security threat to the Bahamas;He committed arson of Nygard's residence; andHe has bribed Bahamian officials.Bacon categorically denied all of those statements and said they were untrue, the complaint said.Bacon also alleged that Nygard and his co-conspirators spread lies about him via internet videos and social media. He also alleged that Nygard organized a protest in July 2014 where some Bahamians marched in Nassau wearing t-shirts and holding posters accusing him of being in the KKK.Bacon said in the complaint that Nygard "harbors spite, ill will, and animus" toward him and that he had "evil and sinister motivations" for publishing the statements.Bacon also said that the statements allegedly made by Nygard have damaged his "professional, philanthropic and personal reputations." He also said he has suffered damages like attorneys' fees and investigator fees."The allegations in Louis Bacon's latest lawsuit are completely without merit and will be provenso if they ever get to trial. The assertion that Mr. Bacon has been defamed is not supportable," a spokesperson for Nygard said in a statement to Business Insider.The two tycoons, who own adjacent mansions on the exclusive Lyford Cay, have been famously feuding for years.Nygard is the founder of Nygard International, which specializes in designing and manufacturing women's fashion. The fashion magnate owns a 150,000-square-foot Mayan-themed mansion on Lyford Cay.Bacon is the founder and CEO of Moore Capital Management'a New York headquartered macro hedge fund. Bacon is known for being a huge environmentalist and conservationist.Here's the full statement from Nygard's spokesperson:The allegations in Louis Bacon's latest lawsuit are completely without merit and will be provenso if they ever get to trial. The assertion that Mr. Bacon has been defamed is not supportable.This action is simply the latest attempt by Mr. Bacon to deflect media attention away from hisreal agenda, which is to unseat the ruling political party in the Bahamas so that his owncandidate can take power and block reconstruction of Mr. Nygard's residence, which is nextdoor to his own estate. It is no secret that Mr. Bacon has long expressed interest in buying Mr.Nygard's property and has sought to block his neighbor from rebuilding after a suspicious firedestroyed part of Nygard Cay several years ago. Mr. Bacon has falsely and maliciously accusedMr. Nygard and Prime Minister Perry Christie of government corruption as part of a judicialreview in the Bahamas that is designed to advance his agenda by damaging the Administrationand further delaying Mr. Nygard's reconstruction, which cannot be permitted as long as thereview is underway. In fact, Mr. Bacon has falsified evidence of corruption.The allegations of both the new lawsuit and several filed by him in the Bahamas concern videosabout Mr. Bacon posted on YouTube as well as protests in the Bahamas that have resulted fromMr. Bacon's own actions. Mr. Bacon insulted scores of Bahamians last year by taking whatseveral locals described as undue credit for 'saving' sacred Bahamian land at Clifton Bay wherecountless Black slaves landed from Africa. In accepting an Audubon award for leading this work,which he had not led, Mr. Bacon also made a galling reference to the racist novel 'Gone withthe Wind' as his 'holy book' and guide. The videos at issue in the complaintaccurately reflectthat Mr. Bacon was untruthful about his involvement with Clifton Bay, that his remarks wereracist, and that his family has a history of involvement with racist crime, as leaders of the KuKlux Klan.What is more, Mr. Bacon brings this defamation action with unclean hands. He has over thelast five years defamed and attacked Mr. Nygard innumerable times, including recently, inAugust, in a filing in a lawsuit he brought in New York federal court that included voluminousfalse, defamatory and irrelevant allegations about Mr. Nygard.In fact,Federal Judge DeniseCote ordered that all such statements by Mr. Bacon be redacted from the public record.Finally, one has to question why Mr. Bacon would bring this action in New York when the so-called allegations took place primarily in the Bahamas, many of the witnesses are in theBahamas, and he already has brought the same charges against several other individuals inseveral lawsuits in the Bahamas.This lawsuit is nothing more than yet another abuse of thejudicial system by Mr. Bacon, a man who views himself as being above the law.Here's the complaint Bacon filed against Nygard:Join the conversation about this story
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