Bacon's Hypocritical Environmental Stance

Most people would never put a financial trader and an environmentalist in the same sentence. Normally, investors are the ones being attacked by tree-huggers who religiously lash out at them for their disregard for the natural environment when taking on major developments.

But somehow, billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Bacon has painted a good image for himself in the United States by donating massive plots of land to conservation groups.  The Moore Global Investments chief took advantage of media coverage when he made the largest land donation to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in its history.  He sponsored 90,000 acres of land in the Colorado Mountains to the organization, as he is an avid fisherman and hunter. He purchased two ranches in the Colorados, one of which made news for Bacon again as it represents the largest transaction of a single family home in US history.  He bought Trinchera Ranch, which spans some 171,000 acres, for $175 million in 2007.

But media in the US haven't given him a free pass from their watchful eyes because of his philanthropy. He's found his name caught up in reports relating to several questionable enterprises, such as talk of DanTuckfield, who was found dead in his home in the Bahamas, being a trafficker for Bacon; his Moore Capital fund being caught up in an international criminal investigation into a Multi-billion dollar, Multi-national hedge fund scam; and his suspicious knack for being one of the most secretive billionaires on Wall Street, with reports of an iron fist approach to governing his commodities.  

He may run hard on his employees, but he's been pleasing nature lovers with grants of conservation easements to local organizations. He has over 400 acres just north of Southampton, Long Island, and over 500 acres within Southampton, New York. 

Robins Island in Long Island's Peconic Bay

But in the Bahamas, his image of environmentalism is quite tarnished, with a long list of local news reports attesting to that. It was shameful for the former administration, the Free National Movement, when it's leader in the Senate, Dion Foulkes, admitted from the floor of the Upper House that Louis Bacon did, indeed build his massive hideout marina in the alcove of the shoreline to his home without any government approval. Former SenatOr Foulkes spoke into record that his colleague responsible for the environment, Earl Deveaux, granted Bacon a license after the fact.  

Deity all his efforts up north, he came to the tropical nation with other intents, as is exposed by his disregard for Bahamian authorities and their right to tell him that he cannot dig out the sea bed and the shoreline along his Point House, Lyford Cay home. 

His name has recently been mentioned along with the Aga Khan IV, with observers stating that the pair may have joined up for a venture in the Turks & Caicos after the loss of the FNM in the recent general elections.  The Aga Khan and he former government were berated by the press when he, too, dug for his marina on the pristine Bell Island without having a permit before he started.  Former Minister Deveaux made it worse when he kept riding up and down in the Aga's luxury helicopter.