ABSTRACT
Grand Bahama Island’s future belonged to Wallace Groves, once considered one of Wall Street’s bright young men, until he took a fall for various frauds and embezzlement. When Groves emerged from prison, he returned to Little Whale Cay and tried to resume business. He subsequently married Canadian-born Georgette Cusson, who had been his first wife’s hairdresser. She would become his business partner in Freeport’s development, and later in further development of Nassau’s Paradise Island. Wallace Groves and Stafford Sands negotiated the transfer of governmental power and authority to the company as the necessary condition for building Freeport. By 1964 many important syndicate criminals from America were at work in Freeport, enjoying the fruits of their past labors in pulling together the Monte Carlo Casino, and making land and other investment deals available for judges and public officials from Dade and Broward Counties in South Florida.
