Siblings double down that Trevor Patterson ‘doctored’ document

On November 29, 2024, Our Today published an article in which Adam Stewart, in court documents, accused Attorney-at-Law Trevor Patterson of forging an amendment deed pertaining to Butch Stewart’s estate.

On December 4th 2024, Our Today published Trevor Patterson’s statement in response to the accusation.

Below is Adam, Jaime and Brian’s response to Trevor Patterson through their Attorney-at-Law, Conrad George:

Conrad George, a Partner at Hart Muirhead Fatta, the law firm representing Adam and his siblings (Jaime Stewart, and Brian Jardim) said:

Jaime Stewart, Adam Stewart, Executive Chairman of Sandals and the ATL Group, and Brian Jardim are aware of recent press stories reporting the alleged forgery of a document relating to their father’s affairs by his trusted advisor and attorney-at-law, Mr Trevor Patterson(also an executor of the late Mr Stewart’s estate).

Since their father’s passing nearly 4 years ago, Jaime, Adam and Brian have refrained from any public comment about the estate or other family matters. However, they are aware that others will doubtless seek to explain away the serious matters that have been reported in the media and drawn to the Court’s attention. Whilst, Jaime, Adam and Brian are saddened and disappointed that they are having to issue this statement at all, they very much hope that, by making it, they will not have to say anything further about private family matters in public.

Jaime, Adam and Brian are seeking the assistance of the Jamaican Courts to supervise and progress the administration of their father’s estate in accordance with their father’s Will. It has been nearly four years since their father’s passing, in which time there has been little progress and virtually no transparency from the executors of his estate regarding its administration. In their view it is unacceptable that four years on, the 52% controlling interest in ATL/Gorstew that their father intended would vest in Adam, is still in limbo as a direct result of the executors failure to properly administer his estate.

During this time, Jaime, Adam and Brian have become increasingly concerned about aggressive and hostile actions taken by some of the executors against them, as well as evidence of serious misconduct which has been brought to the Court’s attention. For the avoidance of doubt, the Sandals Group does not form part of the estate. It is held in an entirely separate structure, over which the executors have no control.

Such misconduct includes compelling evidence that Mr Patterson has gone so far as to falsify and backdate a draft trust document in the days after Butch Stewart’s death and that he took steps knowingly to deceive the trustee of a trust established by the late Mr Stewart about the source of the document.

In 2021, Mr Patterson claimed that a draft document had been created by Bahamian lawyers during Butch Stewart’s lifetime, some years before his death. Now, however, specialist digital forensics experts have uncovered by careful examination of the document’s metadata that Trevor Patterson in fact doctored the document himself and that he did so just days after the passing of Mr Stewart in 2021.

It is believed that Mr Patterson engaged in this conduct in order to attempt to give Ms Hamersmith-Stewart and her children access to valuable resources that had been expressly set aside for certain other family members.

These allegations are of the most serious nature against a practising attorney. It is notable that Mr Patterson has been repeatedly offered the opportunity to answer these findings and to explain the digital forensics evidence over a period of many months, but he has not done so until now. Mr Patterson has now addressed the allegations, for the first time, in a media statement on 3rd December 2024. Importantly, Mr Patterson admits that he doctored the document to provide for the addition to the trust of other family members following Mr Stewart’s death.

He therefore made false statements to the trustee of the trust to which the document relates about its provenance, expressly stating to the trustee that a draft created during Mr Stewart’s lifetime provided for the addition of other family members. Mr Patterson now acknowledges that not to have been the case and that he did not disclose his role in these amendments to the trustee.

All three siblings are deeply saddened that legal proceedings have become necessary and that private family matters are being aired in public. They are asking for directions from the Court to allow the administration of the estate (which, as noted above, does not include Sandals) to be completed as soon as practicable for the benefit of all its beneficiaries, and for the assets to be distributed as their father wished and as he provided for under his will.

Their focus remains on seeing their father’s wishes carried out and his legacy respected. It is hurtful to them that Mr Patterson would suggest otherwise and thereby risk tarnishing their father’s legacy. The siblings are committed to drawing a line finally under these unfortunate matters.

Adam also remains focused on working hard in the interests of the wonderful business that he is proud to lead and on continuing his father’s remarkable business legacy, as his father asked him to do and as clearly stipulated in his last will. Since his father’s passing, Adam has committed himself to honouring the trust which his father placed in him, and both the ATL Group and Sandals are thriving under Adam’s leadership.