Gordon “Butch” Stewart, the founder of Sandals and one of the Caribbean’s most successful business personalities, died on January 4, 2021, leaving a will and making it known that his son Adam Stewart would succeed him in running his businesses.

On the death of his father, Adam was appointed as Executive Chairman. He went on to expand the business, establishing the Sandals brand in Curacao and St Vincent as well as bolstering ATL Automotive Group with the addition of BYD, the largest electric vehicle maker in the world. Adam Stewart is intent on providing US$5 billion to the Jamaican economy by 2025.

Since the death of his father some three years ago, Adam Stewart and his siblings Jamie Stewart-McConnell and Brian Jardim who are beneficiaries have had no closure or determination as to their father’s intentions.

It has been said by Butch Stewart’s long-trusted lawyer Trevor Patterson, that the hotel mogul made some amendments to his will just before he left this world.

What has transpired since is internecine fighting and claims made by persons close to Butch Stewart, who feel entitled to a piece of what is a huge pie.

Factions and divisions have been formed, and positions have been taken and voiced in the press. 

Throughout it all Adam, Jamie, and Brian have maintained a dignified silence, opting to remain above the fray.

It is now being alleged, according to filed court documents, that some of  Butch Stewart’s estate documents were tampered with and his clear instructions and intent were deceitfully manipulated.

How often has it been said that one should trust their lawyer and see to it that one attends to their affairs before meeting their maker? Ordinarily,  implicitly trusting your lawyer is vital. Lawyers have to abide by the declaration and intent of the person preparing to cross over. There is no room for their machinations or to make moves to favour connected parties. A lawyer should always be ethical and hold to high standards of professionalism and due care.

On the other side, how many times have we seen lawyers resort to skullduggery and profit from matters where their expertise has been engaged to do the right thing?

Adam, Brian and Jamie have clearly decided that they can no longer remain impervious to the handling of their father’s estate

In an affidavit filed in the Jamaican Supreme Court, Adam Stewart claims:

“142. It is of deep concern to me that Mr. Patterson has apparently knowingly and dishonestly fabricated a document and sought to mislead the W Trustee based on that document such that, had the W Trustee accepted a falsified document, a wide range of people including Bobby and the US Family may have been added as beneficiaries of the W Trust to the detriment of Jaime and me (the W Trust’s sole beneficiaries).

“143. It is very worrying that Mr Patterson should have misrepresented my Father’s wishes in such an egregious way in relation to the W Trust. I am concerned that Mr Patterson’s conduct indicates a willingness to engage in dishonest conduct so as to advance and prefer the interests of one family branch over another such that I cannot have trust or confidence in him to discharge his duties as Executor in a fair way, at least without careful and specific direction from the Court.”

In order not to besmirch Trevor Patterson’s reputation and character Our Today felt it prudent to look deeper into the affidavit and its many exhibits. Why would the affidavit make such an allegation? It is both inconceivable and unbelievable.

However, to support this conclusion, the affidavit exhibits a report of Dr. Nicholas Sharples. It states:

“136. My legal team instructed a digital forensics specialist, Dr. Nicholas Sharples, who is the Chief Technology Officer of XBundle Ltd in England (a company that provides e-disclosure and related services), to analyse and report on the information that can be gleaned from the metadata that is preserved and remains accessible in the Draft Deed.

“137. Dr. Sharples has 20 years of experience in all aspects of digital forensics and document analysis and holds a doctorate in computer science and artificial intelligence from the University of Sussex. A copy of Dr. Sharples’ report of 5 August 2024 is at [AS-2/145-152].”

Dr. Sharples, in his report, concluded as follows:

“6.          Summary and conclusions

• 6.1.        I have examined the document AMENDMENT TO [name of document omitted]. docx and I have found:
• 6.1.1     This document was created at 15:59 on 10th January 2021.
• 6.1.2     The version of Microsoft Word that was used to create the document was registered to a person named “Trevor Patterson”.
• 6.1.3     The document was saved twice, as indicated by the Revision Number and supported by the two revision identifiers: 00365C6A and may have been cut and pasted from another document before being revised.  So, the document was edited after it was first created.
• 6.1.4     The document was edited (open) for a total time of 31 minutes; across both revisions.
• 6.1.5     There are only 44 minutes between the creation of the document at 15:59 and the last modified time of 16:43.
• 6.1.6     The bulk of the text in the document is associated with revision identifier, 00365C6A, and may have been cut and pasted from another document before being revised.
• 6.1.7     The amendments made on 10th January 2021 with the second revision identifier are shown in red in the above screenshot.
• 6.1.8     The version of Microsoft Word that was used to save the final version of the document was registered to a person named “Trevor Patterson”.”

The significance of this conclusion is that Butch Stewart died on January 4, 2021.

To buttress Sharples conclusion, the affidavit cites a second expert:

“140. In September 2024, Jaime and I instructed a second digital forensics specialist, Nick Ellison (a Senior Director in the Data Insights and Forensics practice at Kroll Advisory Ltd) to produce a further analysis of the Draft Deed metadata. Like Dr Sharples, Mr Ellison is a highly experienced digital forensics specialist and has over 15 years of IT technology consultancy, data science and software development experience. Mr. Ellison holds an M.Eng. in systems engineering with computing engineering from the University of Warwick. He is, inter alia, a Chartered IT Professional, a member of the Institute of Engineering Technology, a member of the British Computer Society and a member of the Academy of Experts.

“141. On 31 October 2024, Mr Ellison produced his report [AS2/156-184], in which he confirmed that the Draft Deed was created on 10 January 2021 by a Microsoft Word user with the account name “Trevor Patterson” and was then modified on that day by that user. Mr. Ellison was also able to identify the amendments made to the document associated with the first and second revisions, which are as set out in the paragraph above (with the text in underline being the text associated with the second revision).”

Kroll is one of the best forensic investigation companies in the world and is familiar to Jamaica having provided forensic audit services in the Stocks & Securities Limited fraud case.

This is a most serious allegation.

Trevor Patterson has not submitted an affidavit in response as at time of filing this story but is undoubtedly expected to.

It is precarious to operate enterprises as wide-ranging as the Stewart businesses which combined are valued at billions of US dollars with this degree of uncertainty. How will Butch Stewarts true intentions be determined? Will Butch’s common-law spouse take a significant part of the business? Will this contentious matter be resolved in a judicious and fair manner. Will better sense prevail among family members? Will all acknowledge that Adam Stewart is the rightful heir to lead and steer the businesses?