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The court ordered the seizure after Nygard failed to pay nearly $3 million in legal fees owed to Save the Bays, which has been fighting for years to stop him dredging the sea floor around his estate. Smith said Nygard has roughly doubled the size of his property over 30 years, enlarging his own beach while starving the natural flow of sand to neighbouring properties and a nearby national park.

Smith said Nygard has repeatedly ignored a 2013 injunction banning him from dredging, which has led to three contempt of court convictions against the entrepreneur that could lead to jail time. “Mr. Nygard considers himself to be completely above the law in the Bahamas,” Smith said. “He’s been running his little Republic of Nygard since the 1980s here.”

Photo by Peter Nygård Global / Archival image

Nygard, in his 70s, did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement last year, a spokesperson said “the removal and stockpiling of sand from the Nygard Cay marina was carried out in good faith in full accordance with the conditions of a government-issued permit.”

It really isn’t a little petty squabble between Mr. Nygard and Mr. Bacon. … This is Nygard demonstrating that he considers himself to be a law unto himself

Nygard has previously claimed that Save the Bays is a “front” for Bacon, whom he claims is trying to take over his property. “Louis Bacon has always wanted Nygard Cay for himself and Mr. Nygard has never been interested in selling his home,” a lawyer said in a 2014 statement.

Bacon is a board member of Save the Bays, though Smith said the organization doesn’t exist solely to fight Nygard. “We were created to deal with issues in the Clifton Bay area, and Mr. Nygard was one of the main culprits,” he said.