Reportedly the wealthiest man in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Gilbert Bigio was sanctioned for ties to criminal gangs. He was 91.
A photo of Gilbert Bigio, holding a Torah scroll.
Gilbert Bigio in 2003 holding a Torah scroll. A scion of immigrant Sephardic Jews from Syria, he was Israel’s honorary consul in Haiti for 25 years.Credit...Larry Luxner
Gilbert Bigio in 2003 holding a Torah scroll. A scion of immigrant Sephardic Jews from Syria, he was Israel’s honorary consul in Haiti for 25 years.Credit...Larry Luxner
By Adam Nossiter
Oct. 19, 2026
Gilbert Bigio, a Haitian industrialist widely described as the country’s first billionaire, and who was sanctioned by Canada for ties to criminal gangs in his homeland, died on Sept. 29 in Florida. He was 91.
His death was reported in the Haitian press.
With interests in steel, energy, logistics, consumer goods, construction and banking, Mr. Bigio’s holding company, long known as the GB Group and eventually renamed BGO, touched the impoverished island nation’s economy in every corner.
Mr. Bigio’s family remain major players in what the International Monetary Fund and others have described as Haiti’s tiny economic elite. BGO supplies cooking oils and soap to Haitian households, steel from Haiti’s only steel mill to its builders and deepwater port facilities to its shippers. BGO became a regional economic force as well, owning gas stations in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
The elite plays an outsize role in Haiti’s chaotic politics, and Mr. Bigio appears not to have been an exception, though he stayed largely out of public view and rarely granted interviews. In December 2022, Canada sanctioned him, along with two other Haitian businessmen.
“Canada has reason to believe these individuals are using their status as high-profile members of the economic elite in Haiti to protect and enable the illegal activities of armed criminal gangs, including through money laundering and other acts of corruption,” a foreign ministry statement said.
“The sanctions Canada has imposed are intended to put pressure on those responsible for the ongoing violence and instability in Haiti,” the statement continued. “These people must stop providing funds and weapons to criminal gangs in Haiti.”
According to Reuters, the GB Group did not immediately reply to the sanctions; one Haiti expert, Jake Johnston, of the Center for Economic Policy and Research in Washington, said in an interview that Canada’s decision was a largely “symbolic” move with little practical impact. Members of Mr. Bigio’s family did not respond in recent days to queries for this obituary.
Mr. Johnston said Mr. Bigio’s immense wealth — he bought an ultraluxury $132,000 Mercedes Maybach from the estate of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, The Miami Herald reported — was important to contrast with the brutal poverty of his native land.
