Billionaires Behaving Badly: Lynda and Stewart Resnick
By Diane Bullock Oct 21, 2010 7:30 am
Are the owners of Fiji water and Pom juice practicing clever marketing? Or is there something more nefarious going on?
When you think of the islands of Fiji, what springs to mind is images of a honeymoon tropical paradise, crystal blue lagoons, white sand beaches and palm trees – not human rights violations perpetrated against innocent civilians by an illegal totalitarian military regime. And when you think of a leftist philanthropist Beverly Hills husband and wife couple who rub shoulders with the liberal elite, the last thing you expect them to be is sponsors of an illegal totalitarian military regime that perpetrates human rights violations against innocent civilians.
But that's precisely the allegation levied against Fiji Water owners Lynda and Stewart Resnick whose bottled water company, in 2009, comprised roughly 20 percent of exports and three percent of GDP, $3,900 per capita of a country seized by an oppressive military junta. Fiji's population, according to Amnesty International, "is living in fear as a result of draconian measures implemented by the regime" where the Resnicks enjoy nearly exclusive access to the third world country's aquifer, tax-free status and untold millions in profits.
And if the military dictatorship isn't in the back pocket of the Resnicks, it sure acts like it is. When a Mother Jones reporter was in the country writing an expose on Fiji Water, she was snatched up by police from an internet cafe and detained. During her interrogation, an officer taunted and threatened her: "I'd hate to see a young lady like you go into a jail full of men" and "You know what happened to women during the 2000 coup, don't you?" He accused her of working for a competing bottled water company. "It would be good to come here and try to take away Fiji Water's business, wouldn't it?"
https://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/Pom-Fiji-Lynda-Resnick-robert-a/10/21/2010/id/30623