So who is this guy Landow?

In the midst of the political firestorm that engulfed government earlier this month, PLP politicians kept demanding to know about any business connection between American businessman Nathan Landow and Premier Craig Cannonier. Specifically, Opposition politicians wanted to know if there were any discussions about potential casino development in Bermuda with Mr Landow, who is a self-made success, having amassed a fortune in real estate development.

The Premier has not been forthcoming.

But who is Mr Landow? Attempts to reach him this week proved unsuccessful, but here are a few snippets of  the colourful life of a Washington, DC, mover-and-shaker:

• During the late 1990s a woman named Kathleen Willey went on 60 Minutes and alleged Mr. Landow tried to convince her to deny an alleged sexual advance by then-US president Bill Clinton. Mr. Landow denied that charge, according to TIME magazine.

• By 1991, he was among Washington, DC’s, 75 richest people, having amassed his fortune primarily through land development, according to Regardie’s magazine, a now defunct publication that covered Washington, DC, business. That same publication once described Mr. Landow as a “quintessential Washington mover and shaker”.

• In the early 1990s he was linked to a group interested in owning an NFL team in Baltimore, according to The Baltimore Sun.

• He has acted as a political fundraiser for numerous Democratic presidential candidates, beginning with Jimmy Carter in 1976, according to The Washington Post.

• In 1978, The Washington Post reported that Mr Landow had hired Joe Nesline, an illegal gambling kingpin, as a consultant in an unsuccessful effort to build a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Mr Landow later would say that article was riddled with inaccuracies.

• During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he served as chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party.

• In 1997, a US Senate committee investigated land development negotiations in Oklahoma, where Cheyenne-Arapaho tribes were trying to regain land seized by the federal government in the 19th Century. According to The Washington Post, Mr Landow at one point demanded the tribes sign a development contract with him, that would give him a slice of all income produced on the recovered land for two decades, including revenues from gas and oil. The Senate committee, according to The Washington Post, called the operation “sordid” and noted that some Democratic operators tried to pick the tribes’ pockets for “legal fees, land development and additional contributions”. Mr Landow denied any wrongdoing.

• In 2012, The Daily Record reported Maryland gambling authorities rejected a bid spearheaded by Mr Landow to build a casino at the rocky Gap Lodge & Gold Resort. That paper quoted the chairman of the state’s Video Lottery Facility Location Commission as saying his group never received a full financial or business plan from Mr Landow’s group.