Pacific / Fiji

US heiress who owns Fiji resort is jailed

09:30 am on 3 October 2020

Wakaya Island in Fiji. Photo: Facebook/Wakaya Island

An American billionaire who owns 80 percent of an exclusive Fijian island resort has been sentenced to more than six years in prison by a United States District Court.

US media have reported Seagram's liquor heiress Clare Bronfman was jailed for her role in the Nxivm sex-trafficking ring.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Bronfman was also found guilty of identity theft and immigration offences.

She was arrested in 2018 over alleged racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Bronfman's bail was set at $US100 million after prosecutors deemed her a flight risk because of her ownership of Wakaya Island in Fiji.

Wakaya is in Ovalau, on the northeast of Fiji's main island Viti Levu.

The only way to get to the island is by air transfer from Nadi Airport.

The exclusive Wakaya resort island hosted Bill and Melinda Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Nicole Kidman, before being bought by Clare Bronfman in 2016.

A US Justice Department photo of Clare Bronfman during her arrest in July 2018. Photo: US Justice Dept