David Shane Gibson (born September 7, 1961) is former

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

and former

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

Minister of Immigration, Labour and Training of the

Commonwealth of The Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the arch ...

. He is the son of Bahamian entertainer "King" Eric Gibson.

Early career

Gibson began work at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company in June 1984. He served as the treasurer of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union from 1991 to 1997, and was the union president from 1997 to 2002.

Political career

On May 2, 2002, D. Shane Gibson was elected to the

Parliament of The Bahamas The Parliament of the Bahamas is the bicameral national parliament of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The parliament is formally made up of the sovereign (represented by the governor-general), an appointed Senate, and an elected House of Assem ...

, as a member of the then ruling

Progressive Liberal Party The Progressive Liberal Party (abbreviated PLP) is a populist and social liberal party in the Bahamas. Philip Davis is the leader of the party. History The PLP was founded in 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson, and Henry Milton Tay ...

. On May 10, 2002, he was appointed by the then Prime Minister

Perry Christie Perry Gladstone Christie PC, MP (born 21 August 1943) is a Bahamian former politician who served as Prime Minister of the Bahamas from 2002 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2017. He is the second longest-serving Bahamian elected parliamentarian (behi ...

to the Cabinet as the Minister of Housing and National Insurance. Gibson was appointed to the post for which he would become most well-known internationally, as the Minister of Immigration, Labour and Training when Christie reshuffled the Cabinet on February 22, 2005. On February 18, 2007, he stepped down as a result of the controversy surrounding his involvement with

Anna Nicole Smith Anna Nicole Smith (born Vickie Lynn Hogan; November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007) was an American model, actress, and television personality. Smith started her career as a ''Playboy'' magazine centerfold in May 1992 and won the title of 1993 ...

. On May 2, 2007 he was re-elected to his seat in Parliament, but as an opposition member because his party lost the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

to the

Free National Movement The Free National Movement (abbreviated FNM) is a political party in The Bahamas formed in the early 1970s, led by Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield. The current leader of the party is Michael Pintard and his deputy Peter Turnquest. It dominated the ...

. In April 2020, in a lawsuit against

Peter Nygård Peter J. Nygård (born Pekka Juhani Nygård; born July 24, 1941) is a Finnish-Canadian clothing, fashion executive. In 1967, he founded Nygård International, a Winnipeg-based company that made women's apparel. In 2020, Nygård was accused of lo ...

it was alleged that Nygård "gifted" Smith to Gibson.

Alleged Corruption, Role in Peter Nygård sex trafficking scandal

According to the ''Bahamas Tribune,'' Gibson was given $94,131.10 between August 2011 and January 2013 by Peter Nygård. In response to this discovery, Gibson claimed the payment was for his 2012 election campaign and community assistance. The 2020 sex trafficking lawsuit against Peter Nygård also alleged that Nygård provided Gibson and members of the PLP, alongside corrupt police officers "children and young women to engage in commercial sex acts with."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Shane 1961 births Living people Political scandals Members of the House of Assembly of the Bahamas Government ministers of the Bahamas Progressive Liberal Party politicians People from Nassau, Bahamas Corruption in the Bahamas 21st-century Bahamian politicians