The drama continues as the Miss Universe Fiji licensee has responded to questions from fijivillage News saying the Miss Universe organization is now considering that both the Miss Universe Fiji decided winner in Nadine Roberts and Manshika Prasad, be possibly disqualified because neither of them live in Fiji, but reside outside the country.
They made the statement after Miss Universe Fiji 2024 Director Event Management, Grant Dwyer confirmed to fijivillage News from Sydney yesterday that they have been advised to confirm that Manshika Prasad is the rightful winner and express their support for her representation of Fiji at the Miss Universe International event in Mexico later this year.
The Miss Universe Fiji licensee says this would be an interesting precedent to deny either of them to become the winner based on this clause, when many other countries in Miss Universe in the past and Miss Universe competition 2024 don’t enforce this criteria, such as Great Britain, Albania, and many others.
They say there is a clause if it’s for study but both contestants haven’t lived in Fiji in the last 5 years, or live outside Fiji solely for study.
They say Nadine Roberts has represented Fiji in Miss Grand International who like many beauty pageants doesn’t prevent contestants running who live outside their country.
There have been further allegations made against the event organizer, Grant Dwyer, who is now planning to sue the license holder.
The Miss Universe Fiji licensee says allegations have been raised that the other winner’s former partner is a shareholder in an associated company to the company that holds the Miss Universe Fiji license.
However they say the individual, Jamie McIntyre declined to be involved in the licensee company or a judge as he said it was a conflict of interest, and not something he had time for, and the licensee company to ensure independence only choose to nominate 2 of the 8 judges.
They say the event organiser failed to disclose and organised 6 of the 8 judges creating an obvious conflict of interest for the event organiser to manipulate the vote,not even informing the other Judges of the 8th licensee vote.
The Miss Universe Fiji licensee claims there is evidence in private WhatsApp messages, referring to a Fiji Indian contestant being the winner is ideal for the event organiser and his business partner a Fiji Indian businessman.
They say the event organiser who was terminated by Miss Universe Fiji has been warned of legal action if he continues to mislead Miss Universe and the public.
They say all Fijian contestants no matter their ethnicity, deserve an equal chance, not only those that represent a global audience for event organisers to seek to profit from.
Representatives of Jamie McIntyre have released a statement, saying that conspiracy theory is being spread by the terminated event organiser, that was contracted by Miss Universe Fiji, that Jamie McIntyre, (a Political Commentator with the Australian National Review Anrnews.com and Chairman of the Global Economic Forum GEF.world,) is the owner of the Miss Universe Fiji license, and was somehow involved in the judging controversy.
They say this is nothing but a theory without merit.
They say firstly McIntyre isn’t a Director or shareholder of the Miss Universe Fiji licensee company, but has acted as an advisor, as he is a shareholder in associated companies.
McIntyre’s representatives say for the sake of refuting the conspiracy theory regarding him having any involvement, or ability to influence the judging process, let’s assume he was the owner of the license.
They say the licensee for Miss Universe Fiji had the right to appoint all 8 judges, however, it only appointed 2 of the 8 judges, with the goal to ensure independence.
The representatives say this turned out to be a mistake and enabled the event organiser to cause such controversy over picking the wrong winner.
They say as the event organiser allegedly appointed 6 of the 8 judges, and failed to disclose they were all non independent, but either family members, friends, associates and or business partners.
The representatives say it’s also been evidenced by the event organiser's WhatsApp messages, of the additional Global Sponsorships and potential business deals that they can leverage if a Fiji Indian contestant wins (due to the large Global Indian population) for both himself, and one of the Fiji Indian judges.
McIntyre’s representatives say it has since been noted the event organiser during the judging process was also defamatory towards the eventual winner Nadine Roberts, by criticising her age (30) and weight, and other persuading comments to judges, to sway the result towards the much younger Fiji Indian contestant.
They say McIntyre who can’t act in any official capacity for the licensee company, other than provide advice (as he isn’t a Director nor shareholder) has stated that his advice to the licensee holder was: demand an investigation to the inconsistencies raised in the voting and inform the Miss Universe Organisation after it was raised on the night by the licensee representative; consider suing the event organiser; investigate why the licensee holder was put in a position by the event organiser, to pay 6 figure costs, yet not one of the claimed sponsorship deals to reduce costs he promised eventuated, and why did not 1 cent of event ticket sales for the event go to the licensee towards costs, but to the event organisers associates ; to cease the Miss Universe Fiji license and to avoid such non core projects, even if the licensee team had the best intentions to help local Fijians and to see Fiji represented on a Global stage after 43 years since it was last represented at Miss Universe, and to request Miss Universe Head Office to decide who they want as their representative.
McIntyre says there were much more serious breaches which are with the Police.
When questioned yesterday on the alleged conflict of interest where contestant, Nadine Roberts and the Miss Universe Fiji license holder have a relationship, Dwyer says the vetting process was handled by LUX and they have to ensure water tight processes in the future.
They reiterate the fairness and transparency of the judging process, which resulted in Manshika Prasad receiving a decisive 4-3 vote in her favour.
Dwyer says this has been a distressing time for Prasad, the other finalists, the judges, the sponsors and the organizers of that was an incredible event.
Questions are also being asked on how the Miss Universe Fiji license has been secured by a foreign national and how the contestants were chosen because there was no public call.
There are suggestions that the call to enter was made on Instagram.
In 2016, the ABC reported that a Federal Court judge banned Jamie McIntyre from managing corporations for 10 years, after he was found to have run five unlawful managed investment schemes, which cost 152 investors AUD$7 million.
McIntyre was also tied to a sunken superyacht, but strongly denied that he was its current owner.
He said it was owned by a boat syndicate, mostly overseas owners who don't live in Australia.
He had said he had plans to buy the boat as "a wedding present".
McIntyre said he used to own it and was buying it back as shareholders wanted it sold, once its commercial survey for charter was complete.
It has been reported in 2022 that McIntyre married Brisbane influencer and "entrepreneur" Nadine Roberts in May.
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