A Jamaican man who led the failed investment club Higgins Warner in St James has died on the streets of Argentina.
He is 55-year-old Emile Maxim St. Patrick Higgins, commonly called ‘Max Higgins’ or ‘Patrick Higgins’.
He also known for having promoted the project to build an ‘Argentine Disney’ in San Pedro, Argentina.
Higgins was found dead on a public road in Merlo, a province of Buenos Aires on Monday.
He had been living on the streets for some time.
Mahiri Stewart reports.
An employee of a bus route in Merlo reportedly alerted the authorities after seeing Max Higgins lying on a street in the town of Libertad.
According to witnesses, he had been wandering around the area for more than 20 days.
He was found in the foetal position.
The last readily available local media report on Higgins was a Jamaica Gleaner article from January 2008.
The newspaper then reported that the investment club, Higgins Warner, was shutting down its St. James-based operations and moving to Argentina.
It was reported that a representative of the company, who spoke with the newspaper, said the intention of the president of the company, Max Higgins, was to move the Jamaican operations because of the pressure coming from regulatory bodies.
At the time, investors, many of whom advanced between 5 thousand and 3 hundred thousand US dollars, were left in shock and without answers about their investments.
Following the relocation to Argentina, Higgins lived lavishly.
He announced the construction of an ‘Argentine Disney World’ on a 132-hectare property he said he owned in the Buenos Aires city of San Pedro.
A sign installed on the land and the initial support of local authorities gave some credibility to the ambitious project.
However, Disney itself denied any link with the initiative.
Months before, he had pushed ‘World Football Idol’, a reality show that sought to discover the next soccer star.
The winner would get a prize of thousands of dollars and the possibility of taking a test at the club of their choice.
The first call took place on May 12, at the World Cup Stadium in Mar del Plata.
Higgins arrived on a private jet, and as soon as he landed, he got into a 1989 Lamborghini Diablo in which the winner could also make a lap.
Despite the appeal of the awards, the proposal did not arouse the expected interest, with only about 30 people registering.
Higgins did not give up andpushed ahead with his plans.
To attract the public, he also called on football legend Diego Maradona and put together three musical shows.
The contest didn’t manage to catapult any aspiring soccer star to fame.
Until recent times, nothing more was known about the Jamaican.
But in 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a homeless Higgins spoke with a YouTuber in Argentina and alleged his money was being held by the state.
An investigation into Higgin’s death is underway.
