Marcus Ching (Page 488)

In a tucked-away corner of heaven, overlooking the obvious lakes of the South Pacific, a storm of discussion was about to fall on Fiji’s Pearl Resort &amp, Spa.

Manshika Prasad, a 24-year-old MBA pupil, had just been named Miss Fiji while holding a bouquet of flowers on level.

But shortly after, according to one of the judges, points at the beauty pageant “turned actually unattractive”.

What transpired over the course of a few days could be considered ugly; it might be an understatement to say that beauty queens would be crowned and deposed, wild accusations would be made, and later there would be the appearance of a dark figure with a very personal connection to one of the candidates.

Two weeks after winning, Ms. Prasad’s announcement in a press release revealed anything was wrong. It said a” major breach of concepts” had occurred, and “revised outcomes” may be made public soon.

A few hours later, it was announced that Ms. Prasad would n’t be contesting for the Miss Universe title in Mexico in November.

Otherwise, runner-up Nadine Roberts, a 30-year-old design and home creator from Sydney, whose family is Fijian, would take her place.

According to the press release, the” right techniques” were not followed, and Ms. Prasad was chosen in a rigged voting that favoured a” Fiji Indian” contestant to win because it would bring economic benefits to the show’s boss.

Ms. Prasad, who was upset, said she would be taking a break from social media but warned that” so much the consumer did not know about” what she had in mind.

The new monarch, however, offered a concept of assistance. ” We are all impacted by this”, Ms Roberts wrote on Instagram, before thanking Miss Universe Fiji for its” sharp activity”.

However, those who entered the contest were unsatisfied because there were too many variables to consider.

” Everything had been running thus smoothly”, says Melissa White, one of seven judges on the screen.

She had been flown in from New Zealand to comment on the contest’s generosity and economic concerns.

” It was for a great day, for a successful show. There were” no people saying they’d never seen pageant girls get along so well,” Ms. White tells the BBC.

The courts were asked to write down the name of someone they believed should be the next Miss Fiji as the contest drew to a crescendo on Friday night.

” By this stage, Manshika]Prasad ] was the clear winner”, says Jennifer Chan, another judge, who’s a US-based TV host and style and beauty expert.

” No solely based on what she presented on level but also how she interacted with the other ladies, how she photographed, how she modelled”.

Ms Chan says she was” 100 % confident” that Ms Prasad was the strongest candidate to represent Fiji.

With four of the seven votes cast, much of her brother judges decided, and Ms. Prasad was declared the winner.

But as the newly-crowned Miss Universe Fiji stood on stage, beaming in her beautiful crown, the magistrates sensed something was bad.

To her straight, Nadine Roberts- wearing her runners-up ribbon- was” seething”, alleges Ms Chan.

” I remember going to bed thinking, how could someone feeling therefore entitled to get?

” You win some, you lose some. She’s a well-known charm show competitor, so she must have known that.

Ms. Prasad and the judges took a joyous boat trip the following day.

” She was just in wonder, saying: my existence may be changed then,” says Ms Chan.

She’s the epitome of that kind-hearted person who deserves it, which merely confirmed to me that I had chosen the right woman.

But there had still been no standard assurance of Ms Prasad’s success.

Not only that, Riri Febriani, a judge for Lux Projects, the company that purchased the rights to host Miss Universe in Fiji, was noticeably absent from the vacation.

” I remember thinking that was strange,” says Ms White, who shared a chamber with Ms Febriani”. But she only stated that she needed to talk to her employer because she had a lot of work to accomplish.

There is no way the others would know who she was messaging on her phone, according to Ms Febriani, and she claims she did n’t take the boat trip because she needed to rest.

However, Ms. White claims she discovered that her companion was receiving calls and texts from a male named” Jamie.”

You need to purchase a license that will allow you to use the product and buy tickets for the event because Miss Universe is a multi-million-dollar company that operates like a company.

Fiji has n’t entered a participant since 1981 because those licenses are cheap and it’s difficult to find someone in small nations willing to fund one.

But this year, one company was willing to buy the permission: property development company Lux Projects.

Ms Febriani was its member on the judging panel, but moreover looked after media contacts.

” I’d got on so well with her, she seemed a really nice person,” says Ms White.

” But that day when she did n’t come on the boat, her demeanour kind of changed. She just kept saying that she was constantly on the phone with this” Jamie” man and was extremely busy at work.

Despite having Ms. Febriani on the board, it turned out Lux Projects was unhappy with the outcome of the voting.

Its media release on Sunday said the owner itself should also get a ballot- one which the contracted administrator, Grant Dwyer, had” failed to count”.

Lux Projects may have voted for Ms Roberts, bringing the benefits to a 4-4 knot.

What’s more, it said, the owner even had the” determining ballot”- making Ms Roberts the success.

Always were we informed of an eighth judge or any other absent judge,” says Ms. Chan.

” It was n’t on the website, it was n’t anywhere. Besides, how can you voting on a challenge if you’re not even there?”

Ms White was likewise cautious.

According to Ms. White,” I did some cutting and it turns out that Lux Projects was strongly associated with an American businessman called Jamie McIntyre.”

” And Jamie McIntyre,” she told the BBC”, is married to Nadine Roberts.”

Mr McIntyre describes himself as an investor, entrepreneur and” world-leading educator”, who has- according to data accessible online- been married to Ms Roberts since 2022.

He was also banned from doing business in Australia for a decade in 2016 due to his involvement in a property investment scheme that lost investors more than A$7m ($4.7m; £3.6m). The judge in the case said there was “no evidence to suggest that successful reform is likely”.

The legislator who questioned him as part of a hearing for a political committee afterwards claimed that he was” the most deceptive see I have had to offer with- and that’s saying something,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

But what was he doing here?

” ]Mr McIntyre ] is n’t a director or shareholder of the MUF licensee company, but has acted as an adviser, as he is a shareholder in associated companies,” Jamie McIntyre’s representatives told the BBC.

Nevertheless, the company’s Instagram site does have a video of Mr McIntyre giving property purchase tips, as well as a link to 21st Century University, a Bali-based home business owned by Mr McIntyre.

A” Jamie” was on the line during phone calls between Ms. Roberts and the event organiser, Grant Dwyer, according to the BBC.

Although they did acknowledge that he had “provided advice to the holder of the licence holder,” Mr. McIntyre’s representatives assert that the allegations that he was involved in the judging controversy are a” conspiracy theory.”

Additionally, the press release’s claim that Mr. Dwyer allegedly voted for Ms. Roberts undermines the claim that he had pressured the panel to choose her because of her race.

” It’s just gross to even bring up race,” says Ms Chan”. It was never, ever once uttered amongst any of the judges,” she adds.

The BBC has sought comment from both Ms Roberts and Ms Prasad, but neither has responded.

Several of those involved- including some judges and contestants- have been sent” cease and desist “emails by Lux Projects, the BBC understands, which have been taken as tantamount to gagging orders by the recipients.

By no means is this scandal in Fiji the first to affect the world of beauty pageants, which has historically seen its fair share of controversy.

” Pageants are full of drama, of controversies, of people saying the contest was a fix,” says Prof Hilary Levey Friedman, author of’ Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America.’

She continues,” But I will say that these issues have become much more pronounced in recent years thanks to social media,” she continues.

Recent controversy has tended to occur in less developed regions of the world, aside from a 2022 voting scandal at the Miss America contest.

According to Prof. Friedman, this is probably because, in many Western nations, pageants are typically non-profit affairs, whereas pageants elsewhere are more popular and lucrative than ever.

” Historically, beauty pageants have been an amazing tool for social mobility for women,” says Prof Friedman.

” Apart from the prestige and the glory, it gives you a platform to attract followers and sponsorships. When there’s money involved, the stakes are higher.”

For Ms Prasad though, it turns out there is a happy ending.

She claimed on one of her social media accounts on Friday that she had indeed been re-crowned Miss Fiji 2024.

” What an incredible journey this has been,” she wrote on Instagram.

Miss Universe Organization ( MUO) has not responded to a request for comment, but the BBC is aware of its extreme dissatisfaction with the events in Fiji and has worked diligently to reinstate Ms. Prasad as island’s queen after establishing the facts.

For Ms Prasad there is elation. For the judges, relief.

As for Ms Roberts, she is calling herself the” real Miss Universe Fiji 2024 “on Instagram.

Judge Ms White says she’s” so proud of how Manshika]Prasad ] has conducted herself throughout this journey. She’s a brilliant, compassionate, and beautiful young woman, who did n’t deserve this.

” We merely desired the truth to be revealed, and it has now.”