SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - The bankruptcy of US investment bank Lehman Brothers has forced developers to fire 500 workers and suspend construction at an unfinished Dominican resort, developers said Wednesday.

The $1 billion Cap Cana resort was relying on a $250 million loan from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which went bankrupt last month.

The first $50 million never arrived to Sinercon, the company overseeing the project, and construction will be delayed until a new revenue source is found, Project spokesman Ellis Perez said.

Reeling from $60 billion in toxic real-estate debt, the Wall Street lending firm filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15. Following Lehman's fall, credit markets seized up, generally sending stocks plunging.

Earlier this month, the Lehman Brothers crisis troubled another Caribbean coast when it paralyzed work on a 125-room hotel, marina and condominium project in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a nearby British dependency.

Ashtrom Group Ltd. said 60 Chinese laborers owed back wages had prevented employees of the Israeli company from leaving a work site on the tiny island of West Caicos.

The dispute arose after Logwood Hotel Development Co., the developers of a Ritz-Carlton Molasses Reef project financed by Lehman Bros., suspended construction.

Ashtrom, which was hired by Logwood to build the resort, was about two months from finishing it when construction was halted.

The dispute was resolved when the company agreed to pay the wages.