CARIBARENA Antigua & Barbuda

Deputy political leader of the opposition ALP Gaston Browne wants the government to talk with the Stanford Victims Coalition, which has launched a vicious campaign to vilify Antigua & Barbuda.

The SVC has claimed that Antigua & Barbuda was complicit in the alleged fraud committed by Sir Allen Stanford, who is in jail awaiting trial next year.

Browne said:

The vicious attacks on our sovereignty as a people, by the Stanford Victims Coalition (SVC) which comprises more than 500 wealthy individuals from more than 15 countries, continue and appear to be getting some traction.

In addition, to the threat of a frivolous suit for US$24 Billion, they have now decided to sue the Government of Antigua & Barbuda and The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank as co-conspirators to defraud them of the assets that they believe should rightly form part of the Stanford Receivership Estate.

The Stanford Victim Coalition recently circulated 20,000 leaflets at a Tourism Promotion Show in the USA as a counter strategy to our delegation’s efforts to promote Antigua & Barbuda as a premier tourism destination. In the leaflet they characterised The UPP Government as corrupt and asserted that the UPP Government is pursuing a brazen act of thievery by seeking to expropriate hundreds of millions of dollars in assets owned by R. Allen Stanford.

They have established a web site www.anti-antigua.org to wage their smear campaign. They have labelled our country “Pirates of the Caribbean”  and have sought to persuade tourists to boycott all travel to the island.

More recently, they got Congressman Mike Coffman of Colorado to introduce a second resolution in the US House of Representatives seeking to pressure Antigua and Barbuda to release to the US receiver all of Sir Allen’s properties that are being compulsorily acquired and the resolution also calls for Antigua & Barbuda to make monetary contributions for the benefit of investors who lost money in the alleged Ponzi scheme that US regulators said amounted to US$ 7 billion. Last week in Parliament, Finance Minister, Harold Lovell reported that the US Government has insisted that Antigua & Barbuda should remain on FATF grey list because of the Stanford debacle, our handling of the Stanford assets will therefore be subject to international scrutiny.

The SVC and Congressman Mike Coffman were recently joined by a group of Stanford investors, this time in Latin America, who are pressuring cruise lines to boycott Antigua & Barbuda.

Clearly these so-called victims are making some progress in waging what is considered by many as a form of “economic terrorism” with their dishonest and downright malicious “Anti-Antigua Campaign.”

Notwithstanding the claims against former regulator Leroy King, which incidentally, are yet to be proven, there is no evidence of collusion by the Government past or present, confirming that the Government colluded with Stanford in any way to defraud depositors.  Stanford was considered by all, with whom he came in contact globally, (barring the few who may have speculated that he was a crook), as a bonafide banker and investor and was treated as such. Unfortunately, the Stanford empire crumbled a year ago resulting in a number of economic casualties. 

The Stanford Victims Coalition members must however understand that they are not the only victims, all of the stakeholders to include, the former employees of the Stanford Group of Companies and the Government and people of Antigua & Barbuda are victims of this unfortunate development.

Therefore, it is patently wrong for the SVC members to hold the Antiguan & Barbuda Government exclusively responsible for what, if proven, would have been a global crime spanning 28 countries including the USA, which incidentally had similar regulatory responsibilities. This “lose-lose,” selective, economic terroristic strategy that is being pursued by SVC is self defeating and begs the question as to why aren’t they targeting the US regulators and the US Government whose regulatory control was equally defective. I imagine this is a typical bullying tactic against a vulnerable small island state which should be resisted.

The Chairman of the SVC indicated during a recent radio programme on Observer Radio, that they are reluctantly pursing this destructive course of action out of frustration and that they are willing to meet and settle the issue amicably. I do not believe that there is any justification for compensation and evidently the Government should not entertain any such discussion however, I believe that there are merits in the SVC members request to release the Stanford assets which the Government is seeking to compulsorily acquire.

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Other than acquisitions for strategic or developmental purposes of which appropriate compensation should be provided, the Stanford assets should to be released instead of the UPP Government pursuing a whole sale acquisition of these assets. I cautioned the government a year ago in Parliament about the dangers of the wholesale acquisition but instead of heeding the advice, they pursued a short term political strategy to gain political advantage going into the 2009 general elections, to the detriment of the state.

My recommendation then and now is, that the Government should cease from acquiring but to leave the Stanford assets for the beneficiaries as determined by the Companies Act or the Courts.

In the interim, pending the courts’ decision, the government should protect the interest of all stakeholders to include SVC members, former staff members of the Stanford Group of Companies (SGC), and various Government agencies to Include Inland Revenue and APUA by placing a caution or lien over these assets.

It would be unfair for the UPP Government to opportunistically seek to confiscate these assets, which more than likely would form part of the receivership estate, thereby exacerbating the pain and losses of depositors some of whom incidentally are local Antiguans and Barbudans.  Rather than allowing this problem to fester to the detriment of the state, the Government should indicate unequivocally, to all stakeholders, including the SVC members how it intends to treat with these assets to avert the anxieties, frustrations and counterproductive actions of the victims here and abroad.

Spoiling for a fight with the SVC members will bring little or no value to our country but will cost the state millions of dollars in “welfare costs” to employ the services of a publicist to negate the adverse publicity and to settle legal fees.  The UPP Government should constructively engage all stakeholders to include SVC members, the former staff members of (SGC) and others to develop a national response to this problem, instead of running the risks of antagonising 500 individuals of means who, clearly, are prepared to utilise their influence and financial resources to sully the name of Antigua & Barbuda and to damage our tourism product.

A word to wise is sufficient.



Hon. Gaston Browne

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