AS ANTIGUA'S ALFA NERO SCANDAL REMAINS UNRESOLVED, PRIME MINISTER BROWNE CALLS A SNAP ELECTION; FEAR AND LOATHING?

PM Gaston Browne

Antigua's beleaguered Prime Minister, GASTON BROWNE, whose sitting Labour Party (ABLP) remains under a cloud created by the suspicious, and patently illegal, sale of the Russian luxury Yacht ALFA NERO, with missing millions in proceeds and a stolen fine art collection known to be on board reportedly worth more than the vessel itself, has called a snap General Election, to be held within the next 90 days. Although Antiguan law specifies that the next election is not due until January 2028, Browne reportedly sees a political advantage, due to recent events, in moving forward at this time.

Insiders in Antigua say that Browne is focused on remaining in office, as he believes that, so long as he remains as PM, the US Department of Justice will not choose to indict him, on a number of of corruption and money laundering charges, going back decades, that he would most likely face as a private citizen. The most damaging one, the Alfa Nero luxury yacht case, reportedly resulted in the DOJ receiving incriminating evidence that personally implicated him in a bogus sale, with missing sale proceeds, and a quick resale listing by the purchaser, all of which appears to implicate Browne, his family, and close business and political associates.

Given the widespread vote buying and rampant voter fraud that has been a feature of Antiguan elections in the past, it is fully expected that The ABLP will again emerge the victor, notwithstanding significant opposition among voters and Opposition parties. It is not expected to be a free and fair election process. Additionally, the stagnant state of the Antiguan economy, with good private sector jobs generally absent, and the resulting bloated government employment, leaving many voters subject to ABLP intimidation, any outcome where Labour does not prevail is extremely unlikely.

Therefore, we do not expect that the systemic corruption, and accompanying money laundering that plagues Antigua, will be reduced anytime soon. Corruption officers at banks in North America and Europe should continue to regard the jurisdiction as having elevated risk levels for financial crime.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL RECEIVES 72 YEAR SENTENCE FOR MONEY LAUNDERING; WILL IT DETER OTHERS WHO ARE TEMPTED IN NIGERIA?

Chukwunyere Anamekwe Nwabuoku, formerly acting Accountant-General in the Federal Government of Nigeria, was sentenced to a jaw-dropping seventy two years in prison, on multiple money laundering charges, an extraordinary sentence in a country known for massive official corruption raging out of control, which may explain the sentence. Nwabuoku diverted N868,465,000, the equivalent of USD$630,000, by transferring the funds to shell companies that he controlled.

In the United States, the maximum sentence for violations of the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 is twenty years in Federal Prison, but that sentence is rarely, if ever, imposed by District Judges. Perhaps they might want to take judicial notice of this case, for short sentences for money laundering do not appear to have served as adequate deterrence, given that the United States Sentencing Commission lists over 25,500 Federal convictions since 2001.

FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN THE NEW FINCEN RULE REQUIRING REPORTING ON CASH SALES TO TRUSTS AND OTHER ENTITIES

A United States District Judge in Texas (EDTX) has ruled that the FinCEN regulations, which became effective 1 March, 2026, and which required reporting on all cash sales of residential real estate to trusts and corporations, was an unlawful extension of the Bank Secrecy Act. Obviously, there will be an appeal to the Fifth Circuit, and most likely to the US Supreme Court, but this decision throws compliance with the regulations into a quandry. There have been three other District Court decisions approving the regulations, which sets up the probability of Conflict Certiorari to the High Court eventually, when those cases hit the Courts of Appeal.

Read the complete text of the 32-page decision here.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txed.237265/gov.uscourts.txed.237265.34.0.pdf

THE IDENTIFICATION OF CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT (CBI) PASSPORTS BY COMPLIANCE OFFICERS FOR AML/CFT PURPOSES

                                 

While the investment migration industry sells most of its economic citizenships to legitimate purchasers, most of whom are affluent or high net worth individuals, a number of financial criminals do end up with passports that afford them visa-free entry into Europe or other areas, where they often seek to engage in white collar crime. Therefore, compliance officers at financial institutions and NBFIs must develop the skills necessary to readily identify CBI passports when they are presented as account opening, at real estate closings, and in connection with other business transactions.

It is humbly suggested that you follow these guidelines:
(1) Be aware of which jurisdictions currently, or previously, sell or sold economic citizenships; it is also helpful to keep a watchful eye on the CBI industry, so that you learn, in advance, of any new nation that is opening a program which could result in the appearance of new CBI passports in circulation, before you are aware that they are being sold.
(2) Assume that the listed name on a CBI passport is either a modification of the holder's legal name, an alias, or a possible translation/transliteration from another language, alphabet or script. This will interfere with your ability to use commercially available off the shelf databases to rule him or her out for sanctions or identification as high risk or with a criminal background abroad. Have you attempted to employ facial recognition software?
(3) Unless an individual has actually lived in the jurisdiction where his passport was issued, he generally will not have both the relevant language fluency, and the slang and terms peculiar to residents of that country. Do you have someone on your staff from that loication, who could tell in a moment if he was a native speaker, with local phrases, grammar usage and accent? Have him engage the client in conversation about what city he is from there.
(4) If you have not yet established that you have a CBI passport in your hands, check the Place or Birth closely. While originally, CBI jurisdictions like Saint Kitts and Dominica inserted bogus birthplace information, in recent years, legal requirements or local practice have dictated that the holder's real birthplace be listed; this can be an additional confirmation of CBI status.
(5) the passport of most world travelers have several pages of entry and exit stamps, visas, work authorizations, and other notations. Is the passport you have in hand new, and with few such stamp? That is one of the indicia of possible CBI passport status.

With experience, compliance officers are usually able to spot a CBI passport early on, and then must decide, as gatekeeper, whether enhanced due diligence is the next step, or should they decline the business outright, report it up the chain of command, or file a SAR. It's your decision; Choose wisely.

SPECULATION ABOUNDS HERE REGARDING ALEX SAAB MORAN'S NEW SEALED INDICTMENT, AND WHEN HE WILL BE EXTRADITED A SECOND TIME TO THE UNITED STATES

The mystery surrounding ALEX NAIN SAAB MORAN, the Colombian money launderer closely associated with former Venezuelan President NICOLAS MADURO's criminal enterprises, continues to roil legal observers here in Miami; when will he be extradited, and who else is a named defendant in the sealed Federal indictment reportedly filed against him in January, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Other than it involves corruption charges, there is no other information available from any source, regarding details of the new charges against Saab, who was previously granted a pardon in connection with a prisoner (essentially hostage) exchange for Americans held by Venezuela.

Readers who wish further information on Saab's original Federal case can find a number of articles detailing his initial arrest in Cabo Verde, subsequent extradition to the United States, and proceedings in the prior SDNY case, on my blog here. Use the White search box at the top of the page.

We do know that there is conflicting information regarding whether Saab is being detained, and under what conditions, though it is known that Venezuela's current president, DELCY RODRIGUEZ, has removed him from his position as Minister of Industry and National Production; his wife was also said to have lost her government post. There has been no information released to the media on the status of negotiations for his extradition, or that of any other targets.

I WARNED GRENADA ABOUT ITS HANG SHENG CHINA SCAM; U.S. IMPOSES A $15,000 VISA BOND

If you were wondering when the U.S. Department of State was going to respond to Grenada's continued massive sale of CBI passports to Chinese nationals, giving them the ability to take advantage of Grenada's unique to the Caribbean E-2 visa privileges, it happened today, when Secretary MARCO RUBIO announced that the Eastern Caribbean state is one of twelve new high risk jurisdictions whose nationals must now post an expensive bond, when applying for a visa. Don't native-born Grenadians understand that this is the American response to their government's actions, and that the continued existence of that valued E-2 visa eligibility that they currently enjoy is at risk?

Industry apologists have been downplaying Grenada's Prime Minister's intense political alliance with the Peoples' Republic of China, and ignoring the country's continued business relationship with the Chinese-controlled HANG SHENG GROUP. A number of Chinese nationals, all holding CBI passports from the Caribbean, have been arrested in the United States on a variety of criminal charges, including white collar crime and industrial espionage conduced on behalf of China, and this new $15,000 visa bond, as what was previously imposed on citizens of Antigua & Dominica, also CBI-issuing states, is the real reason for this new American action.

I have repeatedly warned Grenada about the probable consequences of operating a rogue CBI program. Wake up, Grenada, before you see an even stronger American response to your sale of CBI passports to criminals and high risk individuals targeting the United States for China. Reform your CBI program; if you cannot , then terminate it.

HOW DID BVI PREMIER ANDREW FAHIE'S CO-DEFENDANT, OLEANVINE PICKERING MAYNARD SERVE ONLY ONE YEAR OF A NINE YEAR SENTENCE ON COCAINE CHARGES?

If you know how Rule 35 Sentencing Reduction works in Federal Court, cooperating defendants often receive up to a 50% cut in their sentences. Rarely do we see more; the huge (65%) sentence reduction handed out in Miami to the Swiss banker/money launderer MATTHIAS KRULL was obviously payment for his testimony against a major Venezuelan money laundering operation, but that is the rare exception.

OLEANVINE PICKERING MAYNARD, the BVI port manager who received a nine year sentence in the ANDREW FAHIE drug & money laundering sting, served only a single year of her sentence, before being released. A 90% reduction in her sentence is quite extraordinary, and it most certainly was not as the result of her trial testimony against Fahie. We must assume that she gave evidence implicating other senior Caribbean government officials, and they either not been indicted yet, or more likely, their are sealed indictments being held until the targets are physically within the jurisdiction of the United States, such as a quick trip over to the US Virgin Islands, which is sovereign American territory.

We will be watching for the case that Oleanvine, and her son KADEEM MAYNARD, who also drew a major sentence reduction, spawned. I imagine there are some nervous government officials in the BVI with sleepless nights these days.

LEST WE FORGET: 55 YEARS AFTER NIXON INVADED CAMBODIA

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_campaign

GRENADA'S PRIME MINISTER; WE HAVE A GOVERNMENT OFFICE IN NIGERIA FOR CBI PASSPORT APPLICATIONS; PURE INSANITY

Mitchell with a Fistful of CBI passports

This is Grenada's Prime Minister, DICKON MITCHELL, on Facebook, hawking his country's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) economic passports, by advertising the fact that one can process their application in NIGERIA. Compliance officers, who are well aware that victims in the United States have been targeted for years by a host of Nigerian transnational criminals, should be concerned, for the ability to disguise their nationality is a major component of white collar crime, when one comes from a high-risk jurisdiction.

I have lost count of the number of Nigerian career criminals indicted in America, whether for romance fraud, advance fee schemes, or a number of illicit activities, all of which have made U.S. law enforcement agencies concerned about how such individuals can operate within their native country with impunity, attacking Americans.

In a country with a documented high amount of official corruption, what is to prevent criminals from purchasing a government ID under an alias, and using it to successfully process a Grenada CBI passport? Remember, of all the five EC CBI states, only Grenada allows its citizens the ability to obtain an E-2 Treaty Investor visa. Consider the possibilities; clever career Nigerian criminals could end up legally inside the United States.

I cannot understate the seriousness of my concerns; Native-born Grenadians, who prize their unique E-2 eligibility, amongst all the countries of the Eastern Caribbean, for PM Mitchell's zeal to sell more CBI passports could result in the American termination of the visa program. Apparently, national avarice has trumped common sense in Grenada.

WILL CHOKSKI'S UK CIVIL SUIT AGAINST INDIA BE DISMISSED FOR HIS FAILURE TO TIMELY PAY THE £677,000 COST DEPOSIT?

The April 3 deadline for the accused billion dollar Indian fraudster, MEHUL CHOKSI, to pay into the court registry £677,000, as and for a Cost deposit, in his UK civil case against the Government of India, and alleged kidnappers, is fast approaching. We note that there is no confirmation that Choksi's counsel, British human rights attorney MICHAEL POLAK, has paid this sum. I learned early on in law school that, when a court orders you to do something, you comply as soon as possible, for last minute efforts when you delay have been known to fail, exposing your client, and you personally, to being held accountable.

Does Choksi not have the funds available to make the required cost deposit? In that case, the action could be dismissed with prejudice. We will be closely monitoring the civil action, and will report back on all developments as they unfold.

MAJOR PROBLEMS HAVE ALREADY EMERGED WITH THE NEW CBI PROGRAM AT SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE

Compliance officers, if you were wondering why the concerted disinformation that has appeared of late, attempting to discredit the undersigned's warnings about corruption in Citizenship by Investment programs, it was to confuse you about emerging threats I am covering. My sources have confirmed that the new CBI program at West African country, SAO TOME' AND PRINCIPE, is accepting, and processing, applications for economic passports from nationals of RUSSIA and IRAN, two jurisdictions on international sanctions list, and which are blocked from applying at most CBI programs. These passports can then be employed for sanctions evasion and related money laundering by bad actors working for those two outlaw states.

Furthermore, we are advised there is a rush on Sao Tome' applications, the majority of which are originating in the investment migration consultancies located in the United Arab Emirates, principally in Dubai. These companies exist there free of any regulation, control and enforcement, and Dubai has been the site of the majority of the massive prior sales of illegally discounted Caribbean CBI & CIP, passports, through Chinese companies which diverted billions of dollars to Hong Kong, denying needed revenue to the people who were the intended beneficiaries.

Please note that Sao Tome' is of particular interest to the law enforcement agencies of the United States, as it was the aviation registration jurisdiction of choice for Russian organized crime , which used the S9 prefix to hide the beneficial ownership of dozens of turboprop aircraft, whilst ferrying them to COLOMBIA, and other drug-producing countries in South America, where they became the aircraft of choice to transport cocaine and bulk US Dollars. in the region. Considering that it is US law enforcement that is tipping us off to the Sao Tome CBI passport abuse, we must assume that Russians and Iranians now holding those passports have now drawn their close attention.

We are aware that compliance officers at international banks generally check Place of Birth on all passports proffered by new customers, to determine whether they are being presented with a CBI document, but unless the holder of a Sao Tome' passport is a Portuguese expat who grew up there, and has the language skills and general familiarity with what is an obscure jurisdiction, you are urged to discredit any recitation of local birth, and institute enhanced due diligence on the holder, prior to accepting any funds at account opening.

FOR FURTHER READING:

https://rijock.blogspot.com/2025/11/consumers-acquiring-cbi-passports-from.html

https://rijock.blogspot.com/2026/03/acquiring-cbi-passport-from-african.html

IF YOU CANNOT ACCEPT THE UK FINDING THAT CBI IS "INHERENTLY HIGH RISK," THEN YOU ARE IN DENIAL, AND PART OF THE PROBLEM, NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION

If you read the comments closely, you have seen that my commentary regarding the risk factors that compliance officers at financial institutions face, when it comes to the money laundering and financial crime threat posed by the holders of Citizenship by Investment (CBI) economic passports, is getting a lot of pushback by individuals who deem my articles a threat to their livelihoods. Those people wish to distract potential purchasers of CBI passports from the UK Government's findings of fact, and its pronouncement that economic passports pose an "Inherently High Risk," by stating that my warnings constitute fear mongering, and that all major Western jurisdictions are also infected with financial crime.

This approach, which is a cleverly designed marketing tool, intended to distract consumers from the distinct possibility that their six figure CBI purchase may at some point become useless for visa-free travel into the countries which they purchased it for, by falsely endorsing what are passport sales programs already known to have rampant shortcomings regarding major money laundering, corruption and financial crime issues, should be ignored.

Economic passports, in the hands of career financial criminals, facilitate crime, pure and simple. Whilst the majority of those holding them use them merely to evade the expensive and time-consuming visa application process, those with ill intent are not to be disregarded as serious threats by the compliance community. The UK, and US and the EU are not wrong, when they advise about CBI being a systemic problem, and readers should disregard the slick marketing programs touting them as safely administered, because that is a misstatement of material fact.

Remember, we are required to maintain an effective risk-based compliance program; ignore the propaganda, people.

ACQUIRING A CBI PASSPORT FROM AFRICAN STATES NOW OFFERING THEM INSTEAD OF FROM THE CARIBBEAN IS JUST TRADING CORRUPTION AND MONEY LAUNDERING FROM ONE REGION FOR ANOTHER

The explosion of new opportunities to secure a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) economic passport from countries in Africa which have recently begun to offer them to consumers, while it sounds like a solution, is merely moving from one problem area, the Caribbean, to another, with the same issues. The investment migration industry, correctly abandoning the high-risk Eastern Caribbean CBI & CIP states of St. Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada, for what it deems to be safer waters, is respectfully only trading one area fatally infected with corruption and money laundering for another.

A quick look at TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL's take on those new African states now offering CBI passports shows that they all exhibit a high level of corruption, and a quick look at their poor levels of anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing activity also reveals that these jurisdictions fail to meet banking best practices benchmarks on those subjects. Not only that, but some African jurisdictions have additional problems which some risk managers might judge even more serious than those of the high-risk Eastern Caribbean. See CONSUMERS ACQUIRING CBI PASSPORTS FROM SIERRA LEONE AND SAO TOME & PRINCIPE MAY BE IN FOR A ROUGH RIDE: THOSE JURISDICTIONS HAVE MAJOR CORRUPTION ISSUES; IS IT SAINT KITTS ALL OVER AGAIN? https://lnkd.in/eeuTzMvz

While we understand the industry's move away from the rampant issues facing the Eastern Caribbean CBI states, perhaps it is better move to switch their clients to new jurisdictions without such existing corruption and money laundering baggage, such as the emerging program being constructed by ARGENTINA, with the assistance of well-known investment migration companies. Advising consumers to buy CBI passports from the African states who now have jumped head-first into the economic passport sector does not better serve their needs, and if there are issues with improper termination of citizenship rights by those countries in the future, I seriously doubt that their corrupt court systems with mete out justice fairly to foreign plaintiffs with claims adverse to their governme

SAINT LUCIA'S INVESTMENT MINISTER, ERNEST HILAIRE, LIES, DENIES AND OBFUSCATES ABOUT WHY THE UK JUST TERMINATED HIS COUNTRY'S VISA-FREE ADMISSION PROGRAM: IT'S CBI, YOU CONMAN

minutes ago • Edited • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn

Ernest Hilaire

Saint Lucia's Investment Minister and Deputy Prime Minister ERNEST HILAIRE, who has presided over the biggest theft in his country's history, through the sale of economic passports, has flat out lied to his constituents, regarding the reason the United Kingdom has imposed visa restrictions on them. He has tarnished his country's international reputation for years to come, due to his own personal greed, whilst assisting the Chinese-controlled CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP to illegally divert billions of US Dollars of CIP revenue abroad.

To add insult to injury, in Saint Lucia, Hilaire , notwithstanding a clear statement in a letter to his Prime Minister by the UK Government, a statement on its website, and a statement by the Home Secretary, Hilaire has the hubris to stand up in the Saint Lucian Parliament, and try to convince his listeners that they didn't hear what the UK Government told them, and the reason was native-born St. Lucians claiming UK asylum.

What do you think the UK Government will do, when it learns that there have been an additional 36,000 SLC passports sold over the last two years, and that this information has been withheld from public disclosure?

When the pendulum of justice swings back on the side of the Rule of Law, and Hilaire is held to account for his Crimes Against the State, it is suggested that he be sentenced to be placed upon the uninhabited Antiguan island of REDONDA, where he can contemplate the damage he has wrought to Saint Lucia, and his dark legacy.