DISTRICT COURT ENTERS ORDER IN ANTIGUA CORRUPTION DISCOVERY §1782 APPLICATION FOR "ATTORNEY EYES-ONLY" ACCESS TO EVIDENCE

 

The District Court Judge in the Antigua Corruption Discovery proceeding in the pending in the Southern District of New York has entered an order, pursuant to a Stipulation by the parties that the Discovery produced as the result of the subpoenas issued with Court approval will be "attorney eyes-only" and subject to a Protective Order until the issues pending in the action are adjudicated.

The case is one of great public interest in the Caribbean, and many legal observers believe that the evidence which will be obtained will expose rampant corruption, money laundering and fraud, by present and former government officials, and Politically Exposed Persons in Antigua & Barbuda. 

HERE'S THE LINK TO THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE DECISION ON MALTA'S CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT PROGRAM

  Operation of an Investor Citizenship Scheme

NO MATTER HOW THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE RULES NEXT WEEK ON MALTA'S CBI PROGRAM, THE EAST CARIBBEAN STATES LOSE

The long-awaited ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the issue of the Republic of Malta's IIM (Citizenship by Investment) passport sales program, is anticipated to be issued on or about April 29, 2025. Malta is the sole European Union Member state to still operate CBI passport sales, after scandal and EU pressure ruled in the termination of the programs in Cyprus and Bulgaria in 2020 and 2022, respectively.

The European Commission's non-nonsense attitude towards CBI amongst its members, holding that such programs "undermine both the essence and the integrity of EU Citizenship", is no secret, although there is some internal disagreement about the right of a Member state to maintain such a scheme. Therefore, we are in the dark regarding how the Court will most likely decide, regarding Malta's "Individual Investor Program."

Whatever the decision, the impact upon the five Eastern Caribbean (EC) states that sell citizenship & passport programs will be significant:

(1) If the Court rules against Malta, forcing the program to be terminated, you can expect that legislation currently pending before the EU, cancelling visa-free access for olders of EC passports, to become law, eliminating the most valuable aspect of an EC CBI passports to potential purchasers, who will then flock to other jurisdictions which still have that travel privilege.

(2) IF the ECJ rules in favor of keeping Malta's IIM CBI program, most observers believe that it will spawn a rush by other EU member states to acquire new CBI programs, in essence offering a better mousetrap to investors, most likely at a lower cost, creating marketplace conditions which will elbow the EC states out of their current favored position with investors.

Therefore, in our humble opinion, the ECJ decision, either way, is a lose-lose for the five Eastern Caribbean CBI states.Whether some will close their programs is a distinct possibility, although we believe that Grenada, the only one that also offers E-2 Treaty Investor Visa ability to the United States, will survive changing market conditions.

We have to assume that the Prime Ministers and CIP officials of the five EC CBI/CIP states that met this week in Antigua to discuss the current situation are looking at the future of their programs, and wondering if their golden egg-laying goose, the cash flow they have long used to cover the salaries of their grossly inflated number of public servants and staff will soon be dead. This could very well be an existential moment for CBI in the Caribbean; stay tuned.

MEMORANDUM OF LAW FILED IN GASTON BROWNE CORRUPTION CASE MAKES CONVINCING ARGUMENT AGAINST QUASHING THE SUBPOENAS

 Counsel for the Applicant in the Gaston Browne Corruption Discovery Application, the §1782 SDNY proceeding seeking evidence regarding USD$10million missing in the disputed sale of a luxury yacht claimed by the Applicant, has filed a thirty page Memorandum of Law in opposition to the pending Motion to Quash, filed by the Browne PEPs and related entities. I find the argument, which contains extensive citations to legal authorities, clear and convincing in opposition to the movants' efforts to quash; it responds effectively to each and every affirmative defense advanced by the Browne parties.

To briefly summarize the Memorandum: 

1. STANDING: the Browne parties cannot object to the subpoenas issues against any parties who have not intervened in the matter, as they have no legal Standing to act on their behalf.

2. THE APPLICATION MEETS THE LEGAL STANDARDS FOR DISCOVERY REQUIRED BY §1782. The Memorandum goes on to detail each and every requirement, was not brought in Bad Faith, and  was accompanied by unrebutted Expert Testimony; the Discovery is properly for use in Foreign Judicial Proceedings, and is not Overbroad.

3. THE DISCRETIONARY FACTORS WEIGH IN FAVOR OF GRANTING THE APPLICATION: The Discovery subjects are not participants in the Foreign Proceedings, the character of the Proceedings support the granting of the Discovery requested; the request is narrowly tailored,and not unduly burdensome.

4. THE REQUEST FOR ORAL ARGUMENT WAS NOT PROPERLY PLED UNDER LOCAL RULES; such a request will only delay the matter, and it was procedurally flawed.

Readers who wish to review these issues in more detail are urged to review the complete text of the Memorandum.

We note that the Court has previously allowed Discovery to proceed, but has required that the Applicant's counsel to hold the responses pending a ruling on the Motions to Quash.  As we detailed in our previous article, Counsel Files a Response ... (April 24, 2025), the Court is allowing the subpoenas to be served, only requiring that the responses be held by counsel, pending a definitive ruling on the Motions to Quash. A proposed Stipulation and Protective Order is pending for the Court's signature.

THE SAINT KITTS PRISON PROJECT; A $962m FRAUD FROM ITS INCEPTION

 

An investigation,  conducted by JEFROY MORRISHAW, into the construction of the never-completed SAINT KITTS & NEVIS  REHABILITATION CENTER, more commonly known as the Prison Project, resulted in his conclusion that the project was never properly permitted, and therefore, in his considered opinion, construction should never have commenced. 

Here is a portion his report, which appears, on Facebook, and which in addition to his photographs, is published here with his kind permission:

"The government of St. Kitts-Nevis put out an offer to all OECS member countries citizens/residents to participate in the tender process to design the new rehabilitation center, aka Prison.

This was supposed to be one (1) phase in two (2) parts, financial proposal and technical proposal

What I discovered was, From a field of 6 - 7 applicants, Eustace Hobson architects were the successful architect who won the award to design the complex

Tender documents were submitted including bill of quantities for approval which was approved in principle by the building and planning authority

These documents were to assist the government in assessing the costs of the overall project, which would assist the government in selecting a suitable contractor

My investigation revealed that the architect never submitted a construction document, hence a construction document/permit was never approved by the planning and building authority to construct a complex of that complexity, the client should provide the contractor with approved construction documents, to the best of my knowledge, approved construction documents was never provided to the contractor, the question is? who is the contractor?

It appears as though we have an unlawful construction project that is in violation of our planning and construction regulations in progress, the irony is that, these violations were committed by our government, the former Team Unity Administration and now the new Labour Administration

From my investigation, no construction documents were submitted to the planning board for approval."

The complete construction costs have been estimated to be no more than USD$50 million, but the Saint Kitts Government gave the Chinese developer 22,000 passports, worth USD$962 million; the site was never completed, and it stands abandoned by the Chinese construction crew that illegally began construction. We note that no local workers were retained to assist with the project. Therefore, the project, which we have previously proven fraudulently issued passports worth twenty times the anticipated construction costs, was also a fraud from the inception.

Like a number of other never-completed projects that litter the Saint Kitts countryside, it was never intended to be completed; it allowed the developer, with the assistance of the CIU, to issue an obscene number of files for passports, to defraud the people of Saint Kitts & Nevis.

PUBLIC OUTCRY OVER THE MISSING BILLIONS OF CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT MONEY HAS REACHED THE BREAKING POINT IN SAINT LUCIA

 

ANTIGUA PM BROWNE GRAPHICALLY THREATENS TO SUE EVERYBODY INVOLVED IN THE §1782 DISCOVERY PROCEEDING, INCLUDING THE LAWYERS, AS PART OF AN ORGANISED SMEAR AND INTIMIDATION CAMPAIGN UNBEFITTING A HEAD OF STATE

Counsel for the Applicant in the GASTON BROWNE CORRUPTION DISCOVERY CASE has been directly and publicly threatened by the Prime Minister himself, in profane fashion, and he has notified the Court of this out-of-control conduct, in his most recent filing, of which a portion appears below, quoted verbatim:

"Browne has publicly declared that he intends to sue Applicant and others for defamation based on this action, stating “I shall now legally pursue Associated Press, Yulia (Guryeva-Motlokhov), Gisele Isaac [chairman of an opposition party] ... I am looking forward to exploit this defamation with a hefty multi-million dollar compensation package.”1 And Applicant has no reason to doubt that Browne intends to do exactly what he has pledged – sue Applicant for filing this action...

1. More concerning still, Browne has now taken to publicly threatening Applicant’s counsel, for example, Browne – a sitting head of state – recently attacked Applicant’s lead counsel on x.com stating, “PM Browne to Sue D. Gisele Isaac and Others for Defamation” (March 13, 2025),... "you need a bull-bud up your ass for all the defamatory $uckery [sic] that you are spreading.”
2. And since the filing of this action, parties aligned with certain of the Movants have launched an online smear campaign aimed at Applicant’s counsel, focused on this case, with allegations often too vile to be repeated here.
3. In sum, Movants – and Browne in particular – have chosen to litigate in the press through threats and other means. It would be deeply inequitable to continue to stay this matter to Browne’s benefit when discovery here is likely to provide an absolute defense to Browne’s threatened defamation action."[In Re: Gaston Browne Corruption Discovery Application, No. 25-mc-98 (JMF) Applicant’s Combined Response to Letter Motions to Stay].

SAINT VINCENT PRIME MINISTER GONSALVES SPEAKS THE OBVIOUS TRUTH ABOUT THE DECLINING FUTURE OF OPPORTUNISTIC CARIBBEAN CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT FUNDING, AND THE LOOMING CHINA GEOPOLITICAL THREAT TO THE REGION

The Usual Suspects; Corruption, Fraud and Money Laundering kill CBI

RALPH GONSALVES, the wise Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, electrified his Caribbean audience this week with some blunt talk about the future, meaning the lack of it, of CBI/CIP in the region. The PM, after detailing how visa-free entry into the UK and EU for East Caribbean CBI passports holders would soome become a thing of the past,went to remind his viewers how the income from passport sales fostered corruption on a massive scale, generated dependency upon the easy money, and prevented normal economic growth in a region with dysfunctional economies, expanding populations, and Climate Change all threaten a dark and uncertain future for those states addicted to CBI's Golden Goose.

He explained how years of unchecked corruption and bogus Due Diligence had caused the United States, facing financial crime national security threats from the thousands of Chinese criminals and intelligence agents holding SKN and SLC passports, is closing the door on access to America for legitimate West Indians, as accountability for the CBI issues hits home. Added to the imminent removal of the only real asset of CBI, European visa-free travel, all that soon disappearing passport revenue doesn't seem so attractive to the people who the program was theoretically designed to benefit. The growing threat pose by an expansionist China, seemingly obsessed with controlling the region through CBI consultancies and loans that will never be repaid, also gives him great concern for the future.

While all the Prime Ministers of the CBI states, at a regional conference this week in Antigua are putting on a brave face, the programs which they depended upon to cover their national budgets appear to have a very short lifespan, as investors will be choosing alternatives elsewhere in the marketplace. As the Bible so aptly states: As you Sow, so shall you Reap. Can you say Endangered Species?

WILL THE GASTON BROWNE §1782 CORRUPTION DISCOVERY CASE UNCOVER THE MISSING SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS THAT LIBYA'S COLONEL GADDAFI SENT TO ANTIGUA TO FUND HIS SAINT KITTS BANK?

Colonel Ghaddafi

If you are an old Caribbean hand, you will recall that the late Libyan dictator, COLONEL MUAMAR GADDAFI, sought to open a bank in Saint Kitts & Nevis, to service the region. Former SKN PM and current Minister of Foreign Affairs DENZIL DOUGLAS and another Kittitian official at one point visited Libya, to meet personally with the dictator, and to maKe the appropriate financial arrangements. The story goes that Douglas had the Government of Libya send USD$60m to an escrow account at a bank in Antigua, as he feared political backlash from the Opposition over the matter, and wanted to quietly fund Gaddafi's bank through his Antiguan connections within its Labour government. 

Antigua MP Asot Michael

An escrow account was set up, with Douglas, and Antiguan Minister and MP ASOT MICHAEL, a close associate of PM GASTON BROWNE, having joint control of the funds. We all know that Gaddafi was deposed in the subsequent Libyan Revolution, and died at the hands of a rebel faction. Asot Michael was subsequently murdered in Antigua, in a case where questions regarding who was actually behind his death have never been fully answered. Whether it was simply a case of domestic violence by a paramour, or a political assassination orchestrated by an unknown party has never been determined. Douglas was apparently never questioned by authorities in Antigua who were investigating the homicide, and there were allegations of a coverup by the government.

 Saint Kitts Minister Denzil Douglas

Douglas then became the only person who controlled Gaddafi's sixty million dollars, which was originally earmarked for a Kittitian bank which was then neither formed nor funded. He has never disclosed any details about the account, and there is no record that it was ever returned to Libya.

We resurrect this part of Caribbean history at this time, as a former Saint Kitts banker has recently brought the attention of the region to the fact that the location of the Gaddafi bank seed money has never surfaced, and the recent American §1782 proceeding, where an American District Court Judge has ordered that subpoenas issue against a number of individuals and corporate entities closely linked to Antigua's Prime Minister Gaston Browne  could provide evidence regarding the trail of this elusive fortune, who received it, and who controls it in 2025. 

Will the solution to the mystery of what happened to the Gaddafi money now be solved in the subpoenaed bank records of Brown associates, and is that the real reason that access to US bank records that trace back to Browne is being so zealously defended? At this point, Denzil Douglas needs to tell us what happened to the sixty million dollars.

COUNSEL FILES A RESPONSE IN THE GASTON BROWNE CORRUPTION DISCOVERY CASE, EXPOSING THE FATAL FLAWS IN THE INTERVENORS' DEFENSES; THE COURT THEN RULED IN THE APPLICANT'S FAVOR

The attorneys for the yacht owner ("Applicant") in the §1782 Discovery proceeding have filed a Response, constituting a rebuttal to the motions filed by the Gaston Browne parties ("Movants"), seeking to lift the temporary Stay imposed by the Court, and detailing the reasons why the case should proceed, and the Court has responded.

Briefly, the Response makes these central points:
(1) The Stay should be lifted, as the factors that case law have held require it to be imposed do not exist.

(2) The Browne parties have no legal Standing to Stay Discovery from those who have not Intervened, and the facts indicate that they are not likely to succeed on the Merits.

(3) The Browne parties have no protectable privacy interests here, and any possible or purported interests they have will not be injured if the Stay is lifted.

(4) Leaving the Stay in place will substantially injure the Applicant.

(5) The Public Interest in Antigua does not support a Stay.

(6) If the Court is concerned about Privacy Interests, an alternative, entering a Protective Order, limiting access to the Discovery to the attorneys only would provide an alternative solution.

The District Court entered an Order after the filing of the Response:

We shall continue to follow all development in this case of great public importance to the Caribbean as they unfold' Stay tuned.

GASTON BROWNE'S AMERICAN LAWYERS ATTEMPT TO DERAIL THE §1782 CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION

The attorneys for the individuals and entities who have been subpoenaed by the claimant in the American §1782 discovery proceeding involving the Antigua luxury yacht sale scandal have intervened in the case, on behalf of their clients, and are now seeking to quash the discovery granted by a Federal Judge in US District Court (SDNY).

Their memorandum, which opposes the Order granting discovery,which was issued on March 17, granting the claimant's motion,asserts: (1) That the Antigua proceeding is, for all intents and purposes, completed, and therefore cannot represent the grounds for the granting of the motion for discovery, (2) The claimant's Russian case, against the Turkish purchasers does not involve Browne or individuals or entities associated with him, and (3) There has not as yet been a civil action filed in the UAE, only one contemplated. What counsel is in essence saying is that the order should not have been entered, because all three statutory requirements of §1782 have not been met.

Additionally, counsel for the Browne parties complains that the scope of the discovery sought is overly broad, and really designed to defame him, and inflict economic damage upon Antigua, to which correspondent accounts in the United States are a "Lifeline." We will be closely monitoring additional filings, and the Court's decision, as this has become a case of great public interest, both in Antigua, and in the American banking sector.

COURT IN BELGIUM REJECTS THE BID OF INDIA'S MOST WANTED FUGITIVE FRAUDSTER, MEHUL CHOKSI, FOR BAIL, AS HE FACES EXTRADITION TO FACE JUSTICE AT HOME

A Belgian court denied the bail request of MEHUL CHOKSI, who is wanted since 2018 by India in the massive billion dollar Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and bribery case. Although his attorney plans to appeal, he faces extradition to his native India. Some sources have asserted that he had planned to free to Switzerland, through Belgium. Reviled in India by his victims, Choksi has alleged he is seriously ill for years, notwithstanding that he lived a lavish lifestyle in the Caribbean for years, spending the proceeds of crime abroad, to cheat justice.

The Choksi case is notable because it gave Antigua and Barbuda, which gave Choksi a CBI passport, even though he was already known to be under criminal investigation in India, and protected him for eight years from extradition proceedings, employing several different procedural roadblocks to shield him from justice. The case, which has given Antigua a black eye in the view of the international legal community, further drove home the fact that all existing Caribbean Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) programs corruptly issued passports to international criminals fleeing justice at home provided that they had cash to bribe the local officials who issued them passports, and thereafter saw that the local judiciary indefinitely delayed any pending extradition proceedings.

THE PRIME MINISTER OF SAINT KITTS LABELS ME A MERCENARY FOR ADVOCATING COMPLETE AND TOTAL REFORM OF THE CBI PROGRAM; I AM HONORED

As you probably know, it is standard practise among corrupt politicians in the East Caribbean to impugn the patriotism of Opposition leaders who question their leadership. Now, no less a figure that the Prime Minister of Saint Kitts & Nevis, TERRANCE DREW, is accusing yours truly of being a mercenary, seeking to "destroy the name of our Federation." Dr. Drew, I am not receiving a single cent for advocating top-down reform of the SKN Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Program, and I am honored that you wish to smear me, for my mission is to expose the hopelessly infected mess that is Saint Kitts CBI, in which you are guilty of being the primary agent of corruption, for you approved more of those illegally-discounted passports for Chinese transnational criminals and spies than any other SKN PM. You are Allergic to the Truth.

If Saint Kitts cannot reform CBI from within, then I fully agree that the new American plan to ban the entry of all Kittitians from the United States, until you clean up the program, is not only wise, it is a radical but necessary step. Kittitians, if you want your country to become a pariah on the world stage, then keep Dr. Drew and his cabal in power, and watch Saint Kitts & Nevis become the Western Hemisphere's second Failed State.