RAISE COUNTRY RISK ON BARBADOS

 

Compliance officers who are charged with assessing Country Risk are advised that, as the result of my inquiry into systemic corruption on Barbados, much of which is real estate connected, I must calculate Country Risk for Barbados at an extremely high level, where any investment in property should not be conducted. The risks cannot be properly assumed, insured against, or avoided, given the facts.

 The widespread theft of ancestral lands from old-line Bajan families, by both unscrupulous and predatory attorneys, as well as government officials, has resulted in a situation where most desirable properties have bona fide claims against them, which might later be honoured by a court of law, or a regulatory agency, causing foreign investors to lose their entire investment.  Premium oceanfront properties must be assumed to have been stolen from the rightful owners, or their heirs, or obtained through fraud.

Foreign investors, who may later seek to prove the validity of their real estate holdings, will find documents destroyed, missing or altered, and the local courts unable or unwilling to mete out justice and the Rule of Law. They should seek other jurisdictions for their capital, where risk levels are normal, the courts are open to them for redress of legal grievances, and official corruption is under control. Avoid Barbados unless you can afford to assume the loss of your entire investment.