ANTIGUA RECEIVES YET ANOTHER BLACK EYE FOR ITS ASSOCIATION WITH FTX AND SBF

SWIFT Code: CUNBAGAG ABA Routing # 021000018

Whilst senior government officials in Antigua practise damage control, and seek to disassociate themselves with the failed  cryptocurrency exchange FTX, they cannot quite extricate themselves from the scandal.  FTX Trading Limited is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Antigua and barbuda. Although its principal headquarters was in the Bahamas, it did maintain an office in St. John's, the island nation's capital. More ominously, there were links between FTX's now discredited leader and owner, SBF, as he prefers to be called, and the country's Prime Minister, GASTON BROWNE, who is no stranger to allegations of the receipt of bribes and kickbacks.

PM Browne

According to reliable sources in Antigua, Browne traveled to a meeting with SBG in the Bahamas, on a private jet, in the company of an unidentified Syrian national. We are not aware of the subject of his visit to FTX headquarters, but have inquiries pending Although FTX was not licensed to transact cyber business in Antigua, its attorney there was ARTHUR G.B. THOMAS, then the head of the local Caribbean securities regulator, (who has now resigned) which raises the presumption that there were operations in the East Caribbean states at least being contemplated, if now completed. Thomas' title as Chairman of the Board of Government-owned and controlled CARIBBEAN UNION BANK, at that time, also caused us to question whether the bank was involved, and if so,  to what extent.

Attorney Thomas

Whether FTX's implosion as little more than a House of Cards, whose cupboard was nearly bare, will now expose any substantial Antiguan connections previously hidden from view, is one of the challenges now facing the individual now assigned to assembling whatever assets it can accumulate, for creditors. Can bribes paid in Antigua be tracked and traced, and can a court of competent jurisdiction compel that they be disgorged? Stay tuned.