ANTIGUA'S GLOBAL BANK OF COMMERCE IS INSOLVENT FOR $10m IN DEPOSITS, THROWING THE COUNTRY'S ECONOMY INTO CHAOS

                                                                                                                                                                       

GLOBAL BANK OF COMMERCE, LTD. a locally-owned and operated offshore bank in Antigua & Barbuda, became insolvent last week, when it was unable to return more than USD$10m to a depositor, after it defaulted on an Agreed Court Order of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and today (Jan9) an order of Antigua's High Court. The bank's former CEO and Chairman , BRIAN STEWART-YOUNG, is also adjudicated individually liable on the debt.

Our sources in Antigua assert that the bank's accounts were diverted to pay the salaries of government officials. Antigua's Prime Minister, GASTON BROWNE, is alleged to have  been involved in the unauthorised withdrawal of funds from GBC accounts. Stewart-Young has also been accused of having a role in the theft of depositor funds.

We warned the people of Antigua six years ago that GBC officers were accepting the Proceeds of Crime, and were therefore engaged in money laundering. The accused colombian money launderer, ALEX SAAB MORAN, who himself owned offshore banks in Antigua and in Dominica, and is now under indictment in the United States for money laundering, moved millions of dollars of dirty funds from Venezuela through GBC, with which he had a close relationship.   

The failure of the bank has dealt a crippling blow to the dysfunctional Antiguan economy, with the government unable to meet its budgetary requirements, and no longer able to depend upon the cash flow previously reliable, but now suffering a shortfall, of the Citizenship by Investment (CIP/CBI) passport scheme. Unless some other source of income, through taxation of otherwise, it is feared that Antigua may descend into the status of a corrupt failed state, with no means of support for its government.