ARE THE CHICKENS FINALLY COMING HOME TO ROOST IN ANTIGUA?

Legal problems sometimes come in threes, as I well know, and that appears to be what is happening in the East Caribbean state of Antigua & Barbuda, whose dodgy government activities we have been covering for several years. The difference is, justice in its more direct firm may soon land squarely on the head of those senior government officials who have operated with impunity in that offshore republic for two decades or more.

What's now directly threatening Antigua? We have covered these issued own the financial crime blog, but let's aggregate then, so that the reader can see the total impact they are having as a group.

(1) A major depositor has forced one of the country's major local banks into insolvency, for looting his multi-million dollar bank accounts, allegedly to pay the obscenely high salaries of government officials. Apparently Antigua's CIP/CBI passport sales programme, which the country depends upon to fund its bloated budget, has fallen upon tough times. Only a few Russians, Iranians, fraudsters and career criminals want to buy CBI passports in 2023. Antigua's Global Bank of Commerce is Insolvent for $10m in Deposits, Throwing the Country's economy into Chaos.

(2) The high-profile Colombian money launderer Alex Saab Moran, under indictment in US District Court in Miami, but with a history of cooperating with American law enforcement, to mitigate his massive criminal exposure in his case, is rumored to be talking again, whilst overtly fighting his case on appeal. Saab Moran operated two offshore banks in Antigua, and one in Dominica,  moved the proceeds of crime through Global Bank, and held a diplomatic passport from Antigua. He is known to have been close to the country's PM, Gaston Browne. How much has he privately disclosed since his extradition from Cape Verde,, to save his skin? Trial Judge Orders Classified Information Deleted from Discovery in Alex Saab Case.

(3) Disgraced and indicted British Virgin Islands premier Andrew Fahie. new facing decades in an American prison for agreeing to assist law enforcement agents posing as drug kingpins in moving narcotics through the BVI, en route to the US, has made no secret of his inside information regarding corruption amongst other East Caribbean leaders, including but not limited to, two individuals in Antigua. Will the hammer of American justice some down hard upon the numbers one and two in that island nation? BVI Premier Andrew Fahie's Money Laundering case Rescheduled for July.

(4) The Mehul Choksi extradition, which our readers have certainly been following here, and which puts a bull's eye squarely on the back of Prime Minister Browne, should Choksi be forced to implicate those who have corruptly assisted him, accepted his bribes, and give him refuge from an outraged India, who regards him as their Most Wanted Man. Choksi certainly will not go down alone.

Karma, in the form of Blind Justice from abroad, appears to be circling Antigua in 2023, looking for someone place or someone to land on. We will be closely monitoring the situation.