ANTIGUA CORRUPTION DISCOVERY PROCEEDING YIELDS COMPLETE OFFICIAL LIST OF DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT HOLDERS, MANY OF WHICH SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ISSUED

 The Government of Antigua and Barbuda, which is still tainted by the scandal involving its issuance of a diplomatic passport to Latin America's most notorious money launderer, ALEX SAAB MORAN, whom the United States exchanged for American hostages held by Venezuela, now will most likely be facing far more attention, after a government list of all Antigua's diplomatic passport holders appeared as an exhibit in what has been referred to as the Gaston Browne Corruption Discovery Application (25-mc-00098 (SDNY).

The document details all the 186 diplomatic passports Antigua states that it has issued in recent years; we note that 25 were issued to foreign nationals, and a close examination reveals that many of the recipients had no legal or customary right, or authority to receive them under normal diplomatic protocols. Several were vaguely described as "Envoy," which is not normally a diplomatic position with specific responsibilities contemplated under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations; others were clearly not part of Antiguan Government by any stretch of the imagination, and were obviously favored with diplomatic privileges for purely partisan political, or possibly even corrupt, reasons. e.g. Honorary Consuls are NOT entitled to diplomatic passports.

The possession of a valid diplomatic passport, whether or not the holder is a bona fide diplomat, within the meaning and intent of the Vienna Convention, allows one to circumvent normal customs and immigration screening upon arrival at a port or airport of entry, to bring one's bags and baggage into a country without inspection, and to generally be treated as a VIP during expedited in-processing. 

The use of diplomatic passports by money launderers and transnational criminals, to smuggle bulk cash and financial instruments, narcotics, and a host of other types of contraband, means that one whose identity documents qualify him or her for diplomatic privileges could abuse those rights for criminal gain. Whether any of the individuals on that list abused their diplomatic passports for corrupt purposes, to illegally transfer or transport monetary or other assets, as part of a criminal conspiracy, on behalf of, or for, Antigua's Prime Minister GASTON BROWNE, is certainly an issue that deserves attention in the §1782 Discovery proceeding. 

We invite compliance officers to make full use of the information attached to this article, to confirm Politically Exposed Person (PEP) status where relevant, and for such other purposes as will allow them to properly discharge their duties and responsibilities. All the names are attached hereto for reference.