HOW MONEY LAUNDERERS VIEW IBC SHELL COMPANIES: "USE THEM, ABUSE THEM AND LOSE THEM"

"Prime Minister Gaston Browne says about 13,500 international business companies have been removed from the corporate registry as authorities move to strengthen compliance and oversight in the offshore sector." (Antigua Newsroom, 24, February, 2026.)

If you learned last week, on Nikki Phoenix' program, that 13,500 international business companies (IBC) were struck off (administratively dissolved) in Antigua and Barbuda, you know from my response that many of these corporations, most of whom were certainly formed by money launderers, had already fulfilled their illicit purpose, and were intentionally allowed to expire, before any serious beneficial ownership and officer information was disclosed to regulators. All this nonsense emanating from Antigua's Prime Minister, GASTON BROWNE, to the effect that the dissolution of this large number of companies was evidence of compliance success on the part of his government were merely covering up the fact that Antigua remains one of the most lax offshore jurisdictions for financial criminals.

In my old line of work, cleaning the proceeds of crime for narcotics traffickers, the modus operandi was to efficiently use, abuse and lose companies, way in advance of any reporting requirements imposed by regulators. Laundrymen are well aware of the Window of Opportunity which exists, between the formation of and IBC, and the date in which mandatory information must be delivered.

Therefore, the measure of anti-money laundering in any financial services jurisdiction is not how many dodgy shell companies have been allowed to expire, unmolested by local authorities, but how many money laundering prosecutions have been brought, and in Antigua, the answer is generally zero; I rest my case.