ANTIGUA'S PRIME MINISTER RUEFULLY ADMITS WHY NOBODY WANTS THE SALE OF ECONOMIC PASSPORTS TO STOP: LARGE LOANS OUTSTANDING TO LOCAL BANKS ARE SECURED BY FUTURE CIP REVENUE

GASTON BROWNE, the manipulative Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda, in a recent communication to the European Commission, has asked for an extension, to the year 2030, before his country must suspend Citizenship by Investment (CIP) passport sales. He has also asked the EU for financial aid, claiming that his state's governmental budget is so heavily dependent upon CIP revenue that it will need alternate forms of funding to survive. He also asserts that the developers who are engaged in construction, with CIP funding, need additional time to accumulate it, or they may be forced to abandon their projects in midstream. ThIs sounds suspiciously like CIP revenue to developers has been greatly reduced recently.

More ominously, Browne has admitted that one of the primary reasons Antigua needs four more years of CIP cash flow is because "local and regional banks" have extended credit in the form of loans, to his government, and the sole collateral is future CIP revenue. This dangerous situation, which means that Antigua was counting on years of future CIP payments, even though the program has obviously been in jeopardy for years, as American, Canadian and European governments condemned its abject due diligence failures, and granting of passports to known white collar criminals, fraudsters, citizens of high-risk countries and of designated state sponsors of terrorism.

If, as expected, the European Commission denies Antigua the four year cushion Browne is pleading for, and the government of Antigua is then unable to cover its debt service timely, then the Caribbean banks who extended it credit could fail, and Antigua is years away from building its own depositor insurance plan; the new law contemplates it will be 2031 before bank clients are protected, and the coverage will be minimal. This means that any major bank failures, or administration by regulators, could wipe out the life savings of most of the Antiguan working class. It could also spell the total loss of American correspondent accounts.

No wonder there is fear and loathing in the Office of the Prime Minister, in a small Caribbean state which is top-heavy with government staff, due to its poor, single industry, economy; if all those government employees lose their jobs will the result be a major economic dislocation?

Finally, did all the other four EC CBI & CIP passport-selling states in the region also quietly borrow millions, collateralized by future passport revenue? If so, are we looking at a future Caribbean economic catastrophe after 2028, and if so, being that Antiguans are already unwelcome in the United States; will the UK and EU, both already swollen with immigration issues, admit them as economic refugees?