In a culture where gossip is news, where questions are met with indignation instead of answers, and where, by law, the Ministers' definition of "public good" cannot be questioned, facts and fiction are readily and frequently intermingled in the Government's announcements and news releases.
As a corollary, a number of Government moves remain cloaked in total silence.
The two-party system in Antigua operates on just such a basis. Both parties are made up of individuals who, while publicly fighting for power, do so through a battery of obfuscation, misrepresentation and outright lies.
Their goal is the same – personal financial gain, and they resent any time during which one side has the advantage of being "in power" over the other. Each wants to be first in line at the trough.
Nevertheless, in spite of the rhetoric, there exists a clearly defined, if not admitted, pact of non-aggression. Names can be called, transgressions can be invoked; even legal actions can be filed.
These actions will never be allowed to be heard, nor will any consequences cast a shadow over anyone's fiscal ambitions.
A case in point:
Earlier this year, after much public urging, Justin Simon, Antigua's attorney General, promised legal action against what he termed "a gigantic conspiracy engineered and affected by persons in high places to rob this country of millions of dollars up to 2021."
The debt is so significant that it appears in IMF Annual Country Reports and the Anti-Corruption Committee of the International Bar Association reported the filing of the case in its first newsletter dated April 2009, as evidence of Antigua's effort to curb and prosecute corruption.
In a statement, dated 10 February 2009, Simon
proclaimed,"Shortly after this Administration took office,
I informed you by way of a Press Statement that the government had
commissioned a financial forensic investigation and had secured the
services of Mr. Robert Lindquist who had himself led
like-investigations in Trinidad and Tobago where over Seven Million
US Dollars of illegal payments to public officials had been
recovered, and that he was instrumental in the arrests and
prosecutions of persons involved in the Piarco International
Airport scandal in Trinidad.
It has been long in coming, but I can now advise you, the patient
citizens and residents, that I now have in hand Mr. Lindquist's
complete and comprehensive report on the IHI Debt Repayment Scheme.
The Report traces the payment by government from December 1996 of
the monthly sum of US$403,334 out of the consumption tax revenue
paid by West Indies Oil Company to the various persons in receipt
of these monies, with details of the companies through which the
monies were sent, to what bank accounts, in which countries and how
these monies were finally disbursed. These monthly sums were paid
out of government funds pursuant to an irrevocable letter of
instructions right up until February 2006, when I obtained an
Injunction from the High Court in Antigua and Barbuda stopping the
continuance of the payments, and freezing the bank account here in
Antigua of an associated Florida company called Debt Settlement
Administrators LLC.
It was a gigantic conspiracy engineered and effected by persons in
high places to rob this country of millions of dollars right up to
the year 2021, a burden that would be carried by your children and
your children's children. Consider this. These monthly payments
were, by an Agreement dated September 11 1997, to be made over a
period of 25 years beginning December 31 1996 (retrospectively nine
(9) months before the Agreement was signed) and would have amounted
to an aggregate payment of US$121,000,200. Out of that monthly sum
of US$403,334 coming out of the Government Treasury, only
US$199,740.25 would be legitimately paid to IHI Japan amounting to
an aggregate sum of US$59,922,075 over the 25 years. In simple
arithmetical terms, US$61,078,125 in excess of the total sum due
IHI Japan would have been misappropriated out of the Treasury and
gone 'ahgwasa' over that 25 year period.
You will recall that in March 2006 I had advised by way of Press
Statement that as Attorney General I had, on behalf of the
Government, filed in the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda a civil
claim in respect of the IHI matter for special damages in the sum
of US$14,414,904 plus interest as well as general damages and
exemplary damages for fraudulent misrepresentation and misfeasance
in public office. The substantive Defendants in the claim are:
Lester Bryant Bird, Asot Michael MP, Bellwood Services S.A. a
Panamanian company, Patrick A. Michael Co. Ltd. an Antigua and
Barbuda company, Bruce Rappaport, IHI Debt Settlement Company Ltd.
a Hong Kong company, and Debt Settlement Administrators LLC of
Florida.
This morning I have caused to be served on all the defendants,
through their respective local Counsel, a Notice of Discontinuance
which will be filed in the High Court in respect of two of the
defendants: Bruce Rappaport and his Hong Kong company IHI Debt
Settlement Company Ltd. The effect of this notice is to inform the
court and seek the court's permission to discontinue the civil
claim against these two defendants only; the claim will continue to
proceed against the other six substantial defendants and we expect
that process to move speedily towards a hearing date from here
on.
The reason for discontinuing the civil action against Bruce
Rappaport and his company IHI Debt Settlement Company Ltd. is
simply this: after months of hard negotiations based on the
information provided by Mr. Lindquist in his report, Mr. Rappaport,
through his lawyers, has agreed to settle the claim against himself
and his company by paying to the government the sum of
US$12,000,000 in respect of our civil claim. I am pleased to advise
that the government is in receipt of the payment. I will be
advising our Counsel in Miami to take similar steps in respect of
the pending Miami case whose status, as you know from my recent
Statement to Parliament, is due for review in late May 2009.
You will no doubt recognize the importance and significance of this
recent development as this Administration seeks to recover through
a number of civil actions the various monies and parcels of land
which we allege were fraudulently appropriated by certain members
of the former administration for their own personal gain and
enrichment and to the detriment and financial pain of the people of
this country.
This as an historic day for Antigua & Barbuda, EC$32 million
has been recovered, that rightfully belong to the people's
government.
Now, the perpetrators of this great crime can be brought to justice."
Simon omitted to mention that numerous others were named as co-defendants, including Josette C Michael, Otic Corporation (Delaware), Erroll A Rhodes II, Giddie Ltd and Bellwood Services S.A.
Little has been said about this matter subsequently, until July 2009, when Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer made a sudden announcement, advising that the Government of Antigua and Barbuda has commissioned a full public inquiry into the IHI loan repayment undertaken by the previous Antigua Labour Party administration.
According to PM Spencer, Australian Chief Justice James Jacob Spigelman had accepted the role as sole commissioner of the Commission of Inquiry with UK Barrister, Kirsty Brimelow, serving as counsel to the Commission.
The date set for the opening of the Commission of Inquiry was 6 August 2009 and Spencer explained "This inquiry will examine the circumstances relating to the repayment by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, of the US $29,750,000 loan from IHI to the Antigua Public Utilities Authority."
The Government expects the findings to be presented to the Governor-General by December 2009.
Of course, questions were raised as to the need for yet another Inquiry, since the Lindquist Report had already laid the basis for two legal actions, one in Antigua and the other in Miami.
PM Spencer responded by a special address to the nation, in which he stated: "Others of you will ask why my Government is choosing, at this time, to pursue the inquiry. There are other pressing matters facing us, you will say. Well, in a country whose livelihood is so heavily dependent, whether in tourism or finance, on public image, how much longer should we wait? How much longer dare we wait?
We must now search our souls and ask ourselves whether there is ever a wrong time to do the right thing."
For several weeks, the Antiguan press reported on the various Defendants named in the case filed in Miami (greater in number than those mentioned by AG Simon ) who scattered to various courts and succeeded in getting a temporary injunction against this latest Inquiry based on the fact that a legal action was already filed against them.
The real news, however, was not announced, when in Miami on 16 October 2009, Simon applied to the Court to voluntarily dismiss the case, number 06-03560 CA25, against the remaining alleged perpetrators of the "gigantic conspiracy engineered and affected by persons in high places to rob this country of millions of dollars up to 2021."
Is it possible that the Government of Antigua really believes it can create a positive image by this clandestine bait-and-switch and that it can fool all of the people all of the time?
Why not?
Successive governments in Antigua have been successful to date in negotiating new loans without repaying old ones; maintaining and increasing its membership of international organisations, while breaching treaties and expropriating foreign-owned property; courting dictators all over the world, while demanding special consideration as a small, poor island nation from European and American Democracies.
The real question facing Prime Minister Spencer is: Can there ever be a wrong time to stop doing the wrong thing?
Note: The following e-mail from Mr Edward H. Davis, Jr. Certified Fraud Examiner, Astigarraga Davis, Miami, was received subsequent to the initial publication of this article. Although it raises new questions, it is providing further evidence that the matter of prosecution now rests in the hands of Antigua's jurisprudence.
"Dear Mr. Moncrief-Scott:
I am lead international counsel for the Government of Antigua and Barbuda on the case that you mention. Please note that the GOAB has not dropped its case at all. It pursued claims against the alleged co-conspirators in Miami and in Antigua and has obtained a result from the Miami action which has already resulted in a payment to the GOAB of US$12 million. Moreover, the GOAB has cancelled the offending contract resulting in a US$61 million savings in allegedly fraudulent proceeds that would have been paid out over the remainder of the contract had it not been cancelled as a result of the case. The GOAB has simply discontinued the Miami portion of the case having settled with the key defendants here to pursue the remainder of its claims in the pending case in Antigua. I hope this clears up any confusion. I trust that you will report this in your website which I found to be interested (sic) Ed."
Meanwhile, Antigua has attracted fresh international attention, 19 years after the slaying of Gerald Bull, designer of Project Babylon's "supergun," the bullets of which were trans-shipped through Antigua in violation of a UN embargo.
According to the Jerusalem Post dated 4 November 2009, hundreds of tons of weapons including 3,000 rockets of various types, declared as humanitarian aid, smuggled in containers belonging to the Republic of Iran Shipping Lines Group, were seized the previous day by the Israeli navy. The haul was ten times that of the 2002 shipment concealed aboard the Karine A.
Defence officials said the 140-metre Francop, an Antiguan flagged vessel, captured near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and Hezbollah in breach of international law and United Nations National Security resolutions.
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