It never ceases to amaze real investors why respected organisations trot out the so-called "Doing Business" type reports, which contain soothing words of comfort that mask a nation's potential suitability for foreign direct investment.

Antigua's Director of Gaming, Kaye McDonald has announced that Leroy King, longstanding CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission has been sent on 55 days leave following the collapse of Stanford's global empire.

Following the collapse of the Stanford Empire, a desperate plea for help to the IMF, and the more recent implosion of the Antigua Barbuda Investment Bank, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda has now had to return once again, cap in hand, to one of the most powerful and quietly influential nations on Earth.

Although the former Pirates of the Caribbean have been romanticized over time, the reality is that they were gangs of unscrupulous, relentless and merciless thieves.

Immediately after Hurricane Luis devastated the prestigious Half Moon Bay Hotel in 1995, the then Prime Minister Lester Bird spoke to its owners offering to broker a sale of their property to R. Allen Stanford, and urging them to accept this proposal.

As regulators in the Caribbean and Latin America scramble to cope with the shock announcements that powerful United States Authorities are investigating a significant financial institution with a major presence in the region, are they fit for purpose?

It is extraordinary that, even in these times of international pretence and overlooking of deception in the interest of political correctness, the Government of the United States of America perseveres in ignoring the behaviour of one of its smallest and perhaps most determined enemies: the sovereign island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

Emboldened by a new interpretation of public use by the UK Privy Council in the matter of the Half Moon Bay Resort, a US owned private property, expropriated by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda, the Attorney General of Antigua, Justin Simon, did not hesitate to seize the lands of master Ponzi fraudster, R. Allen Stanford within days of Stanford's indictment in the U.S.

Can a State successfully overcome the public relations nightmare following a disastrous decision to expropriate the private property and business of international investors?

It takes time and effort for lies to emerge to the surface.

Within international standards of best practise there is broad acceptance that the public interest is only safely served in the building of a country's physical infrastructure, such as roads, ports, waterways, airports, hospitals and schools.

When Verity (not her real name) retired she had simple dreams of living in the sun, caring for animals and putting something back into society.

Once a rabid dog tastes blood, it is only a short matter of time before it bites again. The initial victim of expropriation was the flagship Half Moon Bay Resort, located on what the Travel Magazine consistently lists as one of the top four beaches in the world, developed and owned by US investors for over thirty five years.

De-Risking in Jeopardy 3 concluded at the stage when the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) had reached an agreement with the Gilinski Group, Colombia, to purchase FirstCaribbean International Bank Limited for US $797 million.

On 3rd September 2019, Business in Vancouver, a British Columbia, Canada weekly paper and website, published a comprehensive front-page article entitled "B.C. Company mired in court fight over luxury Caribbean resort" ...