New Frontiers

• Published date: 12 May 2021
• Law Firm: Information Management Solutions Limited
• Author: Mr Ian Moncrief-Scott

Yet again the Government of Antigua & Barbuda is reaching new frontiers of disrepute.

Not only has it ignored the basic requirements of its Constitution to ensure payment of prompt and proper compensation for its unique version of the expropriation of foreign-owned private property, it now acts in utter contempt of court.

In October of 2020, during a hearing of a legal action for enforcement brought against the Government of Antigua by HM.B. Holdings Limited, the GOAB gave a Court Undertaking that it would not dispose of any assets until the outcome of a court decision regarding the outstanding compensation, which has remained unpaid for 14 years, following the expropriation of the Half Moon Bay Resort from its rightful, private foreign owners.

Then, on 24 March 2021 the Government announced that it would be selling 10% of its shareholding in the West Indies Oil Company to Caribbean investors. breaching the Undertaking given to the Court

The GOAB's first response was to claim an innocent and inadvertent error, easily corrected by replacing the breached undertaking by a new one...