The Quagmire Of Expropriation

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" that has shed further light on the long running saga involving the Half Moon Bay Resort in Antigua.

The author, Hayley Woodin, set out the background and presented argument from two of the key players, H.M.B. Holdings Limited and Replay Resorts.

Comment from the Government of Antigua & Barbuda was not included in the feature but its actions to date were clearly displayed for observers to take into account. In any case, they are neither new nor surprising to readers of these articles.

A quick review of the milestones is offered for new readers.

The Half Moon Bay Resort was first assembled and purchased by H.M.B. Holdings Limited in 1970. For the twenty-five years that followed, 1970 - 1995, the Company developed, maintained and managed its property, building an enviable reputation for service and business practice.

The Hotel itself was made up of a long strip of rooms and public spaces along a mile-long white coral sand beach, consistently ranked amongst the top ten in the world. Included in the Resort's 110 acres were a private 9-hole golf course, a complex of tennis courts and miscellaneous guest amenities, private estates and additional land earmarked for further hotel expansion into suites and villas.

Over its quarter century in service, the Half Moon Bay Resort had made significant contributions to Antigua's economy and international profile. The guest roster and the number of repeat guests provide valuable testament to its reputation.

Sadly, two consecutive devastating Category 5 hurricanes, Luis and Marilyn, struck Antigua in September of 1995 and all but destroyed the resort.

While the shareholders of H.M.B. Holdings Limited determined and vowed to rebuild its Resort, potential buyers, encouraged by the Antigua & Barbuda Government, saw this as an opportunity to buy the property at a distressed value and lined up in repeated attempts to do so.

Despite continued responses that the property was not for sale, the primary buyer emerged by virtue of being represented by The Hon. Lester Bird Jr., Antigua & Barbuda's Prime Minister himself offered to broker the sale of the property to a "friend of the Government, Sir (R.) Allen Stanford" who at the time had extensive business, financial and political influence in Antigua.

For several years, H.M.B. Holdings Limited made numerous attempts to obtain redevelopment financing, with each promising opportunity deliberately sabotaged by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda. The property, however, firmly remained "Not for Sale."

Finally, at its third attempt to do so, the Antigua & Barbuda Government succeeded in producing a public declaration from Parliament granting the Government the power of eminent domain for a " compulsory acquisition" of the Half Moon Bay property, using a novel interpretation of a "public purpose" under its Land Acquisition Act.

Peter Fritch's 2002 Wall Street Journal article, "R. Allen Stanford Casts Shadow over Antigua, Island of Sun," quotes Stanford's sanguine attitude to achieving his goal through expropriation.

H.M.B. Holdings Limited resisted the acquisition in court and was granted a stay until the full process of a Judicial Review of the Government's actions was completed.

The elections of a new "Government in the Sunshine" in March of 2004, led by the United Progressive Party Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, who personally swore an Affidavit attached to the Company's application for the Judicial Review and publicly promised to ensure the reversal of the "acquisition" and the return of the property to its rightful owners, was a breath of fresh air with a renewal of hope and positive energy to all.

However, bad habits die hard and some never do. The then Attorney General Justin Simon was tasked with the responsibility for "this wrong to be made right," swiftly and justly.

He was the wrong man for the job.

Sadly, Sunshine became clouded amid a range of obstacles, personal agendas, outright malice and self-serving incompetence.

Many court battles followed all the way to London for a hearing before Her Majesty's Privy Council, the highest court of the Antigua & Barbuda jurisdiction. By its ruling in 2007, the Privy Council upheld the Government's right to exercise its power of eminent domain under its obsolete Land Acquisition Act, subject to fair and prompt payment of compensation as prescribed in detail by the Act and the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda.

According to media reports, this allowed Stanford to present his development vision for the property to the Cabinet of the Antiguan Government. However, Stanford never succeeded in realising his plans for Half Moon Bay. He was arrested, tried and is now serving a 110-year sentence in a Texas jail for the largest banking fraud in history at...