(Antigua Sun) – The Trinidad-based Caribbean Financial Action Task Force may be asked to undertake a full investigation into the operations of Sir Allen Stanford in Antigua and Barbuda and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
This is according to a 22 July report by BBC Caribbean.
The financial watchdog, a grouping of Caribbean states, was set up in the early 1990s to fight criminal money laundering and is an off shoot of the Paris-based FATF, the global overseer.
The BBC Caribbean reported that Attorney-General Justin Simon said that he would recommend that the regional agency investigate the activities of Sir Allen, who stands accused of a multi-billion dollar fraud in a US court.
Calvin Wilson, head of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, remarked that Antigua and Barbuda’ situation was hardly unique.
He said, “Cases like these (Antigua) are being unearthed in jurisdictions across the world and it all depends on the government’s response to these alleged criminal activities that will demonstrate whether the individual country or the region as a whole is heading in the right direction. I think the authorities in Antigua and Barbuda have been extremely forthright as to the direct steps that they are going to take.”
