Prime Minister Gaston Browne is confident that the truth regarding the expenditures arising from the sale of the Alfa Nero, will clear his name and that of his family.
The Associated Press has reported that a federal judge in New York granted the attorneys of a Russian woman permission Monday to issue subpoenas to access the financial records of Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister and other officials involved in the sale of a megayacht that her father had abandoned.
The attorneys must first notify Prime Minister Gaston Browne and others before serving subpoenas on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S.-based Clearing House Payments Co.
However, speaking in the Cabinet Room on Tuesday during the signing of the agreement between the government and FEMA Marine SA, PM Browne referred to the allegations made against him as ‘spurious’.
FEMA Marine SA’s CEO, Nazmi Topcuoglu, informed the prime minister that he was the one who had recommended the eventual buyer of the Alfa Nero to the government and that his company now manages the yacht. He revealed that FEMA Marine SA was called in to do a valuation of the Alfa Nero and that several million Euros were spent bringing back the vessel to a saleable condition as over time, it had significantly deteriorated.
In fact, he informed the prime minister that when his team had concluded their surveys of the vessel, the gave it a value of no more than US$30 million, less than the US$40 million that the government concluded with the buyer.
According to PM Browne the sale of the vessel was done ‘in a most transparent way’ and in collaboration with both the US Treasury Department and the State Department.
“The irony is that after having such a transparent process, they (Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, the daughter of a Russian oligarch who is sanctioned by the US, UK and EU) are now making the claim, fallacious as it is, that US$10 million are missing. It’s totally untrue, but they have now joined our political opponents who, over the past decade, have been throwing a lot of mud at me because they are mad because our country has been doing well economically, and their political fortunes have been fading as a result,” he stated.
He accused the opposition elements of seeking the use the issue to tarnish the country’s reputation as well as his reputation and that of his family.
However, PM Browne remains confident that their names will be cleared with the truth is revealed.
