Steadroy Benjamin

In a libel action at Grenada High Court, Grenada attorney Anselm B. Clouden has been awarded $2,500 in damages and $450 in costs against the First International Bank of Grenada and its one time CEO, Van A. Brink. The award

If you ever needed proof as to how far the Russian mafia has infiltrated Antigua's government, you need look no further than Clare K. Roberts, who was Antigua's Attorney General until last year, and Steadroy Benjamin, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives; The Caribbean Bank of Commerce featured in an alert sent out by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to US banks and regulators on November 13, 1998 that advised that the bank was operating illegally from an address in the United States, namely 17 Chestnut Street, Ridgewood, New Jersey; Bermuda Supreme Court last month appointed the Official Receiver to take over the financial affairs of Bermuda attorney Julian Hall, who used to be an MP for the Progressive Labour Party when it was in Opposition; A French chateau hotel venture run by outspoken former Bermuda-based insurance boss Jonathan Crawley seems to be heading the way of several insurance companies he helped run; The name of Antigua-registered American International Bank, which is now in receivership after being mismanaged by its owner William Cooper and its CEO John E. Greaves, has cropped up in several official investigations into criminal activity involving money laundering; and The Cayman Islands government wasted yet more of the public's money by first obtaining a court injunction against the Cayman Free Press preventing its Caymanian Compass newspaper from reporting the contents of the government's agreement with telecommunications carrier Cable & Wireless and then inexplicably dropping the matter without any explanation just before a court hearing to hear the pros and cons of the case.

Offshore Alert can this month reveal further details about an Internet bank in Antigua that is perpetrating a fraud so crude that it illustrates why the island has developed such a poor reputation in the offshore world. The fraud is all the more disturbing because the bank's legal representative in Antigua is Steadroy Benjamin, who is a Senator for the ruling Antigua Labour Party and is the Deputy Speaker of the Antiguan House of Representatives.

The Caribbean Bank of Commerce Limited, which operates as an Internet bank and appears to have Russian connections, has won the latest battle in an attempt by Antiguan regulators to take away its banking licence and strike it off the Companies Register. But the authorities are continuing their fight to close down the bank, one of whose officers with a heavy Russian accent called the offices of Offshore Alert this month and told us that "you don't know who you're dealing with" after we had started making inquiries about their operations.