CIU Refutes allegations of exchange of passports for shares as patently false and deliberately misleading

41
Donovan

The Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) has become aware of statements made in the media and public domain on

26th September 2020 suggesting that 175 CIP passports were given to Mr. Xiao of Fancy Bridge Limited (FBL) in exchange for shares in the West Indies Oil Company

Limited (WIOC). The Unit unequivocally denies the suggestion and or implication that it was party to any such arrangements or that the referenced event occurred.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Unit places on record the following incontrovertible facts.  The Government of Antigua and Barbuda and Fancy Bridge Limited entered into an agreement in June 2015 related to the financing of the purchase of 75% of the ordinary shares held by National Petroleum Limited in the West Indies Oil Company Limited. For a consideration amount of US$29,400,000, the Government and investor agreed that US$15,000,000 would be an advanced payment to the Government, while the remaining US$14,400,000 would provide FBL with 24% ownership of WIOC. The US$15,000,000 was advanced at an interest rate of 6%, per annum for 10 years paid up front, for 120 approved citizenship applications under the National Development Fund (NDF) option.  Further, in the event FBL wished to liquidate their ownership, it was agreed that an additional 36 applications would be allowable under the Investment in Business option. Each application would be for a minimum amount of US$400,000. At the time of the execution of the agreement, the investment amount for the NDF option was US$200,000.  In October 2017, subsequent to the signing of the agreement, the NDF investment amount was reduced to US$100,000, which in effect increased the number of applications required to repay the advance.

In accordance with the terms of the agreement, all applicants under this arrangement, pay the prescribed fees for due diligence and passport processing and supply all

supporting documentation as required by the Citizenship by Investment Act (2013) its amendments and regulations to the Citizenship by Investment Unit. As is customary with all applications, the CIU conducts its own in-house due diligence review, thereafter contracting the services of internationally recognized private due diligence providers to investigate and confirm the veracity of each applicant’s claims and declarations in their submissions. Additionally, each of the applicants was subject to vetting through law enforcement databases to ensure their suitability for the grant of citizenship.

To date, the Unit has received 143 NDF applications, 114 of which have been successfully processed. Six applications have been denied and another 23 are pending review. As such, more than 60% of the debt/obligation has been retired as stipulated in the terms of the agreement. The Unit, as the agency charged with the management of this component of the agreement, has conducted its affairs with the highest levels of probity and in full compliance with the governing legislation.

At no time were physical passports prepared, processed or given to any person or entity for distribution where the holder of the passport would not have been required to undergo the full vetting and examination of their application. The Unit rejects these claims which are patently false and deliberately misleading and which have the potential to irreparably damage the reputation of the Citizenship by Investment Programme.

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Oh my I am sorry for some of these people who call themselves professional. My question to her and the top dawg where is Xioa he was swept out of Hong Kong are you not concerned about your citizens? Asot exposed you all now the top dawg put you all on the front line to chat crap to the innocent people of Antigua and Barbuda. What happen in the dark must come out in the light of day.

  3. Help me to understand why the number of passports processed exceeded 120 (114+6+23) in total? Simple question.

    • answer:
      “In October 2017, subsequent to the signing of the agreement, the NDF investment amount was reduced to US$100,000, which in effect increased the number of applications required to repay the advance.”

  5. ANR EDITOR:What is the name of the lady in the above picture?

    Lady,do not sell your soul for a work,not a job.For in my world work is not a JOB.I heard some years ago that the Chinese man got 125 Antigua and Barbuda Passports.He was supposed to sell them around ASIA to CIP prospective Citizens of Antigua and Barbuda.He went to Hong Kong and stayed in a Hotel there.While doing so,he was picked up by the mainland China Police.He was not seen or heard from that day to now.Is he still alive?What happened to those Passports?How did a 125 Passports,increased to 175.They those original passports have off springs.Because Asot,a Member of Parliament did say 175 Passports were given to that Chinese man attached to West Indies Oil Company,Antigua and Barbuda.Are you lie to damn much.I believed Asot’s figures are the correct figures.He was in the Cabinet as a Substantive Minister.

    • @BLACK=MANN

      Use wisdom and do not follow the UPP narrative At no time did I think physical passports was handed over.

      So when he sold them how would he get the bio details in them?

      Do not allow your brains to decay before you use it…

      • @Mel:That is what she is saying.Asot Michael was in Cabinet.He is saying otherwise.He would know better than that lady.He and Gaston were like siamese twins back then.By the way.Why are you mentioning UPP to me for.I never voted for the UPP and or the ALP/ABLP.When I left Antigua.The UPP did not exists as a Political Party.VC Bird was the Premier of Antigua and Barbuda.

        Sidelines: You are like a poodle.Just bark all day and say nothing in your barkings.That lady,like you are sing for your suppers.I am financially sound.I do not sing to anyone and or kneel to anyone.You would need to get up off your knees.Before your pads are worn out.

      • Maybe the same way the St. Vincent police officer got the bio information in the passports he was issuing. Whatever happened to this case.

      • @Mel
        Was a certain minister of government stopped in London with blank Antiguan passports. How was he going to get the bio information in them.

  6. SMDH, for those aspiring to be up on camera with these incumbents, please note it’s your career on the line, it’s your integrity on the line, it’s you who has to live with you. John Public has already given up on the moral compass of Top dawg and his camp.
    DANGER. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE. BEWARE.

  7. This is getting worse by the minute. The coverup is always greater than the crime itself. Come clean and face the music. Tik Tok!

    • Then you must be blind or dumb. A minister once in cabinet came out with the details, are you calling him a liar too??

    • Mel:You would not see anything wrong with that statement.Is it because you are a Labor Party stooge?You would say and or do anything to get paid for your utterances.

      • @BLACK-MAN
        So since when Asot’s words are godspell ( gospel)?
        The lady’s offerings sounds solid.

        Because corruption is the norm within the ABLP does not mean corruption is in all things.

  9. Selling out our lands. This regime needs to be removed from office. The sooner the better.

    Bunch a wutless dogs.

  10. What is the source of this “investment” money ?? Does anyone ever ask that or why someone would want to invest that heavily in such a far away venture ? You go invest that money in a lickle island that cya even defend itself from invasion ? Hmmm ok….

  11. When the PM does Financial Engineering those whose brain are to shallow cannot comprehend. Too Bad.
    The UPP was faced with the same situation and the think tank consisting of Lovell, Underwood and few other stooges try to come up with a solution how o purchase WIOC and still remain control over the company. All they could come up with is to borrow money from Venezuela to purchase the shares from WIOC, note that the government already owned 26% . So all they needed was 25%. So they would borrow $80million and hen sell Venezuela 51% and they keep 48% and still will have a loan balance of about 40Million left to pay to Venezuela at a low interest rate. Venezuela would then be in charge of a new joint venture company that owned WIOC and PDV Caribe. I mean when I spoke to Gregory he was very concern about this deal as he first saw it a giveaway of Antigua and Barbuda’s main Asset and hindsight if that had gone through we would have been in deep doo doo, because of US sanctions against Venezuela.
    Here comes the brainchild Gaston Browne. Who fist Negotiated downwards the $80million price to $30million. Than goes to his banker friend and says give me a bridging loan. With that he pays of WIOC main shareholder. Takes out the land part out of the company and sells the shares 49% to Venezuela and a Chinese investor. With those monies he pays of the bridging loan, and at the same time he gets his Chinese partner to advance monies for the future sale of CIP passport at a price of $200K at that time. So that advance is recorded as a loan to be paid of whenever a passport is issued from the CIU. So the intelligent of the matter is you never have to pay it with cash. Cause the cash was used for other investments in the past.
    I mean one wonders how you can buy something with no cash at all. Well this is one way.

    • You are an intelligent man so enlighten me please. Why the attempt to process more yhan 120 passports?

      • Why you head so Hard?. The lady when the agreement was signed the amount was 200.0K that is the contribution amount per application. In 2017, go and look at the law, the government reduced the contribution from 200.0k to 100k… This was after the disaster in Barbuda to keep the programme viable and to raise funding to help Barbuda. So therefore they had to revisit the agreement, from what I understand, and issue more so the dollar value of the loan can be obtained… Therefore it takes more Citizenship Application to arrive at the same dollar amount of the loan, because the Government had reduced the 200.0k to 100.0k.. I understand and finish school in Senior one. Murrdah Man…

        • When someone head hard you must ignore them. Cause all horses don’t run alike.
          When going to school I used to have a problem with children that couldn’t comprehend what the teacher was explaining after two or three times. I thought they were just keeping back the class. But later on in live I learned that some people just learned slower than others. And nothing is wrong with that. Infact I really believe our education system should cater for that and place children that comprehend fast in a different class or a different school so that they can learn even more in the same school year.

  12. @ Spar Par
    Ohhhhh! Me head so hard.
    Why not include a clause to adjust the terms of the loan 15 mil @ 6% for 10 yrs accordingly?

    What if the cost of passport had increased instead?

    Sorry, not in senior one as yet.

    • What if the cost of passport had increased instead?
      Then the opposite would have happened. You see you’re not so dumb.

  13. Anyone knows how Bob Johnson from BET made $300 million in 48hours. he went to Wall Street and borrowed $300million he bought the Charlotte BobCats, he then turns around and sold the Bobcats TV rights and others for $600million, pays off his loan and vola he has $300 million profit in 48 hours. And later on he sold the BobCats to Michael Jordan. So guys you see our PM could have done the WIOC deal for himself and get a cut of a few million in there, because he never used a dime from the Treasury. But this was done for the Country Other people money has purchase an Asset worth hundreds of millions and now it is an Asset for the people of Antigua and Barbuda. Lovell nor any of his stooges has such a brain to think outside the box.

  14. Dem big brain ministers is why we have the title deed for beach front property at Morris bay held by a bank in the middle east and we have a missing in action sheik investor. You can’t get credit for ingenuity when all your business partners are in prison, absconded or just vanished. All it means is that you were duped again a la Dato Tan

    • Where you get your false information? Go and understand what a charge on an asset means vs title to an asset. Also understand what a shares are. The foreign bank cannot hold title. The development of which you speak was a joint venture which included the government. The venture is now between the bank (Commercial bank Intl) and the government of Antigua & Barbuda

      • What venture? There is no venture except in your you choir singers heads. The so called venture is between the bank and the government because the ‘chic’ used the title as collateral for an unknown advance and absconded with the money. the bank owns the asset and there is nothing you or dem big brain ministers can do about it.

        • Its any share holder right, if they wish to transfer/sell their shares to another party. The bank now replaces the former share holder as share holder of record. The bank does not own the asset, what they own are the shares that have been transferred. What you suggested (title) is tantamount to my saying because I own shares in google that gives me title to its assets? Nope its the company that i hold the shares in that owns the assets. The same way I do not own the assets is the way I am also personally not liable for the companies debts. Go and tell google leave your property because you feel the shares you have gave you title to the assets they hold. Shareholders rights are safeguarded by directors, they have a say in appointing. Directors, also have other’s they must serve. Try and understand the basics before you try and give a lecture. As far as major funding, the plan was for this to be done via the CIP real estate option, where applicants would invest in rooms.

          • @ knowledge
            The government should stop peddling our passports to the lowest bidder. This situation is like a junky or alcoholic stealing his mother’s belongings to the sell for a fix. What did antigua do before CIP? What does the country have to show from the sale of our passports

          • DC, no idea what you mean by peddling to the lowest bidder. What did the US do when it found itself in a situation where it did not have enough people? Recall send me your poor..? Well we are getting high net worth persons who go though a due diligence program where they are vetted. Revenues from CIP in part are being used to build our infrastructure which will aid future expansions in the hotel sector

      • @knowledge
        Could you advise me why this government can never complete any project? Ribbon cutting and sod turning. This government is a joker and can only attract corrupt people like themselves.

        • All (not a full list)either began or completed under this adminn

          Royalton Resorts
          Hodges Bay Resort
          Hammack Cove resorts
          VC Bird Expansion
          University of A&B
          New Treasury Building
          Fiberoptic to limited areas
          APUA 4G, Via Inet
          New Ministry of Health office,
          Retrofitting the old ministry of education building
          Fixing the PDO building at market
          Expansion of West Indies Oil
          Digitizing Business registry
          The Infectious Disease center
          Port expansion to accommodate large cruise ships

          • You forget to mention the cargo port.
            And many others. Such as saving ABIB depositors savings, Buying WIOC.
            But understand its not that they don’t know it, they just want to see if people still remember and if we are there defending the government. A month or so later they will come again under another name making the same claim. Darren tried it today with Max. Asking him about Callaloo Bay project the Best Western and some others, while not mentioning those that are finish. I tell you these guys are very cunning. When he has the UPP member on his show it is all softball journalism. But when Max or someone else that is not UPP comes he fires up and always hide behind the questions saying “but your critiques will say this or that”. So he has become the spokes person for the critiques. So indirectly its the UPP doing the interview. If I were Max I would say to him don’t bother with what my critiques would say. What are you saying?

  15. The principal and interest payment on the advanced $15 mil is approx. $21 mil
    We have too many bright people????in Government and not enough good negotiators…
    We have people who have never set foot in college who are architects, businessmen, accountants, contract administrators etc., negotiating on the behalf of the people with foreign professionals.

    Lose lose situation.

    • You do know there is a difference between the commission offered to someone who is able to bring in 1 successful applicant yearly vs one who brings in more than lets say 50? What happens if the agent goes even further and not only pays you in advance for successful applicants he will bring this year but for the next 3 years? You also know that agents under CIP get as much as a 25% commission annually, based on volume of successful applicants? You don’t believe? Google “Antigua CIP’s Changes: Higher Commissions, Higher Fees, Fewer Restrictions” In Essence you have someone willing to not only bring in multiple files but pay in advance. That the kind pf client any company would treasure hence compensate via higher commissions

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