Clare Roberts

Application by H.M.B. Holdings Limited to take discovery from HSBC, Standard Chartered, Citibank, OBM Miami Inc., Norton Consulting Inc., and Hensel Phelps Construction Co. for use in legal proceedings in Antigua & Barbuda and Canada, filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Antigua-registered Eurofed Bank Ltd. has been placed into receivership by the island's regulators over its suspected involvement in money laundering. Eurofed, which also has a banking license in Grenada, went into receivership on or around November 15 after being implicated in a scandal involving Pavlo Lazarenko, a former Prime Minister of the Ukraine.

Antigua-licensed Eurofed Bank has been taken off a Warning Circular issued on April 15, 1999 by the Canadian Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. The list contains the names of 227 entities against which the OFSI has had "some form of inquiry or complaint" and which may be operating illegally in Canada.

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.

A Nevis company that purports to provide insurance for depositors at offshore banks may be a scam similar to one used to attract funds to the European Union Bank in Antigua that was closed down last year after fleecing investors of several millions of dollars, we can disclose. International Depositor's Reinsurance Corporation Ltd., which does business as International Deposit Insurance Corporation or IDIC, has all the hallmarks of a fraud. It is in breach of Nevis law by using the word 'Insurance' in its trading name and by passing itself off as an insurance company in its promotional literature at its web-site at http://www.depositinsurance.com.