UPP condemns PM Browne’s efforts to mislead the people in Alfa Nero ‘Discovery’ matter

The United Progressive Party (UPP) strongly condemns the efforts of Prime Minister Gaston Browne to deceive the public about the recent legal steps taken by Yulia Guryeva Motlokhov regarding the sale of the Alfa Nero.

PM Browne, in apparent desperation, has spun a literally incredible tale in which he accuses the Opposition and its officials of instigating or advancing Ms. Motlokhov’s pursuit of justice by way of the United States courts, specifically her just-granted application for Discovery.

In March 2023, our Members of Parliament refused to debate an amendment to the Port Authority Act that would enable the Government to declare the Alfa Nero abandoned in Falmouth Harbour; to acquire it; and to sell it by public auction or private treaty.

Consequently, our Members of Parliament staged a walk-out, protesting that they had not been given time to consider the proposed amendment, nor to consult legal counsel on what they considered to be a complex matter with serious implications for the marine industry.

During the Senate debate that followed, the UPP recommended that – if Government insisted on selling the vessel – any monies earned ought to be held in escrow as a hedge against future claims, and other Party officials said the funds should rightly go toward the rebuilding of Ukraine.

Accordingly, the UPP has refused to approve or assist the Administration’s efforts to detain, acquire, and ultimately dispose of the vessel – first by public auction and then by private sale – and has made its position clear in every media outing, locally and otherwise.

Further, the United Progressive Party, through its chairperson, also rejected the Administration’s attempt, via the Port Authority Manager, to induce the UPP Members of Parliament to support the sale by offering to use some of the proceeds to fund identified projects in their constituencies.

Since then, in several sittings of the Lower House, the United Progressive Party, utilizing Questions to the Prime Minister and Questions to Ministers, has asked for information on the sale of the Alfa Nero, including the buyer; the amount received and the disbursement of those funds; and the indemnification of the buyer, as well as questions about Xiao Jinhua of Fancy Bridge, the Chinese shareholder in the West Indies Oil Company (WIOC).

These questions were posed in July 2023; March 2024; May 2024; July 2024; and September 2024.

Despite these queries, the Prime Minister never disclosed to the Opposition or to the public, the supposed beneficial owners of the Alfa Nero, to whom the vessel was sold; nor did he offer a breakdown of how the funds had been disbursed.  No account was ever laid before the Parliament or published in the official Gazette.  

Therefore, we find Prime Minister Browne to be disingenuous, at best, and deliberately evasive, at worst, when he boasts that the sale transactions were transparent and open.   We further support the remarks of our Chairperson to the Associated Press: that “the prime minister does not give information except what he wants people to know.”

The United Progressive Party calls upon Mr. Browne, in his capacities of Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, to stop making wild and unfounded accusations against the Opposition and to come clean on the Alfa Nero deal, as well as the matters raised in the Application for Discovery.

It is grossly unfair to the taxpayers of this country to advise them that defense of this action will be costly to them without advising them of exactly what they are being called upon to defend.   Further, it must be morally wrong for the Cabinet to expect our financially disadvantaged citizens and residents to foot the legal bills of the mega yacht’s new owners, as well as those personally named in the Discovery papers.

This is not about the Prime Minister, his family, or his associates; it is about the Nation of Antigua and Barbuda, its people, and its international image.