SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday dismissed allegations that his administration has not been clear concerning the sale of a seized megayacht and the way the proceeds had been used.
The assertion by Prime Minister Gaston Browne comes a day after a federal decide in New York granted attorneys permission to difficulty subpoenas to entry the monetary information of Browne and different officers.
The attorneys signify Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, who claims she is the rightful proprietor of the Alfa Nero megayacht, which remained anchored off Antigua for a pair months earlier than the native authorities seized and offered it final yr.
Guryeva-Motlokhov’s attorneys alleged in a March 11 submitting in federal court docket that Browne’s administration has not launched paperwork associated to the $40 million sale of the yacht.
The attorneys are searching for paperwork and knowledge associated to wire transfers and different transactions involving Antigua’s prime minister and 6 different individuals, in addition to 12 entities, previously 5 years.
The individuals focused embrace Browne, considered one of his sons, his spouse, Antigua’s common accountant and its port supervisor.
The entities embrace West Indies Oil Co. Ltd., an Antigua-based petroleum storage and distribution firm of which the federal government is a majority shareholder, and Fancy Bridge Ltd., a Hong Kong-based funding agency that owns shares within the oil firm, as does Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., generally known as PDVSA.
The establishments that the attorneys plan to subpoena are required to adjust to the request for info except Browne or another person information a movement opposing the subpoenas.
Browne stated in a public assertion Tuesday that he’s discussing authorized treatments together with his attorneys in Antigua and the U.S.
He additionally instructed The Related Press that his attorneys might problem the decide’s ruling.
The case focuses on a megayacht deserted by Guryeva-Motlokhov’s father, Andrey Guryev, a Russian businessman who based a fertilizer firm and labored within the Russian authorities. He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Division in August 2022.
Browne on Tuesday accused Guryeva-Motlokhov of falsely claiming that she was entitled to the yacht “with a view to declare for herself the gross sales proceeds and damages and rob the individuals of Antigua & Barbuda of those public advantages.”
“She and her attorneys have made scandalous, malicious and completely false accusations with a view to additional her illicit ends,” Browne stated in a press release. “The principal targets of her defamatory feedback have been myself, and members of my household. There may be not a grain of reality to any of those assaults on my, or my household’s integrity.”
An lawyer for Guryeva-Motlokhov didn’t instantly return a message for remark.
