Battles over Guiana Island, Antigua
Investors allegedly defrauded by defunct investor Sir R Allen Stanford may now be paid back from the proceeds of the sale of his private island in Antigua, in the Caribbean.
The 184-hectare Guiana Island is the largest undeveloped island in Antigua & Barbuda, and among the options presented by the Antiguan-appointed liquidator of Stanford International Bank (SIB), Nigel Hamilton-Smith, was to either “fire-sell” it as a naked piece of land or, more preferably, advertise it as a developed piece of property in hopes of upping the value.
According to US regulators and prosecutors, Sir Allen greatly inflated the value of Guiana Island 6,000-fold in a series of land-flips conducted in 2008. According to court filings, the value of the property rose from about US$63.5 Million to about US$3.2 Billion between April and October.
For 32 years Cyril Thomas "Taffy" Bufton and his wife, Lona Eleen "Bonny" Bufton were the sole residents of Guiana Island. They first arrived as the caretakers of the island for a British lawyer who owned it, but he died in 1972 and the couple sought ownership of the island from the Antiguan government.
In 1997 Malaysian billionaire Dato Tan Kay Hock gained ownership of the island based on his plans to develop a massive resort on the island. Enraged by this decision Taffy Bufton strode into the the offices of the brother Prime Minister and shot himself in the hand, and Vere Bird Jr. in the mouth.
Dato Hock eventually sold the island to Stanford, in a convoluted business deal with ownership of the island held by a British Virgin Islands company owned by Stanford.
To read more about the battles of Guiana Island click the links below.
Lack of rainwater threatens idyllic life on Caribbean island
ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 31, 1997
Caribbean, Castaways, Contention
By MARK FINEMAN, Los Angeles Times
April 15, 1998
The 184-hectare Guiana Island is the largest undeveloped island in Antigua & Barbuda, and among the options presented by the Antiguan-appointed liquidator of Stanford International Bank (SIB), Nigel Hamilton-Smith, was to either “fire-sell” it as a naked piece of land or, more preferably, advertise it as a developed piece of property in hopes of upping the value.
According to US regulators and prosecutors, Sir Allen greatly inflated the value of Guiana Island 6,000-fold in a series of land-flips conducted in 2008. According to court filings, the value of the property rose from about US$63.5 Million to about US$3.2 Billion between April and October.
For 32 years Cyril Thomas "Taffy" Bufton and his wife, Lona Eleen "Bonny" Bufton were the sole residents of Guiana Island. They first arrived as the caretakers of the island for a British lawyer who owned it, but he died in 1972 and the couple sought ownership of the island from the Antiguan government.
In 1997 Malaysian billionaire Dato Tan Kay Hock gained ownership of the island based on his plans to develop a massive resort on the island. Enraged by this decision Taffy Bufton strode into the the offices of the brother Prime Minister and shot himself in the hand, and Vere Bird Jr. in the mouth.
Dato Hock eventually sold the island to Stanford, in a convoluted business deal with ownership of the island held by a British Virgin Islands company owned by Stanford.
To read more about the battles of Guiana Island click the links below.
Lack of rainwater threatens idyllic life on Caribbean island
ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 31, 1997
Caribbean, Castaways, Contention
By MARK FINEMAN, Los Angeles Times
April 15, 1998
