Antigua’s leader rejects allegations that his government withheld details of yacht sale and proceeds

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday dismissed allegations that his administration has not been transparent about the sale of a seized megayacht and how the proceeds were used.

The statement by Prime Minister Gaston Browne comes a day after a federal judge in New York granted attorneys permission to issue subpoenas to access the financial records of Browne and other officials.

The attorneys represent Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, who claims she is the rightful owner of the Alfa Nero megayacht, which remained anchored off Antigua for a couple months before the local government seized and sold it last year.

Guryeva-Motlokhov’s attorneys alleged in a March 11 filing in federal court that Browne’s administration has not released documents related to the $40 million sale of the yacht.

The attorneys are seeking documents and information related to wire transfers and other transactions involving Antigua’s prime minister and six other people, as well as 12 entities, in the past five years.

The people targeted include Browne, one of his sons, his wife, Antigua’s general accountant and its port manager.

The entities include West Indies Oil Co. Ltd., an Antigua-based petroleum storage and distribution company of which the government is a majority shareholder, and Fancy Bridge Ltd., a Hong Kong-based investment firm that owns shares in the oil company, as does Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., known as PDVSA.

The institutions that the attorneys plan to subpoena are required to comply with the request for information unless Browne or someone else files a motion opposing the subpoenas.

Browne said in a public statement Tuesday that he is discussing legal remedies with his attorneys in Antigua and the U.S.

He also told The Associated Press that his attorneys may challenge the judge’s ruling.

The case focuses on a megayacht abandoned by Guryeva-Motlokhov’s father, Andrey Guryev, a Russian businessman who founded a fertilizer company and worked in the Russian government. He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in August 2022.

Browne on Tuesday accused Guryeva-Motlokhov of falsely claiming that she was entitled to the yacht “in order to claim for herself the sales proceeds and damages and rob the people of Antigua & Barbuda of these public benefits.”

“She and her attorneys have made scandalous, malicious and entirely false accusations in order to further her illicit ends,” Browne said in a statement. “The principal targets of her defamatory comments have been myself, and members of my family. There is not a grain of truth to any of these attacks on my, or my family’s integrity.”

An attorney for Guryeva-Motlokhov did not immediately return a message for comment.