Gaston Browne’s personal attorney Anthony W. Astaphan was part of the email group involved in drafting coverup language to the Alfa Nero sale, a document in U.S. federal court reveals.
Ambassador Ronald Sanders, Brown’s envoy to Washington, put Astaphan on the list with yacht brokers as “lead Attorney in Antigua in Barbuda.” Whether Sanders meant that Astaphan was the government’s lead attorney, or was merely introducing Astaphan as a leading attorney in the country, is unclear.
We broke the story of Sanders’ email on April 27. Attorneys for Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov filed the document, among others, in a recent legal motion relating to Browne’s alleged $6 million kickback in the Alfa Nero sale.
In the email, dated March 20, 2025, Sanders told Alfa Nero yacht broker to write a public statement “to give the transaction the appearance of legitimacy.”
“It would be advantageous in this matter if Northrop & Johnson, the broker for the sale of the Alfa Nero, would issue a public statement setting out its involvement in the sale, as well as the sum paid and to whom payment was made,” Sanders told the Northrop & Johnson CEO, Richard Higgins.
A PDF of the original email, as filed with the court, is available here.
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