Investigators in the U.S. are reviewing Gaston Browne’s still-unexplained issuance of a diplomatic passport to international money launderer Alex Saab within months of becoming prime minister.
Browne became prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda shortly after the June, 2014 elections. He issued the diplomatic passport to Saab five months later, on 18 November.
Saab was known as a high-risk individual with international criminal connections at the time.
Browne called Saab his “friend” and “close personal friend.”
The U.S. extradited Saab from Venezuela earlier this year. Informed observers anticipate that Saab will tell American officials everything they want to know about Caribbean money laundering and the corrupt officials who facilitate it, and that he may throw Browne under the bus.
Browne allowed Saab to continue use of our diplomatic passport until 2019 once Saab became too much of an international scandal after Colombia issued a warrant for his arrest.
That’s when Browne finally revoked his friend’s diplomatic passport.
The U.S. followed shortly afterward, indicting Saab in Florida in May, 2019.
The Biden administration freed Saab in a prisoner exchange with Venezuela, but the Trump administration renewed charges against him and took custody of him this year.
Observer warned of ‘another international scandal’ 7 years ago
“Justly or otherwise, Antigua and Barbuda could become embroiled in yet another international scandal caused by one of the many people it has accorded diplomatic status,” the Observer noted in 2019.
“These include locals and foreigners, some whose names only enter local public awareness when controversies or scandals in which they feature is exposed – usually by international media or the few remaining domestic brave hearts,” the Observer said.
“The latest commotion that could mushroom is in respect of one such (alleged) shadowy figure, a wealthy Colombian businessman named Alex Nain Saab Moran,” commonly known as Alex Saab.
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