Like a persistent stalker who cannot take no for an answer, the fallout from the sale of the Alfa Nero has continued to follow Prime Minister Gaston Browne — even as the country’s leader is among a high-level delegation meeting with US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
It is alleged that for several days, a truck displaying inflammatory messages about Prime Minister Browne and Antigua and Barbuda’s diplomatic ties to Cuba, Venezuela and China has been parked in front of the headquarters of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC.
This has caused a commotion among OAS diplomats about the purported truck, which prompted Antigua and Barbuda’s Permanent Mission to the OAS—led by Ambassador Sir Ronald Sanders — to issue a diplomatic note to the Chair of the Permanent Council of the OAS, describing the situation as a deliberate smear campaign connected to the sale of the Alfa Nero superyacht.
In the diplomatic note issued yesterday, the country’s Permanent Mission to the OAS clarified that the government itself was not the subject of any ongoing civil matter in US courts.
The note suggested that the truck is tied to Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, daughter of Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev, who has filed suit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and is attempting to subpoena several high-profile individuals, including Prime Minister Browne, his wife Minister Maria Browne and the Prime Minister’s eldest son.
This development comes after Browne travelled to the US capital with fellow prime ministers of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, The Bahamas, St Lucia, Grenada, and St Kitts and Nevis, to discuss future US-Caribbean relations amidst strained US-China relations and trade policy with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The timing of the truck’s appearance during Prime Minister Browne’s official visit was described in the diplomatic note as “unlikely to be mere coincidence” and “a calculated attempt to distort public perception”.
“Rather than focusing their efforts on lawful process, the applicant’s team appears to have launched a public campaign aimed at smearing and pressuring the Government.
“This has included a series of misleading social media posts, the creation of a false website and, most recently, the appearance of the truck in Washington, D.C. bearing similar disinformation,” the note read.
The seemingly endless fallout over the Alfa Nero has continued to drag on Antigua and Barbuda—months after the sale to Turkish billionaire, Ali Riza Yildirim, who recently told state media in a statement that he bought the boat for US $40 million.
However, despite the vessel being no longer in the government’s possession, government officials have taken great pains to disprove allegations of corruption and opaqueness surrounding the sale, including state media interview appearances and the reported publishing of the vessel’s expenditure report—detailing the payments made towards several debtors, including the crew and maintenance companies, as well as other international bodies.
The diplomatic team at the OAS stated that “[this] reflects a calculated attempt to distort public perception and to pressure a sovereign government through spectacle rather than substance.”
