St. John’s Antigua: Government’s inability to meet its $18 million debt to disgraced financier Allen Stanford is said to be the main hold-up for severance payment for hundreds of employees in Antigua.
The Court of Appeal in March ruled that the Inland Revenue Department must pay the sum owed in tax returns in ABST to the organisation, and attorney for the Stanford Group of Companies Hugh Marshall Jr said this is one of the reasons financial obligations cannot be met.
The now convicted financier’s fiancée, Andrea Stoelker, who also has power of attorney, yesterday, added there has been liquidation efforts towards the cause, however there have been several obstacles.
Stoelker, while speaking on The Voice of the People yesterday, said some of the properties have been rented, but those monies have been used to maintain current staff.
“We employ around 100 plus employees and a payroll of $150,000 per month. We have regular reoccurring debts like fuel, insurance, maintenance, which come up every month, so any of the money that has been generated by the rental income is going towards settling that and we have spent a significant amount of money to secure some of the properties,” Stoelker said.
Marshall said there were initially 32 claims brought against the company which require money to take legal action, however most have already been dealt with.
He noted that since those court proceedings commenced, other litigations have followed.
“There are a lot of litigations, some of which have to do with the recovery of debts that are owed to some of the companies,” he said. “A lot of persons who were owed substantial sums of money brought action to wind up the sum of the company; persons were claiming less than $1 million and winding up the entire company, …” he added.
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