Senator Jonathan Wehner Declares Gaston Browne Administration "Co-Conspirators in the Assassination of the Reputation of the Passport of Antigua and Barbuda"

Opposition Senator Jonathan Wehner delivered a blistering critique of the government's management of the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme during Thursday's sitting of the senate, revealing that the Citizenship by Investment Unit's (CIU) accounts have not been audited in a decade and accusing the Gaston Browne administration of dismantling the very legal safeguards it is now scrambling to restore.

Speaking on the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) Bill, 2026 — which further establishes the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority as a sub-regional watchdog — Senator Wehner said the United Progressive Party (UPP) opposition "wholeheartedly" supports the new authority, but argued the reforms come "too little, too late" and only after sustained pressure from the United States and the European Union, which has told OECS states to phase out their CBI programmes by June 2028 or face the loss of visa-free access.

No Audits since 2016

One of the centerpieces of Senator Wehner's contribution was the claim that the programme — budgeted to bring in EC$120 million in 2026 and described by the government itself as fundamental to the country's economic development — has operated without audited accounts for ten years.

Senator Wehner told the senate that the audit requirement in the principal 2013 CBI Act was repealed by amendments to the act in 2016 brought by Gaston Browne. The bill now before Parliament, he noted, reinserts an accounts and audit provision — proof, he argued, that none has existed in the ten-year interim.

"If something is already in the law, why add back in what is already there, and why repeal it in the first place?" he asked.

The senator said he wrote to the Director of Audit himself and received written confirmation that the CIU's accounts have not been audited by the director's office or an auditor approved by him since 2016. Senator Wehner further stated the last audits referenced in the parliamentary record were KPMG audits of the 2013 and 2014 accounts cited in the 30th of March 2016 Hansard of the House of Representatives.

"That's ten years, Madam President, of unaudited accounts," Senator Wehner said, contrasting the record with the Leader of Government Business's assertion that the programme is the most transparent and has the most integrity in the sub-region.

Six-month Reports "violate the law"

Senator Wehner shifted focus declaring the CIU's statutory six-month reports have breached Regulation 13(2)(f) of the CBI regulations, which requires each report to name the approved projects, charities, government-sponsored projects and business investments that received payments.

Of the 20 reports published since the programme's inception, he said, only the 2015 report complied — listing approved projects such as Tamarind Hills, Nonsuch Bay and Jolly Harbour alongside the sums they received. Every subsequent report, he argued, acknowledged approved applications in the real estate and business investment categories while omitting the legally required listing of recipients, citing 143 applications in the second half of 2016 alone.

He also highlighted that the 2016 amendments diluted Regulation 13(2)(d) in the principal 2013 CBI act, which originally required the publication of applicants' names, addresses and nationalities in the six-month reports; the law now requires nationalities only.

Due Diligence under Fire: Alex Saab and the Onyemas

Turning to the bill's due diligence provisions, Senator Wehner questioned how the country's vetting — once touted by former government spokesman Ambassador Lionel "Max" Hurst as among the best in the world — allowed Colombian businessman Alex Saab to receive not only a passport but a diplomatic passport in 2014, along with an appointment as Antigua and Barbuda's special economic envoy to Venezuela, despite money laundering investigations dating back to 2012 and 2013. Alex Saab, he noted, recently had a judgment of some US$314 million entered against him and Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro in connection with torture claims.

He also pointed to the Onyema family of Nigeria's Air Peace — now partnered with LIAT — noting the Prime Minister himself has publicly acknowledged ten CIP files linked to them, even as members of the family were indicted by the US justice department for charges involving bank fraud and money laundering.

Having laid out the information regarding the absence of CBI audits since 2016, the CIU's continued violations of regulation 13(2)(f) of the CBI act and the failures in due diligence Senator Wehner concluded "We are not victims, Madam President. We are co-conspirators in the assassination of the reputation of the Antigua and Barbuda passport."

Amendments Proposed

Despite his criticisms, Senator Wehner welcomed several provisions, including the requirement for annual independent financial audits and biannual operational audits, and proposed strengthening amendments: that the CIU's published audit report be accompanied by its written response, that both be submitted to the responsible minister, and that a new clause require the minister to lay both documents before the House of Representatives.

He also argued that the CIU already qualifies for a special audit by the new regional authority, which the bill permits where significant irregularities recur, or credible information suggests systemic governance failures.

"These amendments coming before this House are good. They should have come since 2016, the year when the legal guardrails were stripped away from the principal act," he said. "They're coming now after the warning of what appeared imminent is going to happen."