Antigua

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This is another island in the Caribbean where cruise ships frequently stop. Antigua and the island of Barbuda are under one government. Colombus first landed on this island in 1493 and early attemps to settle the island failed because of the excellent defenses of the Caribe Indians who resided there. After the British colonized the island, slaves were brought from Africa to labor on the sugar plantations which developed there. In the 18th century, Antigua was the headquarters of the Caribbean fleet of the British Royal Navy. Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson commanded the fleet here for much of the time. Independence was granted by the UK in 1981 and the island remained part of the Commonwealth of Nations and is a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as queen of Antigua and Barbuda.

This island was recently in the headlines when Robert Allen Stanford, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Antigua & Barbuda, was arrested by the FBI and charged with fraud and a massive Ponzi scheme involving $8 billion dollars in certificates of deposit. Authorities raided his offices in several locations in the U.S. before the indictment was handed down. He's now in jail in the U.S. and his trial is scheduled for 2011. He was knighted by the commonwealth of Antigua & Barbuda and was known as Sir Stanford prior to all of this taking place. It's hard for me to imagine any idiot investing with a con man such as this without first checking on the validity of his company.

Antigua was our third stop and, by now, the islands were beginning to look the same. While walking around St. Johns, I talked to several people at random about Mr. Stanford. Everyone seemed to think well of him and why shouldn't they. He invested in the island with money that he had stolen from investors in the U.S. and other places.

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