By: Staff Writer
January 13, 2023
A former cabinet minister in Antigua and Barbuda and current independent candidate claims he lost access to the funds on his bank accounts in what he claims was “political” as he stands as an independent candidate in the upcoming general election on January 18.
Asot Michael, member of parliament for St Peter and former minister for tourism in the Gaston Browne administration, in an obscenity laced tirade against staff at the Caribbean Union Bank, demanded the withdrawal of all of his money, which he claimed was some EC $500,000 plus.
He also released a statement asking of the CUB was insolvent, further claiming that up until he announced his manifesto for the St Peters Constituency he was able to get money, but now since he has officially launched his campaign his accounts were frozen.
The government of Antigua is the major shareholder of the CUB since 2016 a fact that Mr Michael says bolsters his political victimization claims.
His statement also read: “Asot Michael, his two sisters Soraya Michael and Terese-Anne Michael were the victims of what appears to be politically created procedures. They wanted to get their cash from their accounts and were met with opposition from bank operatives. All three account holders have met every single source of funds request on every single transaction made with the Bank. Their financial affairs are well known to the Bank under its KYC policy.
“The Bank claims in an official Press Statement dated 12 January, it is “sound and safe and maintains the ability to meet all depositors’ requests”. If the bank is not insolvent, what then is the difficulty with meeting the requests of depositors from the Michael family who are in full compliance with all banking rules and regulations?”
Mr Michael also said: “The candidate’s family member expressed surprise at the difficulty in getting access to funds which were wired last week nearly 5 days ago, some US $350 000 through our international intermediaries. These funds sat in the bank and were not transferred to Mr. Michael’s account which led to cheques of the account holder being cancelled. Workers of the campaign and their families are unable to cash cheques. Some 39 cheques were bounced in the last 3 days.
“The routine financial transactions this week are no different to those conducted over the 12 years in which the Michael family has successfully done business with the financial institution – a relationship that existed before the institution had an investment by the State.”
He added: “This first request was also compounded by a second request where a family member’s access to a fix deposit of over EC$500,000 was also frustrated with new rules or ‘political’ instructions. The wait is now close to a week to get all these funds. This was not the case in in 2018.
“Asot Michael recalls the period in 2018 elections when over $3m US dollars was transferred from the same source and withdrawals of US$200,000 were made regularly without delay. These were the days when Asot Michael provided money to ensure success for his then party colleagues. Today January 12, Asot Michael is an independent candidate and is subject to political rules in order to use his personal funds.”