Antigua Senate set to OK Stanford land seizure

By Billy Canning

ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Antigua and Barbuda's Senate was expected to approve on Friday a government move to seize land owned by Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, accused in an $8 billion securities fraud.

The government of the Caribbean nation is rushing to take over more than 250 acres of Stanford property before a U.S. court-appointed receiver seizes it.

"We have to give ourselves a bargaining chip, so when the receivers come they have to deal with the government of Antigua and Barbuda," Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer told the House of Representatives after it approved the land takeover measure on Thursday. Opposition lawmakers opposed the government move.

Stanford is the biggest private investor and employer on the twin-island state,

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil fraud case against Stanford, a 58-year-old financier and sports tycoon, has rocked Antigua and Barbuda, where he held extensive businesses and properties.

Antigua and Barbuda's Senate was meeting on Friday to consider the land seizure motion, and leaders of the legislature said they expected it to be passed. It would then go to the governor-general, Louise Lake-Tack, for formal passage into law.

Spencer's government has made clear it wants to seize the Stanford land, which includes plots housing his Antigua-based banks and companies, as well as beachside homes and development properties, to mitigate the impact on the local economy and jobs of the fraud scandal.

As agents of the U.S. court-appointed receiver fan out across the Caribbean to try to identify and recover Stanford assets, Antigua and Barbuda's government says it has the right to take Stanford property to guarantee the viability of a local bank, Bank of Antigua, which was owned by the Texas tycoon.