HG Helps, editor-at-large in the Observer’s Special Coverage Unit, reminisces on his experiences – good and bad – with American Sir Allen Stanford who was last week charged with fraud by US authorities. Helps worked in the newspaper section of Standford’s group in Antigua, his Caribbean headquarters:

His is a household name in the tiny Eastern Caribbean island of Antigua & Barbuda.

Afterall, when you get to be as wealthy as Robert Allen Stanford in an island of 68,000 inhabitants, it would be unlikely that a man so named and with a face that at times seemed as pleased as Jack popping out of his box, would not grab the attention of even the most unconcerned.

My first contact with Stanford’s group of companies came in June 1998 when I was asked by a third party if I would relocate to Antigua from Jamaica and help build a fledging newspaper.

After a string of telephone conversations with the husband and wife team of Bob and Leslie Hoffman who ran Stanford’s Antigua Sun newspaper as editor-in-chief and managing editor respectively, and a short trip to Antigua to see the conditions under which I would work, I decided to join the Stanford Financial Group, specifically to share my knowledge with the Sun, Stanford’s latest addition to his flourishing group.

I soon found out that the word Stanford was taboo in Antigua. Most of the people, including those who worked for him, seemed not to like him very much. It all appeared quite odd that a man who had been spending so much money in one country could be so disliked.

“Stanford go on like a he own Antigua. He want everything and the Antiguan people no fi get nutten,” one of my key friends, the now deceased ‘Smokey’ Benjamin, told me during one of my regular visits to his food shack across from the main transport centre in St John’s, the Antiguan capital.

Born March 28, 1950, Stanford had always been a close friend of then Prime Minister Lester Bird and members of the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) Government. He was resented by the Opposition United Progressive Party (UPP), which also believed that Bird had been too lenient on the American whom they often accused of interfering in the internal affairs of the country, something that would later become irrelevant when the fifth generation Texan became a naturalised Antiguan citizen, followed by the conferring of a local Knighthood, the first for a non-Antiguan.

Stanford, whom we are told made his hitherto vast fortune from real estate, had been invited by Bird to invest in Antigua. The United Kingdom Government had turned up its nose when Stanford operated an offshore bank in the British dependency of Montserrat, ultimately asking the American to relocate as they were not convinced that his dealings were all above board. That information was first given to me by a member of the British mission on the island.

In August 1998, I met the then 48-year-old Stanford at one of his elaborate offices near the Vere Bird International Airport. The welcome was warm and delightful, making it even more difficult to understand why Antiguans did not like him.

Stanford reiterated a point that was made by his subjects before my trip to the eastern Caribbean island: there would be no interference by the paper’s owner in the editorial direction of the Monday to Friday publication and I would have full freedom to practise fair journalism.

Things looked great for the first few months and there was not an ounce of interference. But then a general election was approaching. Stanford and Bird remained tight friends, and in a dramatic about turn, Stanford’s true colours were about to be displayed.

As I sat in my colleague Louis Daniel’s office one day, Stanford called to voice a concern that he had. “I have huge investments on this island and I cannot afford for the Government to change,” he told Daniel.

I could hear the conversation as Daniel had put him on speakerphone.

“I have been receiving complaints from the Government members that the Sun has not been co-operative and kind in highlighting the work of the Government and we need to do something about that,” he said before ending the conversation abruptly.

That was the start of a dramatic turn of events that would follow.

As the general election campaign got into full force, the words flew left, right and centre. The Opposition always expected a bashing from the paper, based upon its owner’s connection with the Government. It did not happen often and the paper’s credibility grew slowly. But the Government was growing uneasy that for once in the short life of the Antigua Sun, the playfield had levelled off and the paper was by no means a State mouthpiece.

But for how long would that last?

Following a short vacation to Jamaica around Christmas time, my trip back to Antigua in January was eventful.

The election campaign had gathered heat, the Government was giving away land to citizens at peppercorn rates, offering every adult the opportunity to import a vehicle duty free and promising just about everything that it could, in a bid to excite voters. For its part, the Opposition bashed the latest attempts at winning over the uncommitted.

Stanford seemed to be perspiring profusely every time he viewed the situation, which showed the Opposition gaining ground. Something had to be done to keep voters focused on the ALP.

Presto! Stanford had a bright idea. He promptly fired the Hoffmans and made Daniel the interim editor. Daniel would last a short time, as Stanford had specially imported a retired Trinidadian newsman called Vernon Khelawan who was expected to lead the charge in ‘transforming’ the Sun to reflect a more sympathetic attitude toward the ruling party.

More and more stories, most written by Khelawan, made their way into the paper. If there was a story that would make the Opposition look good, it was either not carried right away, or at all. Anything that would show up the UPP would make the front page or get other prominent places in the paper.

One Saturday afternoon I was asked by Daniel, who had been relegated to news editor, to cover an Opposition rally near the Antigua Recreation Ground. Former journalist and deputy party leader Tim Hector had made one of the most brilliant speeches that I had heard from any Caribbean politician in recent times.

As there was no publication on Sunday, I wrote the story the day after. Daniel was at the office and we decided that the story would lead the paper for its Monday edition.

We left the paper’s offices around 8 o’clock that night and close to 11 o’clock I got a call from Daniel that Khelawan and a Guyanese/Antiguan diplomat, who was working with the Bird Government at the time, had gone to the office when most people had left and not only changed our front page but other sections of the paper.

The story, which had been critical of proven Government corruption, including a US$11-million airport development project for which money was paid out in full to a Government member and only two truck loads of sand delivered, was removed from Page one, dumped and replaced by a story highlighting the achievements of the Government. Other stories that had no political connection were also yanked from the paper and replaced with Government handouts.

At dawn, when most of the staff had reported to work, an emergency workers’ meeting was called and a decision made to proceed on a sickout, until the company’s management stated the reason for the changes. The sickout lasted two days, and when the workers turned up on the Wednesday, so did Stanford. He hastily called a staff meeting at which he huffed and puffed and almost blew the house down. He singled out Daniel and myself for leading a rebellion against what he called the protection of his interests.

Stanford lambasted Daniel in his usual style. When it came to me, he looked me up and down for what appeared to be hours, then in a terse manner said . I want you to take some time off from work . but I will pay you, I will pay you,” he emphasised. “I think you should take the time to examine your hearts and minds and then decide whether or not you want to continue working for this company.”

So we received our marching orders and by later that day the news that Stanford had suspended us had attracted the attention of the major media organisations, including the BBC Caribbean Radio, television stations, newspapers, the Caribbean Association of Media Workers led by Rickey Singh, the Press Association of Jamaica headed by Desmond Allen, the Media Association of Jamaica led by Chris Roberts and diplomatic missions on the island.

That infuriated Stanford even more. How dare two poor boys take him on and attract this kind of attention. His next move was inevitable. Stanford gave the orders to dismiss us and in less that three days that took effect.

The natural reaction was to take the matter to court, citing unfair dismissal.

Among those encouraging me was Joel Garner, the big former West Indies fast bowler who had only weeks before won compensation for unfair dismissal from his then employer, the Barbados Advocate newspaper, where he worked as circulation manager.

“Follow up the case, man and see if you can get a change off him,” ‘Big Bird’, as he is known, said to me at a petrol station in St John’s.

It took two years to settle the matter. The Industrial Court had determined that Stanford was out of order to have fired us and would have to compensate us.

But it didn’t stop there. The wealthy man took the matter to the Appeal Court, which threw out the case and Stanford was finally forced to go into his pocket.

My case was one of several that went against Stanford, who was seen by many as a man who felt that he could do just about anything to anyone and get away with it, all because he had money.

Afterall, he later emerged as the world’s 205th wealthiest man with a worth of US$2.2 billion.

Now United States authorities are turning up the heat. One way or another, Sanford’s money will prove him to be either sinner or saint.