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DE RUEHWN #0487/01 0761939
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P 171939Z MAR 06
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INFO RUEHKG/AMEMBASSY KINGSTON PRIORITY 4909

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRIDGETOWN 000487 
 
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EB/IFD/OIA FOR JAMES ROSELI 
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EB/CBA FOR NANCY SMITH-NISSLEY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2016 
TAGS: EINV CASC PGOV KIDE AC
SUBJECT: ANTIGUA HALF MOON BAY: NATALIA QUERARD AND HER SIX 
OUTSTANDING COURT CASES 
 
 
CORRECTED COPY 
 
REF: A. BRIDGETOWN 287 
¶B. BRIDGETOWN 18 
¶C. 05 BRIDGETOWN 402 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: DCM MARY ELLEN T. GILROY FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) AND (d) 
 
¶1.  (U) ACTION REQUEST - paragraph 9. 
 
¶2.  (C) Summary:  Amcit Natalia Querard, Managing Director of Half Moon 
Bay (HMB) holdings, updated the DCM February 16 on Government of 
Antigua and Barbuda (GOAB) attempts to expropriate the HMB resort. 
Querard also outlined her six active court cases, leveled slander and 
libel charges against her opponents, and accused GOAB Attorney General 
Justin Simon of corruption.  Querard signed a privacy act waiver, 
naming an Isle of Man-based consultant, Ian Moncrief-Scott, as someone 
we can talk to about her case.  Moncrief-Scott has been pressuring the 
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to end its support for a 
land registry modernization project in Antigua.  OPIC declined to do 
so.  She also asked the DCM to look into an American law firm that 
represented the GOAB in 2002.  Not much has changed in Querard's core 
Privy Council case since her November 2005 meeting with the Ambassador 
(Ref B).  This case remains intractable, and the apparent breakthroughs 
in late 2004 and 2005 did not lead to a resolution.  End Summary. 
 
¶3.  (C) Querard requested a face-to-face meeting with the DCM, saying 
she had an urgent matter to discuss.  During the February 16 meeting, 
Querard provided an update of her case to DCM and Econoff (notetaker). 
Querard believes that her phone and fax lines are monitored.  Her 
Internet connection is not working.  She feels the most secure way to 
communicate is meeting face-to-face or through correspondence sent via 
courier services (e.g., DHL, FedEx). 
 
¶4.  (C) The status of her core expropriation case in the Privy Council 
(the London-based highest court of appeal for Antigua) has not changed 
significantly since her November 2005 meeting with Ambassador Kramer 
(Ref B). 
 
--------------- 
Case Background 
--------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Hurricane Luis devastated HMB and Antigua in 1995, and 
ensuing power struggles among HMB shareholders kept them from 
refurbishing the property.  The GOAB (then led by Lester Bird) passed 
an act of parliament expropriating the resort in 2002, claiming 
Antigua, with its dependence on tourism, had a national interest in 
reopening the resort.  HMB shareholders challenged the expropriation in 
local courts (High Court, which found in their favor; Court of Appeal, 
which reversed the lower court ruling).  The HMB shareholders then 
appealed to the Privy Council, where the case remains now. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) After a 2004 electoral upset, the new GOAB under Prime 
Minister Baldwin Spencer offered to return the property.  On July 18, 
2005, the GOAB passed an act of parliament offering to return the 
property on three conditions:  The HMB shareholders must drop all legal 
action against the GOAB, offer the GOAB indemnity "in respect of any 
claims which arise or may arise as a result of the acquisition," and 
redevelop the property.  The HMB shareholders rejected these conditions 
as illegal and infringing upon their rights as property owners.  The 
shareholders maintain that the only acceptable solution is for the GOAB 
to reverse unconditionally its expropriation and immediately restore 
clear title to the property (Ref B paragraph 9).  In March 2005, the 
GOAB had the land registrar officially switch the title from HMB to the 
GOAB, an action which Querard contends violates a Privy Council ruling 
(Ref B).  The GOAB disputes Querard's legal positions (Ref A). 
 
------------------------- 
Querard's Six Court Cases 
------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C) Responding to a question to clarify the Privy Council appeal, 
Querard stated there are a total of six active court cases involving 
HMB. 
 
¶A.  Case One:  The original suit brought by HMB shareholders against 
the GOAB Act of Parliament appropriating the property in 2002.  (Note: 
This case could be appealed to the Privy Council.  See comment to case 
two.  End Note.) 
 
¶B.  Case Two:  The current Privy Council appeal.  (Comment:  Neither 
DCM nor Econoff has legal training.  As best as we understood this 
concerns a technical matter or point of law that, if resolved in favor 
of HMB, will render moot an appeal of Case One to the Privy Council. 
See Ref A and Ref B for more on Case One and Case Two.  End Comment.) 
 
¶C.  Case Three:  The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) sued HMB 
for non-payment of bills. 
 
¶D.  Case Four:  HMB counter-sued APUA for cutting off utility services. 
 
Querard contends the HMB utility bills were grossly inflated and 
incorrect so she refused to pay them. 
 
¶E.  Case Five:  Querard sued former GOAB Ambassador to the U.S. Lionel 
Hurst for defamation for repeatedly calling her quote an enemy of the 
state unquote on his radio talk show. 
 
¶F.  Case Six:  The former HMB resident manager and minority shareholder 
who wrote two wills:  one leaving everything to his wife and the other 
leaving it all to his girlfriend.  (Note:  The wife took a cash 
settlement from the girlfriend.  The girlfriend subsequently died, 
leaving her shares and estate to her brother.  End Note.) 
 
------------------------------------------- 
"Replete with Falsehood and Malicious Spin" 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C) Querard spent much of the meeting outlining her efforts to 
improve her image--by persuasion or litigation.  In addition to the 
Lionel Hurst case (see Case Five), she complained that a U.S. law firm 
working for the GOAB, Berliner Corcoran and Rowe, wrote what she 
characterized as false statements about her in 2002 in an official GOAB 
response to a letter from Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado.  She 
also lamented the reemergence on the website of the Antiguan High 
Commission in London of a document called "The Half Moon Bay Hotel 
Story" which she eloquently labeled, "Replete with falsehood and 
malicious spin, defamatory in substance, and mean-spirited in intent." 
(Note:  The document is available at www.antigua- 
barbuda.com/business_politics/half_moon_hotel .asp.  End Note.) 
 
¶9.  (SBU) ACTION REQUESTS for L/CID:  Post requests a copy of Bruce 
Zagaris and Berliner Corcoran and Rowe's filings as foreign agents for 
Antigua and Barbuda under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  Please 
advise if we can share these with Querard. 
 
------------------------- 
Help from the Isle of Man 
------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (C) Querard listed Ian Moncrief-Scott, an Isle of Man-based 
consultant, as a person to talk to about her case on her privacy act 
waiver.  She said he does not have a current interest in the HMB 
property, but would be offered shares in HMB after the expropriation is 
lifted.  (Note:  Although Post had received many communications in the 
past from Moncrief-Scott, Querard had neither clarified his role and 
interest in HMB nor given permission for Embassy officials to discuss 
the HMB case with him.  End Note.)  Moncrief-Scott has written many 
articles supporting the HMB position for the business site 
www.mondaq.com and has put pressure on OPIC to stop its land registry 
project with Antigua.  OPIC politely declined to do so. 
 
¶11.  (C) Querard stated that HMB is a privately held corporation. 
Original investors included Mr. Mellon (NFI), Querard's father, (NFN) 
Kluge purchased shares in the 1950s or 1960s.  Joseph R. Kelly, the 
deceased minority shareholder (see note to Case Six) was listed as a 
shareholder of record on the altered title.  (Comment:  AG Simon stated 
Kelly held more than forty percent of the HMB shares.  End Comment.) 
In an October 2004 report on the www.mondaq.com website, Ian Moncrief- 
Scott wrote that there are twelve shareholders in HMB, all American 
citizens. 
 
------------------------- 
Corrupt Attorney General? 
------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (C) Querard repeated her long-standing allegation that GOAB 
Attorney General Justin Simon is corrupt.  She charged him with 
improperly maintaining advocacy for his law clients after becoming 
Attorney General.  According to Querard, one of these clients is part 
of the estate battle of an HMB minority shareholder (see Case Six). 
Querard believes PM Baldwin Spencer and most of his cabinet genuinely 
favor returning HMB to her, but Simon has undermined PM Spencer's 
efforts.  She predicted the imminent demise of Simon's political 
fortunes, but offered no details as to when or why he would be pushed 
out of the cabinet. 
 
---------------------- 
Where Stands the Case? 
---------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Querard did not offer any substantial updates to the 
information contained in reftels A and B.  When the DCM shared AG 
Simon's views on her case (Ref A) Querard dismissed his legal opinions 
out of hand, saying he is afraid of the Privy Council, is wrong in the 
eyes of the law, and will be proven so once her case is heard.  She 
believes the GOAB is trying to intimidate her and delay the case until 
she relents and agrees to accept the expropriation or dies. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶14.  (C) Soon after PM Spencer and his United Progressive Party came to 
power in early 2004, Post and Querard were enthusiastic about the 
prospects for settling this dispute expeditiously.  Our optimism 
increased when the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Harold 
Lovell, told the Ambassador in November 2004 that Half Moon Bay would 
be returned.  Post even sent a cable with the now-ironic title "Half 
Moon Bay Property Returned" in February 2005 (Ref C).  This case has 
taken a turn for the worse, the sides are less flexible in their 
positions, and the GOAB is unlikely to make another overture similar to 
the one of July 18, 2005, when it passed an act of parliament to return 
the property conditionally.  Post will continue to monitor this case 
and press both sides to work towards a resolution.