An ongoing criminal investigation into claims of stolen and fraudulently altered government cheques from Antigua and Barbuda’s Public Works Department has been confirmed by Prime Minister Gaston Browne. During a Saturday appearance on his regular public program, the *Browne and Browne Show*, the nation’s leader laid out key details of the alleged fraud that has triggered law enforcement action.
According to Browne, unauthorized individuals managed to gain entry to a restricted storage zone overseen by the Public Works Department’s permanent secretary, where an official cheque book was stored. The group allegedly removed multiple cheques from the book before altering the payment amounts to secure larger payouts from financial institutions. One of the most clear-cut examples of the fraud shared by the PM involves an original cheque written for $900 that was altered by adding a leading digit ‘2’ to inflate its total value to $2,900. The perpetrator successfully cashed the modified document and walked away with the full larger sum, Browne confirmed.
A second stolen cheque, this one originally valued at $3,000, was taken to a local supermarket to be processed for payment. In that case, quick thinking by the supermarket owner prevented the fraudulent transaction from going through: the merchant flagged the cheque as suspicious and immediately reported the incident to relevant authorities.
To date, law enforcement officials have detained multiple people for questioning in connection with the alleged fraud ring. A panel member on the *Browne and Browne Show* suggested the scheme involved as many as six people, but Browne declined to independently verify that figure, citing the ongoing, active nature of the probe. The identities of all people detained or under investigation have not been released to the public, and Browne said he would not go into extensive detail on the case to avoid compromising police work.
The allegations of cheque fraud came to light during a broader discussion on the program addressing separate worker grievances at the Public Works Department, where multiple employees have gone without pay and others have not received owed overtime wages. In response to those concerns, Browne noted that he has directed senior leaders at both the Public Works Department and the national Treasury to speed up processing of all outstanding wage payments to resolve the backlog quickly.