In a landmark move to modernize the country’s criminal investigation framework, Antigua and Barbuda’s national parliament gave bipartisan approval to the Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Bill 2024 on Tuesday. The new legislation ramps up punitive measures for individuals and corporate entities that decline to hand over electronic data requested by law enforcement teams probing active criminal cases.
Attorney General Sir Steadroy Benjamin, who shepherded the bill through the House of Representatives, explained that the changes were crafted to close long-standing loopholes that have repeatedly hindered investigators’ efforts to secure critical digital evidence. As Benjamin noted to assembled lawmakers, modern criminal probes regularly depend on accessing telecommunications data such as cell phone location pings and social media posts to map out how offenses were carried out and build viable cases against suspects. For years, however, domestic service providers have repeatedly refused to comply with these lawful information requests, stalling investigations and allowing offenders to avoid prosecution.
The updated legislation lays out clear, escalating penalties for non-compliance without a reasonable excuse. For individuals or entities convicted via summary process, the punishment can include a fine capped at $100,000, a term of imprisonment, or both. For those convicted on indictment, the maximum penalty jumps to a $1 million fine, up to seven years behind bars, or a combination of the two sanctions.
A key target of the amendments is the common practice among domestic subsidiaries of international companies of shifting responsibility for data requests to overseas headquarters, creating costly delays that often derail active investigations. Benjamin emphasized that the new rules explicitly hold on-island managers and executives—those with direct operational control of entities operating within Antigua and Barbuda—responsible for complying with lawful production orders. Firms that do business in the country have a non-negotiable obligation to cooperate with official investigations, he argued, rather than blocking access by redirecting authorities to foreign-based leadership.
The reform earned unified support from both ruling and opposition lawmakers during Tuesday’s debate, marking a rare moment of cross-party consensus on security policy. Education Minister Daryll Matthew, a governing party lawmaker who voiced strong backing for the bill, shared that he had recently fallen victim to a sophisticated digital financial crime, bringing the urgency of the reform into sharp personal focus. Matthew noted that his case is currently being processed by his bank, and he praised the Attorney General and his team for advancing the much-needed amendments.
Opposition legislators also lined up to support the measure, agreeing that stronger legal provisions were essential to let investigators access the evidence required to prosecute digitally facilitated offenses. One opposition parliamentarian commended the government for moving proactively to close regulatory gaps that have allowed entities to evade their legal obligations to assist law enforcement, noting that bringing the reform before parliament to strengthen digital evidence access is a valuable step forward for national security.
The amendments to the Electronic Crimes Act form a core plank of the Antigua and Barbuda government’s wider strategy to boost the country’s capacity to tackle cybercrime, financial fraud, and a growing range of transnational and domestic offenses that rely heavily on digital communications and electronic record-keeping.