“If court orders can be broken with impunity, then what is left of the rule of law?”

That question is no longer rhetorical in Antigua and Barbuda. It reverberates through corridors of power, unanswered, unsettling, and increasingly urgent. The protracted battle between depositor Jack Stroll and the Global Bank of Commerce (GBC) has become more than a personal dispute over missing millions – it has become a stark measure of a system’s integrity, directly linked to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. On paper, Stroll has won. In practice, justice remains a distant shore.

The Weight of Delay (SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)

In 2022, a High Court ordered GBC and its CEO, Brian Stuart-Young, to repay approximately US $10 million to Stroll. The ruling was definitive. Yet enforcement has dragged on, punctuated by partial payments, shifting deadlines, and evaporating threats of jail. By 2025, the phrase “one final week” has become ritualistic.

SDG 16 emphasizes access to justice for all and accountable institutions. When court orders are ignored, Antigua’s ability to fulfill this goal and to inspire confidence in its institutions is severely undermined.

Those Who Cannot Fight (SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities)

Stroll can endure. He has resources, stamina, and public attention. But what of the ordinary depositor, the unpaid worker, the citizen whose grievance never reaches a courtroom?

If a man who has already won cannot collect what is owed, what hope exists for those without visibility or means? SDG 10 stresses reducing inequalities within and among countries. A system that protects the powerful while ignoring the vulnerable is directly at odds with that principle.

A Regulator’s Silence (SDG 16 & SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals)

The Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC), Antigua’s guardian of financial integrity, has remained silent. Its inaction recalls past failures from the Stanford collapse to more recent lapses. Each omission chips away at confidence in the state’s institutions and its ability to engage internationally.

The Global Bank of Commerce Ltd., one of Antigua and Barbuda’s oldest offshore banks, no longer appears to be licensed to operate in the country. As of October 2025, the bank’s name was missing from the Financial Services Regulatory Commission’s (FSRC) latest Directory of Licensed International Banks, dated August 14, 2025. The bank had remained on the FSRC’s June 24 list despite ongoing concerns about its solvency over the past three years.

Global partnerships (SDG 17) rely on transparency and trust. 

When local regulators fail to enforce accountability, Antigua’s ability to collaborate with international bodies the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and others is weakened. Inside the courtroom, justice stretches like a rubber band. Patience, once a virtue, risks turning into paralysis. Every extension, every reprieve, chips away at respect for the law. SDG 16 reminds us that strong institutions are measured not by rulings alone, but by the certainty that justice is delivered.

The Price of Impunity (SDG 16 & SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth)

Justice cannot survive on paper alone. It must be seen, felt, and enforced. Financial institutions that flout the law distort economic fairness, discouraging investment and undermining economic growth (SDG 8). Where power shields some from the law, the law itself dies slowly, publicly, and without remorse.

Globally, frameworks like Basel III and FATF emphasize enforcement. Regulators must act promptly; institutions must comply. For Antigua, the Stroll-GBC saga risks signaling the opposite: a gap between formal adherence to international norms and actual capacity to uphold them.

This gap affects SDG 16 (accountable institutions), SDG 8 (financial stability), and even SDG 17, which depends on countries meeting their commitments to global standards for transparency and governance.

Offshore financial centres operate under intense scrutiny, balancing opportunity with accountability. Each protracted failure feeds the perception that regulators are lenient with the powerful and indifferent to the rule of law. In an era when credibility is as valuable as capital itself, SDG 16 and SDG 8 are at stake.

The Stroll–GBC saga still offers Antigua a moment to prove that justice and accountability matter. But with each missed deadline, each deferred sanction, and each shrug from a regulator, credibility slips further away.

Whither justice, when those entrusted to uphold it look away?