The tranquil, reef-fringed isle off Antigua's north coast sustains mangroves, deer and a rare duck species – along with ambitions for one of the Caribbean's biggest development projects. But the US investigation into Texas billionaire Allen Stanford and his Antiguan-based bank could deal a fatal blow to the estimated $1 billion plan that has dangled near death several times since surfacing in 1998. Stanford, a 58-year-old financier and sports tycoon with a knighthood bestowed by the tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, faces fraud charges centered around $8 billion managed by his Antiguan affiliate, Stanford International Bank Ltd. The probe casts into uncertainty his investments and projects stretching from Texas to Latin America and the Caribbean, including a long-sought bid to turn ecologically sensitive Guiana Island into a playground for the ultra-rich. Guiana is Antigua's largest offshore island and one of the most pristine and ecologically important tracts of land in a country already bestowed with some of the world's finest beaches. At 8 sq km, it's almost two percent of the nation. “Stanford had a number of projects that he's been trying to get through the regulatory process, and that was clearly the biggest,” Winston Derrick, publisher of the island's Daily Observer newspaper, said in an interview. “He has been trying to get a commitment out of the government to do this project.” Home to the endangered West Indian Whistling duck, the island of cactus, thorn bush, mangrove and rocks has a colorful, if chequered, history. Until 1997, its only inhabitants were a Welsh couple – Taffy and Bonnie Bufton, who lived off rainwater filtered through rocks, a flock of sheep and fallow deer for about 30 years, rebuffing the government's offer of $500,000 to sell the land.
