Tweet

Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 19, 2026 — The People’s Action Movement has issued a forceful statement defending the legacy of its late founder, Dr. William “Billy” Herbert, after what it describes as continued defamatory claims surrounding his name, legacy, and the still-painful 1994 Maxi II disappearance.

In a strongly worded release issued by PAM Chairman Sheldon A. Pemberton, the party rejected claims linking Dr. Herbert to foreign paramilitary activity, alleged drug-trafficking connections, and abuse of the Citizenship by Investment Programme, calling the allegations uncorroborated, recycled, and deeply damaging.

The statement comes on June 19, 2026, the 32nd anniversary of the disappearance of the Maxi II, the vessel on which Dr. Herbert and five others vanished at sea in 1994. A Commonwealth publication notes that Dr. Herbert, then Ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis to the UN, disappeared in June 1994 with five family members and friends, and that no trace of the boat or occupants had been found.

PAM said the claims being circulated rely on a single unverified source and do not amount to evidence. The party also directly challenged commentator Erasmus Williams to produce documents, witnesses, or credible corroboration if he intends to continue amplifying the allegations.

The party further argued that Dr. Herbert’s public service record, including his diplomatic roles and founding role in PAM, should not be overshadowed by claims he can no longer personally answer.

Below is the full statement issued by PAM:

---

PEOPLE’S ACTION MOVEMENT
Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis

STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN

On the Defamation of the Late Dr. William “Billy” Herbert, Founder of the People’s Action Movement

Basseterre, St. Kitts — 19th June, 2026

To the people of St. Kitts and Nevis, and to all who hold dear the memory of those who gave this nation its name and its institutions:

It has come to the attention of the People’s Action Movement that recycled claims, originating from a single uncorroborated source, continue to circulate alleging that our founder, the late Dr. William “Billy” Herbert, was “reportedly assassinated” by a foreign paramilitary organisation, and that he personally facilitated the entry of foreign drug traffickers into our Citizenship by Investment Programme. We will not allow these claims to stand unanswered.

The Claims Do Not Withstand Basic Scrutiny

Every assertion in this narrative traces back to a single individual — a self-described former money launderer recounting, more than three decades later, a secondhand and unverified rumour. The word “reportedly” appears in the original claim precisely because there is no source, no record, and no finding by any law enforcement or intelligence body, British, Irish, or otherwise, naming Dr. Herbert in connection with any paramilitary organisation. An unattributed rumour is not evidence. It is not history. It is gossip dressed as journalism.

More troubling still, the very same article invokes the authority of a Scotland Yard investigation into the 1994 disappearance of the Maxi II — and then ignores what that investigation actually concluded. Scotland Yard’s own report states plainly that it was improbable the disappearance resulted from any criminal act, and that no proper conclusion could be drawn from the evidence available. The official record contradicts the very narrative built upon its name.

A Challenge to Mr. Erasmus Williams

We note that this narrative has been amplified locally by Mr. Erasmus Williams. Mr. Williams is no disinterested observer arriving fresh to this story. He served for years as Press Secretary to former Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas, and has, in the years since, continued to author and circulate commentary favourable to the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party. A man who spent a career crafting the public voice of a Labour Party administration does not become a neutral journalist simply because he now writes from outside government. If Mr. Williams wishes to be regarded as a journalist rather than a party communicator operating under another name, the standard is simple: produce the evidence. Name the documents. Name the corroborating witnesses. A press release recycling a stranger’s thirty-year-old rumour, without a single new fact attached, is not journalism — it is partisan messaging wearing a press badge, and the people of this Federation are entitled to know the difference.

A National Institution Is Not One Man’s Personal Ledger

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Citizenship by Investment Programme was, from its founding in 1984, a national institution governed by statutory vetting and Cabinet-level process — not the unilateral decision of any single minister. To suggest that one official’s alleged conduct in a single, uncorroborated anecdote represents the integrity of an entire sovereign programme is a deliberate distortion, and Kittitians deserve better than distortion.

A Man Cannot Defend Himself From the Grave

Dr. Herbert has been gone for over thirty years. He cannot answer these claims. His widow, Cheryl, cannot answer them. Nor can Narayan Menon, Michael Blake, Tristan Blake, or Christian Stapleton — the five other souls lost alongside him on the morning of June 19, 1994, when the Maxi II set out to sea and never returned. What recycles today as intrigue is, to this party and to their families, a wound that has never closed. We ask that it be treated with the seriousness and the evidentiary discipline that any allegation against the dead requires — and that it has not, to date, received.

The Legacy We Will Defend

Dr. William Herbert was the founder of this party. He served as Ambassador to the United States, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Ambassador to the Organisation of American States. He gave decades of his life to the service of this Federation. The People’s Action Movement will not permit that record of service to be overwritten by a single, unsubstantiated claim more than thirty years after his disappearance.

It bears recalling that Dr. Herbert did not shy from defending his name when it mattered. When The Daily Telegraph of London published claims attacking his character, he sued the newspaper for defamation in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court — and won. His Lordship Justice Satrohan Singh delivered judgment in Dr. Herbert’s favour, awarding him $125,000 in damages and vindicating his character in a court of law. That verdict stands on the record to this day. We invite any party with genuine evidence — documentary, testimonial, or otherwise — to bring it forward through proper channels. Until that evidence exists, and in light of a man who already proved his name in open court, the People’s Action Movement rejects the allegations of money laundering and drug trafficking now being recycled as bold-faced lies and gross and malicious defamation.

Issued on behalf of the People’s Action Movement.
Sheldon A. Pemberton
Chairman, People’s Action Movement (PAM)

---