Antigua and Barbuda's Senate was expected to approve today a government move to seize land owned by Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, accused in an $8 billion securities fraud.

The government of the Caribbean nation is rushing to take over more than 250 acres of Stanford property before a U.S. court-appointed receiver seizes it.

"We have to give ourselves a bargaining chip, so when the receivers come they have to deal with the government of Antigua and Barbuda," Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer told the House of Representatives after it approved the land takeover measure on Thursday. Opposition lawmakers opposed the government move.

Stanford is the biggest private investor and employer on the twin-island state,

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil fraud case against Stanford, a 58-year-old financier and sports tycoon, has rocked Antigua and Barbuda, where he held extensive businesses and properties.

Antigua and Barbuda's Senate was meeting on Friday to consider the land seizure motion, and leaders of the legislature said they expected it to be passed. It would then go to the governor-general, Louise Lake-Tack, for formal passage into law.

Spencer's government has made clear it wants to seize the Stanford land, which includes plots housing his Antigua-based banks and companies, as well as beachside homes and development properties, to mitigate the impact on the local economy and jobs of the fraud scandal.

As agents of the U.S. court-appointed receiver fan out across the Caribbean to try to identify and recover Stanford assets, Antigua and Barbuda's government says it has the right to take Stanford property to guarantee the viability of a local bank, Bank of Antigua, which was owned by the Texas tycoon.

The government says it also needs the Stanford land to ensure prompt payment of a "massive outstanding debt to local suppliers" owed by the Stanford group, and the continued employment of over 800 Stanford employees.

Last week, Antiguan authorities appointed their own receiver to take over the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank (SIB), which the SEC says was at the heart of a "massive ongoing fraud" that allegedly duped thousands of investors.

Control of the previously Stanford-controlled Bank of Antigua, where depositors rushed to withdraw funds last week, was handed over to a grouping of regional banks in an operation coordinated with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.

Finance Minister Errol Cort told parliament on Thursday the U.S. court-appointed receiver had sent letters to every commercial bank in the eastern Caribbean advising them to freeze all Stanford-related accounts.

"The (U.S.) receiver has no legal jurisdiction over these funds," he said, adding that the U.S. receiver acting in the SEC case would have to petition Antigua and Barbuda's courts to gain jurisdiction.

"It becomes a big legal issue," Cort said.

From the United States to the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe, customers of the Stanford Group have been desperately trying to recover their savings and deposits. Many have been told their accounts have been frozen.

The SEC says Allen Stanford has surrendered his passport, but no criminal charges have so far been lodged against him, although he faces some class-action lawsuits by investors.

The FBI on Thursday arrested the Stanford Group's chief investment officer, Laura Pendergest-Holt, on obstruction charges.