The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard has been asked by Trinidad and Tobago Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to determine if criminal charges should be laid against former CL Financial executives Lawrence Duprey and Andre Monteil.
Ramlogan on Wednesday directed that all files relating to the probe into the collapse of insurance giant CLICO be forwarded to the DPP.
Ramlogan’s action follows the civil lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Central Bank and CLICO against Duprey and Monteil for alleged mismanagement and misappropriation of CLICO assets, which led to the fall of CLICO in January 2009.
In an interview with the Trinidad Express, Ramlogan vowed that government will leave no stone unturned to ensure justice for thousands of CLICO policyholders who were affected by the collapse of the company.
“I have directed that all information acquired as a result of the probe conducted for these civil cases be shared with the DPP in the hope that it may be of some assistance. The government has no control for criminal prosecution, that is a matter for the DPP based on evidence unearthed by proper police investigations,” Ramlogan said.
“We intend to pursue a number of high profile scandals (not limited to CLICO) that rocked the last administration. More will be said about this in the coming months,” he said.
Ramlogan said the CLICO “case will raise the propriety of various property transactions and energy transactions and the sale to (Andre) Monteil’s Stone Street of seven million HMB (Home Mortgage Bank) shares which had been the subject of much public controversy.”
He said that fraud expert John Powell QC, together with Leigh Ann Mulcahy, will lead a team of five lawyers on behalf of the Central Bank.
“It is the first of what shall be a series of actions to be filed in the CLICO fiasco. Any and or all allegations of wrongdoing shall be put before the court to determine whether the evidence warrants judicial intervention and remedy,” said Ramlogan.
“The government intends to vigorously assert its rights in this matter in the public interest so that any allegation of wrongdoing and misconduct can be properly ventilated,” he continued.
“It is clear that CLF became increasingly a behemoth built on debt. Insurance companies must be operated and managed prudently and competently to safeguard the interest of its policyholders,” Ramlogan added.
“At some stage, it was clear that CLICO’s assets did not match its liabilities in order to generate the sums needed to pay the rates of return contractually due to policyholders and mutual fund investors,” he said.
“The government empathises with the distressed and traumatised depositors and policyholders and intends to leave no stone unturned in its quest for justice on their behalf in this matter,” Ramlogan said.
In 2009, the then-PNM government and the Central Bank took control of CLICO after the company could not repay several billion dollars owed to policyholders and creditors of the country’s largest insurance company.
