Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 16/Oct 07:17

Another CL Financial probe

HERE WE go again. On October 13, a High Court judge overseeing the liquidation of CL Financial (CLF) – once the parent company of Clico – halted the sale of a key asset of the wound-up company. Days later, it emerged in the pages of this newspaper that Commissioner of Police Allister Guevarro has directed the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau (ACIB) to probe the transaction. With this sequence of events, yet another chapter in the saga of the 2009 CLF/Clico bailout opens. The ACIB probe comes more than a dozen years after this same entity began a criminal investigation into former CLF executives who had presided over the collapse of the massive and laxly regulated conglomerate, prompting a $28 billion state bailout. This time around, the ACIB has been tasked with weighing a charge sheet alleging irregularities in the sale of group assets – some occurring even after the story appeared to have ended when the Central Bank relinquished emergency control of Clico, the former CLF insurance jewel, in 2022. A collective of shareholders and creditors has been circulating a list of “grave concerns” over the divestment of properties like the Trincity Mall, which was sold in 2024 for $505 million. The public is entitled to know more about these matters. Some of our Caribbean neighbours, too, are still waiting for CLF money. But – even putting aside the questions that arise over this month’s shift of the ACIB from the police to the Office of the Attorney General – citizens would be right not to hold their breath for answers soon. Back in 2012, announcing the first ACIB probe, Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard urged the media not to publish “anything which might jeopardise, hinder or otherwise prejudice the investigation or any possible proceedings which might result from it.” By 2016, then prime minister Keith Rowley, in addressing the findings of his predecessor’s Colman Enquiry into CLF, whose report he said detailed allegations of wrongdoing of a “kleptocratic nature,” referred the document to Mr Gaspard. Said Dr Rowley, “It would be wholly irresponsible of this government to publish or provide copies of the report at this stage.” But proceedings never came. Dr Rowley went on to serve two entire terms and demit office. Three commissioners of police and several acting commissioners came and went. Key actors, like CLF jefe Lawrence Duprey, died. Contrast this with how other countries quickly dealt with figures like Bernie Madoff. With Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who had initiated the Colman Enquiry, now back as PM, has the stage come when the report might finally be published? Ms Persad-Bissessar has vowed to do so. We hope this latest probe will not be a spanner in the works and that ACIB history will not repeat itself. The post Another CL Financial probe appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.