AG dismiss kidnap report as hoax

ATTORNEY General Glenda Morean yesterday dismissed a report that this country was second in the kidnapping world as a hoax, and challenges the paper in which it was published to produce evidence that “any internationally reputable organisation had come to such a conclusion.” The AG’s comments were in a statement issued yesterday. Morean said after considerable investigations of the websites of organisations quoted in the article published last Sunday, no such ranking of kidnapping countries was discovered. The story had placed TT second to Colombia with respect to kidnappings per 1,000 persons for 2002. That report was founded on information allegedly supplied by a Kroll spokesperson and also indicated that for 2002, there were 941 kidnappings in Latin America but only 19 for North America and the Caribbean.

Morean said Thomas V Cash, the executive managing director of Kroll, visited her office on Tuesday and denied any knowledge of the story.
She said Cash has responsibility for the Caribbean and Latin America and he strongly disagreed with the contents of the story saying Kroll has no such figures as quoted in the article. The AG admitted that there was a serious problem with kidnappings and other violent crime in the country, but assured Government’s commitment to “treat the crisis.” Commenting on the article, National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee questioned the accuracy of the data and its sources, explaining that there was no single standard used to analyse kidnappings in all countries. Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday said the data showed kidnapping was out of control in TT and there was an urgent need to unite the society to fight crime. Checks with the New York-based Kroll yesterday indicated that the company has no reliable track record regarding the analysis of kidnapping or predicting possible trends in kidnapping in any country over any period of time. The company was founded in 1972 by Jules B Kroll and currently offers a range of services including corporate advisory and restructuring; forensic accounting, valuation and litigation consulting; electronic evidence and data recovery; business intelligence and investigations; background screening and security consulting.