Six new Piarco charges

SIX new charges have been laid against 13 persons and five companies arising out of the investigation into the billion-dollar Piarco Airport Development project. The charges were served on the defendants two weeks ago, according to some of the attorneys involved in the case. The serving of the charges followed a statement made by lead prosecuting attorney Sir Timothy Cassel before Senior Magistrate Ejenny Espinet in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court on February 25.

The new charges were sworn to by Senior Supt Maurice Piggott, of the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau, on February 23.  Instead of having the defendants surrender with their lawyers as on previous occasions, the police decided to serve the new charges on the defendants. According to reports, the six new charges will replace the charges previously laid against the defendants in what is now known as the Piarco II preliminary inquiry. When that inquiry resumes on April 1, the six new charges will replace the charges now before the courts. Following which the issue of bail will be regularised by the magistrates for the 11 persons before the court. Two of the 13 defendants have not yet been arrested as they are out of the jurisdiction and are non-nationals of Trinidad and Tobago.

When the case resumes on April 1, the court will attempt to fix a date for the start of this inquiry, bearing in mind that the first inquiry before the court is not yet completed. Those before the courts in the second inquiry are Steve Ferguson, Ishwar Galbaransingh, Amrith Maharaj, Brian Kuei Tung, Raul Gutierrez, Sadiq Baksh, Ameer Edoo, Tyrone Gopee, Peter Cateau, Edward Bayley and Renee Pierre. The five companies are Northern Construction Limited, Calmaquip Engineering Corporation, Maritime Life (Caribbean) Insurance Limited, Maritime General Insurance Company Limited, and Fidelity Finance and Leasing Company Limited.

The defendants before the courts are charged with conspiring with Ronald Birk, Eduardo Hillman, Trevor Romano, James Pantino, and Birk/Hillman Consultants to defraud the State of Trinidad and Tobago during different periods between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2001. In one of the charges, Ferguson, Galbaransingh, Gopee, Cateau, Gutierrez, and Calmaquip Engineering Corporation were charged with conspiring with persons unknown during the same period to defraud the State of Trinidad and Tobago.

During the last hearing on February 25, Cassel, hired by the State to lead the prosecution’s team, said he drafted the charges in September 2004 and was surprised that they had not been laid and served on the defendants. “The charges have not yet been preferred, I don’t know why, it is a disappointment to me. They were not preferred. The original charge of conspiracy is broken down in various charges. I am sorry they have not been preferred as yet,” Cassel told the court.