AG responds to attempts to tarnish reputations

On or about March 31, 2006, the Attorney General whose responsibility includes anti-corruption investigations was visited by the Honourable Chief Magistrate Mr Sherman McNichols who wished to make a report on, among other things, what he described as a suspicious sequence of events related to a real estate transaction in which he had purchased a property on August 11, 2005.

The Honourable Chief Magistrate had at that time closed the Integrity Commission case against former Prime Minister Mr Basdeo Panday in which CL Financial Chairman Lawrence Duprey appeared as a witness for Mr Panday on the last day.

The Honourable Chief Magistrate informed the Attorney General that he had returned a cheque recently sent to him as a deposit on account of the sale of his property which he had placed on the market in December of 2005 as a result of a change in his circumstances. The cheque was that of a Clico subsidiary. The Chief Magistrate said he was informing the Attorney General out of an abundance of caution, given the importance of the judgement he was to deliver, so that the Attorney General could determine whether there should be any investigations into the matter.

The Attorney General contacted the Commissioner of Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions and apprised them of these developments. The Attorney General also determined that he should take no action until the Honourable Chief Magistrate had delivered his judgement.

Immediately following the delivery of the Honourable Chief Magistrate’s judgement, the Attorney General made enquiries into the matter, including contacting all the parties. The Attorney General advised the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Commissioner of Police and the Chairman of the Integrity Comm-ission at all material times of his enquiries and actions and the results of those enquiries. Ultimately the Attorney General determined that there was no cause for further action in that matter at this time.

The Attorney General has noted the calculated attempts to tarnish the reputations of persons involved in this matter, which in his respectful view, is not relevant to the key issue of the complaint before the Prime Minister at this time. The investigations are still at an early stage and the Attorney General urges restraint on the part of the media.

The Attorney General regrets that much of what has now been said about the Honourable Chief Magistrate and his motives for acting, were matters first raised at a political meeting in Felicity on Monday May 1.