Ish and Steve refused bail again

In a chamber ruling yesterday, Justice Malcolm Holdip refused bail to the businessmen who have been incarcerated at the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca for the past month.

Pamela Elder SC, brought the application for bail before Holdip in the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court, under the Bail Act.

Kelvin Ramkissoon was retained by the Attorney General to resist the application.

Galbaransingh, chairman of Northern Construction Ltd, and Ferguson, former CEO of the Maritime General Insurance Co Ltd are wanted in the US on charges of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, money laundering and bid-rigging, arising from the award of contracts in the Piarco Airport development project.

Yesterday, Holdip, in a 45-minute oral ruling, told lawyers for the businessmen that he had no “jurisdiction” to hear the application for bail, after it had been previously rejected by another High Court judge.

On June 16, they were refused bail by Justice Vashiest Kokaram from the San Fernando High Court.

Holdip also noted that nothing in the circumstances of the proceedings rendered the case substantially different, so as to be considered as another application.

Relatives of the prisoners, meantime, sat patiently outside the courtroom hoping for success in the application.

Galbaransingh and Ferguson were arrested on June 15, 2010 after losing their challenge to their extradition at the Judicial Committee of the London Privy Council.

They are expected to re-appear before Kokaram at the San Fernando Court tomorrow, on a constitutional motion challenging the legality of the Extradition Act.

On May 4, 2006, a Florida State Grand Jury returned an indictment against the appellants and six others.

They were indicted on charges relating to corrupt practices in two of the construction packages in the project.