Samaroo family broke

“My parents’ properties were sold from under them,” Yudhister Samaroo said yesterday as he testified at the Commission of Enquiry into the 1990 attempted coup, at the Caribbean Court of Justice, Port-of-Spain. Samaroo said although attempts were made to get a moratorium on the loan with Republic Bank instead, the properties owned by his mother’s family were sold off by the bank without their knowledge.

Samaroo’s mother, Sybil Sant-Samaroo, who also testified, was a director in her family-run businesses at South Quay and Broadway in Port-of-Spain and in Barataria.

The Sant family owned and operated Central Trading Post at 48 South Quay, a wholesale and retail establishment; Sant’s Hardware and Broadway Bar at 2 Broadway, and Sant’s Hardware at 246 Eastern Main Road, Barataria.

Sant-Samaroo’s husband also owned his own retail appliance business at the corner of Independence Square and Charlotte Street.

The younger Samaroo, who was forced to take the mantle at the age of 21 as Republic Bank refused to let his parents continue as guarantors on their loans because of their age, said communication with the financial establishment was virtually non-existent, and the family could not qualify for the financial facility set up by the then NAR regime for businesses, which suffered losses during the attempted coup.

The irate son said the entire experience left his parents broken and distraught, and he attributed the death of his uncles, from cancer, to the stress they suffered in trying to resuscitate the family businesses, and keep their homes. “Up until they died, they were trying to live,” he said.

He also said last year he stopped paying one of the loans still owed to the bank. “Clearly, there is no justice in this country,” Samaroo said.

He said if the Government could find it prudent to bail out Clico investors, they could find the money to make amends to business owners who lost everything in the failed insurrection.

Samaroo said he would not consider it compensation but rather a right to be repaid what they lost because of the failure of several State security agencies to prevent the Jamaat al Muslimeen, which he said were being treated as heroes, from carrying through with their act.

“I am still paying Republic Bank,” he said. In her testimony, Sant-Samaroo spoke of going to her husband’s business place on July 28, and seeing looters running off with refrigerators on their backs. Her husband owned Samaroo’s Appliances on Independence Square.

“ I don’t know where they got the strength. They were just grabbing things,” she said. Sant-Samaroo said she was shocked by what she saw. At her family’s business at Broadway, Sant-Samaroo said the scene was much the same.

The expanding gates were ripped apart and the bar and hardware were gutted and looted. She said she felt helpless. A forklift from their other business at 48 South Quay somehow ended up at the Broadway property. That building which housed wholesale goods and paint was gutted by fire. A truck on the property was later found in San Juan. No one knew how it got there. At 246 Eastern Main Road, where the family ran the main branch of Sant’s Hardware, looters destroyed a concrete wall to gain entry. Sant-Samaroo said she was told that the police removed looters, but no sooner than they were dropped off on Lady Young Road, the thieves returned to the hardware. She said she did not get the impression that those caught looting were arrested.

The property was sold by Republic Bank to pay off the mortgage debt owed, and it was done without Sant-Samaroo’s knowledge. The amount owing on the property was said to be $480,000, and the family does not know how much it was sold for.

The younger Samaroo said as at February 21, 2001, there was a debt balance of $1.45 million with interest. “The bank made no attempt to contact us to make arrangements to help us to keep the property,” Sant-Samaroo said. Her son said the family made claims to their insurance agencies for the loss to their stocks, but they were told their policies did not cover their losses.

The aggregate of the claims amounted to $8 million and that figure did not include property.

Samaroo said while it was true their businesses were indebted to the bank, and were suffering from the economic downturn, the properties on which the establishments stood were worth millions.

“Maybe they were doing badly, but there were no demands made by the bank prior to 1990,” he pointed out.

Samaroo said sales at the wholesale trading company at 48 South Quay amounted to $900,000 per month and the mortgage balance was estimated at $950,000. “It was a thriving business,” he said. The property at Independence Square was eventually sold to the Express newspaper.

Samaroo said the reason the family could not access the government’s bail-out facility was because they had to be pre-qualified by the bank.

“Many micro and small businesses did not qualify for the financial structure. It was for a particular business type, and income type,” he noted.

Samaroo, who had to find work to pay the family’s bills and buy food, said they had no finances to fight the bank in the courts. He said he was personally sued by one of their suppliers. “No aspect of the businesses survived,” he said. Efforts will be made to have a representative of Republic Bank testify at the enquiry.

Chairman of the commission, Sir David Simmons noted that after the June session, another is expected toward the end of August, which will extend into September and following that two additional weeks of evidence hearings to accommodate additional witnesses. “We are getting close to wrapping up of the hearings,” he noted. Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr is expected to testify at the enquiry in August.

The commission also includes vice-chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham, QC, Dr Eastlyn Mc Kenzie, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt and Dr Hafizool Ali Mohammed.

Lead counsel to the commission is Avory Sinanan, SC while Jagdeo Singh and Christlyn Moore also appear as junior counsel to the commission.