Bolt takes further action against Express

Fitzwilliam Stone Furness- Smith and Morgan are the legal counsel for Bolt and Williams-Imbert.

Moe said the firm has since become aware of the articles “HDC: $12M paid in August 2015” and “Kamla: Imbert’s wife was paid $13m” which were published in the Express on November 9. While the former article had no author’s name attached to it, the latter’s author was identified as Express political reporter Anna Ramdass. On the former article, Moe said Bolt never received a payment of $12 million in August 2015 as alleged and the allegation is wholly false. “The true position is that the sum of $12 million represents an approximate aggregate of several payments made to Bolt over an extended period of ten years in respect of services rendered by Bolt to the HDC,” she said.

Moe added the aggregate includes the sum of $1.5 million representing monies paid by Bolt on behalf of the HDC for reimbursable expenses such as site security and utlities for which Bolt was entitled to be reimbusres and accordingly contains no profit element whatsoever. On the second story, Moe said contrary to claims made by Persad-Bissessar in that story, Bolt did not charge a single rate of 10.8 percent on work undertaken by it for the HDC. She said Bolt charged different rates for different projects given that the scope of work on each project differed considerably, a rate of 10.6 percent was charged on the Mora Heights project in Rio Claro and Imbert has never been a director or shareholder of Bolt.

Moe told Lyder that had proper enquiries been done by the Express,”you would have learnt not only that Bolt’s conduct was above reproach but also that approximately half of the payments made to Bolt were made when the United National Congress formed the government.” Moe said Bolt and Williams-Imbert are demanding a full and equivocal apology from the Express and a commitment not to repeat the allegations therein.

Reminding Lyder about the provisions in the amended Civil Proceedings Rules, Moe said if there is no satisfactory reply to this pre-action protocol letter within 14 days of its receipt, “our clients will take such steps as they may be advised.”