Imbert takes legal action against Express

A signed letter by attorney Gitanjali Gopeesingh was delivered by hand, email and fax to the Express yesterday. The letter was delivered hours after Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bisssesar made further allegations regarding the subject matter of that story at a United National Congress (UNC) political meeting in Chaguanas on Monday night.

Directed specifically to Singh, the letter was headed, “Re: Libel of Colm Imbert.” Gopeesingh said Imbert has given her instructions to demand from Singh “a written and public apology within seven days of this letter in terms to be settled by counsel; and compensation in the form of $500,000, within 14 days of the date of this letter (November 22).” The attorney said “my client (Imbert) did not instruct, or cause, payment of the sum of $7.5M.” She observed that in yesterday’s Express there was an advertisement from the HDC (Housing Development Corporation) which said, “Only the sum of $102,486.75 was paid to Bolt (Trinidad) in April 2016, not the sum alleged by you (Singh.)” The ad also said the payment was made from the HDC’s recurrent expenditure funds and those payments did not require approval of the Finance Ministry. Gopeesingh said Imbert advised her that he “received no text messages from you seeking confirmation of any aspect of the article which inferentially referred to him.” The attorney said the story was calculated to cause Imbert to suffer widespread odium among the public, to discredit him in the eyes of the public and to cause members of the public to lose confidence in his leadership of the Finance Ministry. She told Singh that as a result of her statements, Imbert has suffered much inconvenience, embarrassment, emotional hurt, distress and damage to his reputation.

In a response Imbert told Newsday on Sunday, “It is not true. I have checked with the Budget’s Division of the Ministry of Finance and that allegation that the ministry released funds to be paid to that particular company, that is not true and that never happened.” Newsday understands that Bolt will also be sending a pre-action protocol letter to the Express.

The HDC also said on Sunday, it was considering its legal options against the Express on this matter.