DHANSOOK GETS $.5M FROM KHAN

Copies of the two cheques surfaced yesterday showing Khan making the payments to Dhansook and confirming Khan’s version of events that far from accepting bribes from Dhansook, he had loaned Dhansook money in 2002.

The fall out from Dhansook’s bribery allegation led to the resignation of Khan last Sunday as Minister of Works and Transport.

Khan had denied allegations that he received bribes from Dhansook. Khan said that six cheques which had been paid to him by Dhansook and which Dhansook had sent to Prime Minister Manning as evidence of bribery were in fact repayments for a July 2002 loan of $588,000.

The Opposition UNC has been challenging Khan to produce copies of the cheques paid to Dhansook to prove that a loan had indeed been made to Dhansook.

The two cheques which surfaced yesterday were written by Khan to the Dhansooks and numbered: 018524 and 018525. They were manager’s cheques drawn on Khan’s account at First Citizens Bank, Gulf City Complex, La Romaine. Both cheques were dated July 24, 2002 and were deposited in the Dhansooks’ Scotiabank account in Rio Claro two days later on July 26, 2002.

Details of the allegations against Khan and also Energy Minister Eric Williams which have dominated the news over the last several weeks were first made public on April 27, by UNC Siparia MP, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. She read into Parliamentary records the contents of a letter which had been written to Manning by Dhansook who is the PNM councillor for Ecclesville, claiming that he paid a $75,000 bribe to Williams and that he had also bribed Khan. Both Khan and Williams denied the allegations.

After Persad-Bissessar had spoken, Williams rose immediately in Parliament to state categorically that he never received any money from Dhansook. Khan a few hours later told reporters that the allegations were ludicrous, not rooted in facts or any semblance to facts.

Arising from the allegations and denials news reporters were invited the following day, April 28, to a press conference by Dhansook at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain. The time of the conference was changed twice before eventually being called off.

The following day, April 29, both Khan and Williams spoke with reporters in a committee room in Parliament and produced a sworn affidavit signed by Dhansook, dated July 6, 2004. In it Dhansook withdrew all the allegations made against the two ministers.

His affidavit stated that the cheques which he had made out to Khan and which he had sent to Manning as proof of bribes, were in fact repayments to Khan of money advanced to him (Dhansook) by Khan in 2002.

At that press briefing Khan said: "It pains me that my confidence was betrayed by someone I considered a friend and colleague, especially since Mr Dhansook has used the proceeds of cheques sent to me in repayment of a personal loan granted to him in 2002 prior to my entry into Government, in an effort to smear my name."

Khan said he had declared the loan repayments to the Integrity Commission and that he had retained legal counsel to ensure complete vindication of the charges.

The story took another twist on May 1, when a newspaper report quoted Dhansook as denying the July 2004 affidavit produced by Khan and Williams. Dhansook claimed that pressure was put on him by PNM officials to say that he had lied about the bribery allegations against the two ministers.

He stuck to his story that he had paid bribes to Khan and Williams. Details were also published on May 1, of the tape of an alleged telephone conversation between Dhansook and PNM Ambassador Plenipotentiary Jerry Narace, that discussed the allegations of bribery.

On that same day, Khan resigned as Minister of Works. But Williams has repeatedly stated he would not resign as all the allegations were false.

When Williams denied Dhansook’s allegations on April 27, Williams told the House that he had received complaints from Terra Seis Seismic Company and from Talisman who were working on a project in south Trinidad, that their seismic survey was being sabotaged.

"I spoke to Mr Dhansook and told him that the State of TT would have to take serious action against him if those allegations proved to be correct. After I spoke to him the first time the apparent sabotage ceased for a while, then it grew again." Williams claimed that expatriates assigned to that crew had fled after receiving threats.

"As Minister of Energy I then spoke to the gentleman (Dhansook) again and said if these allegations are true then the State will have to take action. And at that time the company as I understood it terminated his (Dhansook) contract. At which time he said he would see to my destruction."

Manning has referred the Dhansook allegations to the Integrity Commission.