NATIONAL TEAM UNITY (NTU) is not the new political vehicle which former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj intends to use to revolutionise the political landscape of Trinidad and Tobago. This was disclosed yesterday by NTU founding member Trevor Sudama who said the party was politically defunct. Last week, Maharaj revealed that he had a “major shocker” up his sleeve for the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) and the opposition United National Congress (UNC) and that an announcement was forthcoming. However, Sudama told Newsday he had no idea what Maharaj was talking about since he had not spoken to the former AG in “quite some time.”
Sudama recalled that NTU was born because of the need for a vehicle for himself, Maharaj and Ralph Maraj to explain their stand on corruption in the UNC and why they were fired from the Basdeo Panday Cabinet. He admitted that it was always going to be difficult to translate NTU into a national party because “we need a wider base.” In recent weeks, Maharaj has been meeting with several groups and was very visible in his efforts to champion the cause of sugar workers following last month’s closure of Caroni (1975) Limited. Sudama reiterated that a third political force would not be viable unless TT’s electoral system was changed from first-past-the post to proportional representation because it is impossible to defeat the ruling party under the existing system. He claimed the PNM feared proportional representation because it would have to form coalitions with other parties in order to govern TT.
However Sudama conceded that the UNC was equally afraid about sailing into uncharted political waters and there was credence to the school of thought that the UNC now wanted constitutional reform simply as a means of getting a foot back into the corridors of political power. He added that traditionally all ruling parties preferred the first-past-the post electoral system and found it strange that St Augustine MP Winston Dookeran said nothing about constitutional reform in his controversial “Agenda for Transformation” report.
When the murder case of former Government Minister Dhanraj Singh was called yesterday, his attorney Karl Hudson-Phillip QC, informed the court that there were certain issues concerning evidence that he wanted to raise. Hudson-Phillip made his submissions which were rebutted by the State’s lead prosecutor, British Queen’s Counsel Sir Timothy Cassel. Arguments from both sides lasted about five hours. Justice Paula Mae Weeks, presiding in the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court, indicated that she will give her ruling on Friday. During Sir Timothy’s submission, the Court’s fire alarm sounded and Justice Weeks had to ask the police to determine whether it was anything to be concerned about. It was a false alarm.
Dhanraj appeared upbeat and was smiling. Sometimes he waved to relatives who included his wife Leela, and mother, Sheila. Dhanraj is charged with the murder of Hansraj Sumairsingh, who was the chairman of the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation. Sumairsingh, 45, was shot to death at his Mayaro beach house on Old Year’s Day, 1999. The State is alleging that Singh, who was then the Minister of Local Government, ordered the hit on Sumairsingh. Sir Timothy leads Assistant DPP Devan Rampersad.,Prosecutors Angelica Teelucksingh and Sharon Raphael, while Hudson-Phillip is assisted by Ravi Rajcoomar and Jennifer Hudson-Phillip.
The Trinidad and Tobago representative at the 2003 Miss Universe International Beauty Pageant held last May, Faye Alibocus, is in hot water with the organisers of the local leg of the competition, the Pageant Company, though it remains unclear as to why this is so. When asked if Alibocus had been dethroned as it has been rumoured, Marcia la Borde, Marketing Manager at the Pageant Company told Newsday on Tuesday that their company is currently in negotiations with Alibocus. Pressed further as to why there was need for any negotiations with Alibocus at this time, la Borde stated that she had another call, and hurriedly hung up.
Alibocus, meanwhile, has been spending a considerable amount of time in New York honouring private engagements, following her success in getting to the final round of competition on the night of the International Pageant. And this when the local company expected her to be available for any promotion of the local sponsors, while she still wears the Miss TT/Universe crown. Up to press time Alibocus hadn’t responded to Newsday’s calls, but speaking with her mother on Tuesday, a tearful Mrs Gail Alibocus lamented the position that her daughter has been caught in. She said: “These are young girls experiencing something new and different, and personal commitments should have been allowed for. CCN doesn’t own her.”
Former members of the Pageant Company also admitted to hearing of the impending action by the company just under a week ago. Adrian Raymond said: “I honestly don’t know what to say. Faye has done the country very proud and gave up so much of herself in the process. And although she is not here she is still representing the country with everything she is doing right now. She is still the people’s queen!” Newsday learnt that a stipend was paid to Alibocus by the company on a monthly basis, but that stopped in April after the Miss Universe International Pageant in Panama.
Another former member of the company, Allison Brown stated that people will always have differing opinions, “I don’t want any confusion to tear down the level the pageant has reached because it’s a really good thing for young women. It is really hard for a young girl to enter such a competition knowing that there may be a disturbance to face down the road. For me, the show must ultimately be in the girl’s best interest, for them to have a pleasant experience and to not have anything unsavoury connected with the pageant industry,” she said. Given the situation, should Alibocus be dethroned and her title taken away, there won’t be anyone to take her place, as both the first and second runners-up at the pageant are no longer contracted to the promoters.
Police officers investigating the daring bank robbery at the Couva branch of First Citizens Bank arrested a 19-year-old man on Tuesday night. The suspect was arrested at his Marabella home by Ag Sgt Corbette and will be placed on an identification parade for the robbery. Police have since secured warrants for the arrest of two other suspects. Police sources revealed that they know who they are looking for and arrests are imminent. Officials of the bank said yesterday that based on an audit carried out on Tuesday afternoon, the bandits may have escaped with close to $50,000. They added that based on information received, the police were able to get workable prints from the crime scene, and the surveillance camera at the bank captured the entire robbery.
The tape from the camera was handed over to the police for viewing. Police investigators returned to the bank yesterday and interviewed several eyewitnesses to the robbery. Three tellers who were robbed by the gunmen were treated for shock and were given counselling. Investigators confirmed yesterday that the suspects are career criminals and one was recently released from prison. The bank heist occurred around 1 pm on Tuesday, east of the Couva Police Station. Three men, wearing orange jump suits and matching hats, entered the bank and pretended to be employees from the Pt Lisas Industrial Estate. They jumped over the counters at the bank and held up three tellers at gunpoint. The bandits escaped in a waiting car parked along Grant Street, Couva. Yesterday, operations at the bank resumed but Newsday learned that the security arrangements at the bank are to be beefed up.
THE INTENSITY of crime has been increasing in Trinidad and Tobago, including white collar crime, over the last ten years, according to AG Glenda Morean who said that thus far, $28 million had been corruptly stolen from the Piarco Airport project. “Although the final accounting is not yet in, I am informed that so far $28 million corruptly stolen from the Piarco Airport Development Project was launderised in the local and international financial system,” the AG told businesspeople at a breakfast seminar on money laundering organised by the Couva/Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce at Cara Suites and Conference Centre, Claxton Bay. Morean added that the fight “against crime is not just the business of the law enforcement officials or the Ministry of National Security, but also of conscientious citizens and organisations such as yours in sensitising the public on issues of crime of which money laundering represents a significant aspect.”
The AG spoke of Government’s position as far as the laws relating to money laundering were concerned and said that “given recent reports of multi-million dollar electronic wire transfers from local companies across international borders involving countries as far flung as Latvia and the former Yugoslav Republic, it is clear the government and the country at large, including both the public and private sector especially the banking community, face a very serious problem.” “The picture is the same across the region and the world. The proliferation of weapons, which is an inevitable consequence of the international criminal activity, leads to the kind of violence which we are now experiencing and which we are committed to eradicating,” the AG said. Morean stressed, “That is why it is so important to tackle the issue of money laundering since by doing so we attack the profitability of the criminal network whether they be drug pushers, kidnappers or other players in the vast criminal conspiracy that threatens our society. Make no bones about it, the drug problem will be with us for years to come so we must intensify and sustain our efforts at containing this menace to society.”
She explained that, “it is for this reason that successive governments have considered the issue of money laundering so serious that they have moved to enact stringent legislation to tackle the problem while accessing assistance from organisations like the Caribbean Anti-Money Laundering Programme and the Financial Action Task Force.” “We recognise that money laundering is also a feature of the international terrorist network and as such have included provisions to treat terrorism financing in the new anti-terrorism bill which went for public comment some weeks ago,” the AG said.
She said that to date, $8 million have been confiscated from drug traffickers “and although the final accounting is not yet in, I am informed that so far 28 million dollars corruptly stolen from the Piarco Airport Development Project was launderised in the local and international financial system.”
Three Venezuelan women who were charged with larceny of a Norwegian visitor’s Visa Card that was said to have been part of an alleged attempted money scam, were on Tuesday freed of the charges in the Scarborough Magistrates’ Court following a two-day trial. The charges against Jusilen Del Carmen Torrelas, 31; Yelitza Bortolin Coromoto Soto, 29; and Greismar Del Valle Lopez Yepez, 31, were dismissed by Senior Magistrate Annette McKenzie in the Scarborough First Court. The three were represented by defence attorney Lennox Phillips. They were charged under the Electronic Funds Crime Act (2000), by Detective Alicia Piggott, of the Crown Point Police, following investigations by Piggott and Detective PC Ingrid Maxwell, of the Port-of-Spain Fraud Squad. An alleged male accomplice, also of Venezuela, who was charged on September 13 at the Crown Point Police Station, with possession of one AMC Skimmer, a Toshiba Lap Top computer, and five floppy discs was remanded in custody. Jose Gregorio Ayala Mujica, 29, will reappear in court on September 25.
The charge against Jose, also laid by Detective Piggott, is that he was in possession of the Skimmer, Lap Top and floppy discs, with intent that such equipment be used in the manufacturing of counterfeit Bank Cards. The charges against the three women were that on September 6, last, at RBTT Bank, Crown Point, they “took from the possession of Oddbjorg Strommen, of Norway, a certain Card named a Skandia Banken Visa Card No 4569 9710 3568 5640, in favour of Oddbjorg Strommen, without the consent of Oddbjorg Strommen.”
OFFICERS of the Fraud Squad department yesterday appealed to members of the public to be on the lookout for “skimmer devices” which may be placed at various Automated Teller Machines (ATM) across the country. They are also asking members of the public to be aware of suspicious-looking people at these machines, where schemers of this new type of fraud hang out ready to pounce on unsuspecting victims. The Fraud Squad gave the warning following the arrest of four Venezuelan nationals, among them three women, charged with taking a bank card from Norwegian national Oddbjorg Strommen on September 6 at the Royal Bank branch in Crown Point, and a man charged with possession of card making equipment.
They were all charged under the Electronic Transfer of Funds Act and charges were laid by WPC Alicia Piggott of the Crown Point Police Station.
“The skimmer device is a frightening thing,” Dave Williams, Royal Bank’s Corporate Manager Security Operations told Newsday yesterday.
Williams added that the “skimmer device” is a new type of fraud to hit this country, but said it is prevalent in Latin America and Miami.
“It’s a challenge for the Fraud Squad but I am satisfied with the competence of the investigators there,” Williams said. He explained that the “skimmer device” can capture electronic data from one’s credit and debit card. Williams said the data can then be transferred to any kind of plastic device to perpetrate fraud. The catch, he said, is that the perpetrators of the “skimmer device” fraud will not be able to get the customers’ PIN.
Williams said the “skimmer device” fraudsters will then try to “clandestinely obtain” a customer’s PIN through another major fraud indentified as the “Lebanese Loop.”
This type of fraud occurs when the fraudster uses a device in the card readers’ lot. The customer then loses their card after which the perpetrator, on the pretext of offering assistance, stays around and asks customers to re-enter their PIN, which is their sole motive. Now that they have been able to get the customers PIN, the fraudsters will be able to use the counterfeit “skimmer device” card together with the PIN to obtain large sums of cash from people’s accounts. Williams subsequently advised members of the public to be very wary of people who shoulder-surf, which he said is done to obtain people’s PIN.
A 19-YEAR-OLD man appeared before a Siparia Magistrate yesterday charged with the murder of Lalmohan Mansingh, who was stabbed to death, last Saturday. Also appearing in court on separate charges arising out of the incident, were two men who were jointly charged with assaulting a friend of the murder victim. Satish Heeralal, of Loukie Trace, Penal, was not called upon to plea when the Captial charge was read to him by Magistrate Lucina Cardinas-Ragoonanan at the Siparia First Court.
Mansingh, also known as “Ramtool,” of Robinson Trace, Penal, was reportedly sitting in his friend Ricky Sukhu’s car in front a bar at Penal-Quinam Road, Siparia, when he was stabbed. Reynold Gopaul, 18, of Loukie Trace, Penal and Karl Callender, 21, of Charlo Village, Penal, appeared before Magistrate Cardinas-Ragoonanan charged with assaulting 44-year-old Sukhu. The trio were denied bail by the magistrate.
DESPITE meeting cordially behind closed doors at Whitehall yesterday as part of the Committee on Race Relations, Santan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) General-Secretary Sat Maharaj and National Association for the Empowerment of African People (NAEAP) President, Professor Selwyn Cudjoe remain oceans apart on several race issues in Trinidad and Tobago. Last week, Maharaj vowed to resist any attempt by Cudjoe to change the system of entry into the University of the West Indies (UWI) from one of meritocracy to one based on race quota. Tertiary Education Minister Danny Montano and UWI Principal Bhoe Tewarie have dismissed allegations of racial bias regarding entry to the university.
“This does not bring an end to it,” Maharaj told Newsday in a subsequent telephone interview. He said that while there was “no explosion” between himself and Cudjoe, nobody should take that to mean that they kissed and made up. Maharaj said the SDMS has certain viewpoints regarding race relations in TT and some of these differ from those held by Cudjoe’s NAEAP. He also denied that Prime Minister Patrick Manning played the role of peacemaker between himself and Cudjoe during his (Manning’s) brief presence there. Maharaj said all Manning did was welcome the Committee members to yesterday’s meeting. When contacted, Cudjoe was just as tight-lipped about what transpired but also said that areas of disagreement still existed between himself and Maharaj on several issues.
Surgical operations at the San Fernando General Hospital have been postponed because of a shortage of an essential drug. The drug, Anectine, is in critically short supply and the hospital’s operating-theatres are saving remaining ampoules of the anaesthetic drug for extreme emergency cases. Yesterday, several cases on the hospital’s elective surgery list had to be cancelled. Hospital medical director Dr Austin Trinidade summoned a meeting of doctors working in the Anaesthetics Department around 10 am yesterday, where the drug shortage problem was discussed. Asked to what extent the Anectine shortage had impacted on patients listed for surgery, Trinidade declined to speak to the media. He confirmed however that there was a shortage of Anectine and said the Ministry of Health had assured that a supply of the drug would be delivered to the hospital tomorrow.
Head of the hospital’s Depart-ment of Anaesthetics, Dr Anand Chatoorgoon, told Newsday, “yes, we are desperately short of Anectine. It is essential and we cannot do surgeries without it. But up to yesterday we had a few ampoules which we have reserved for extreme emergency cases.”
But Dr Chatoorgoon said the short supply of the drug had not yet impacted on the elective surgery list because there were other surgical procedures that could be utilised under general anaesthetics, which did not involve the use of Anectine. “I myself worked on the elective surgery list and despite the shortage, it has not impacted significantly at this point. “But yes, we are desperately short and Anectine is essential,” Chatoorgoon said.
Dr Trinidade said yesterday that the Health Ministry had been informed of the shortage of the drug. When contacted yesterday afternoon, South West Regional Health Authority’s communications manager, Zenobia Nanan, said she had not yet enquired about the problem. The hospital is currently plagued by a shortage of essential drugs. Despite receiving a supply of vital drugs on Tuesday, the hospital’s dispensary is still in short supply of drugs to treat anaemic patients as well as epileptic patients.
