Airport fraud case postponed to June

The Airport Authority Fraud case involving two former ministers was once again ad-journed pending the ruling of the Court of Appeal on a decision made by Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls concerning disclosure.

An application was previously made to the Court of Appeal, by Director of Public Prosecution Geoffrey Henderson, to review the decision of Magistrate McNicolls for disclosure to the defence of a list of all documents and statements the prosecution intends to use in the preliminary inquiry. The application is currently being heard before Justices of Appeal Margot Warner (Presi-dent), Rolston Nelson and Stanley John and will continue next week Tuesday.

Former Minister of Finance Brian Kuei-Tung, Former Minister of National Security Russell Huggins, businessmen Ishwar Galbaransingh, Amrith Maharaj, Steve Ferguson, John Smith, Renee Pierre, Barbara Gomes, are jointly charged with Maritime Fidelity Finance and Leasing Company, and Northern Construction Limited (NCL), with conspiring to defraud the Airport Authority of over $19 million by false pretences between July 26 and December 21, 2002. They appeared before Magis-trate McNicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court yesterday. Defence counsel for Maritime Fidelity Finance and Leasing Company Vernon de Lima, asked that the matter be adjourned pending the outcome of the ruling of the Court of Appeal. There was no objection from attorney Roy Holford who led the prosecution in the absence of Karl Hudson-Phillips QC. Magistrate McNicolls then adj-ourned the matter to June 9.