‘Clear up the mess you created’

JAMAICAN businessman Michael Lee-Chin is challenging St Joseph MP Gerald Yetming to repeat the bribery allegations he made last Friday outside of the House of Representatives. “Mr Yetming — if he is so sure of the veracity of his allegations — should repeat them outside of Parliament, confident that he can withstand any legal action,” Lee-Chin, Chairman of AIC Limited, said in a statement issued from Ontario, Canada. “The truth is not libellous.  I invite Mr Yetming to be man enough to repeat his allegations outside the walls of Parliament, and to do so immediately.  If he chooses not to do so, then one can only conclude that he does not believe that what he has said is true.” He called on Yetming “to clear up the mess that you have created” by midday tomorrow.

Lee-Chin issued the challenge in response to allegations made against him and Ken Gordon, chairman of First Citizens Bank. He described Yetming’s claims as “unfortunate and unfair.” “I absolutely and completely deny that either AIC or I have made any direct or indirect payment to any Member of Cabinet for any influence or other purpose, and I deny that either AIC or I have made any down payment for any shares of FCB,” he said. The businessman added: “I have worked tirelessly for close to 30 years to build a reputation in Canada and elsewhere as a person of integrity and honour. “I govern myself by some very simple principles — all of which go to building my reputation — never doing anything to harm it, and never, ever, allowing anyone to harm it. I have never been confronted with this type of irresponsible behaviour, so I have no experience in responding to it.” He further stated: “I fully and confidently agree that AIC is interested in FCB, if, as or when the Government of Trinidad and Tobago deems it appropriate to invite bidders for some or all of FCB. We have been through the open-bid process before in Jamaica in 2002, as have RBTT and Guardian Life, and we are all quite familiar and comfortable with the protocol of a fair, open, and thorough bid process.”

He said the company was already suffering the damaging fall out from Yetming’s allegations and had been advised that their entry into Trinidad and Tobago will now be slowed down considerably as “no regulator would want to be accused of ignoring these awful allegations.” Lee-Chin said one of the options available to him was to respond to the allegations and simultaneously seek the assistance of the courts in Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere “to ferret out Mr Yetming. As I do not know whether Mr Yetming has the guts to repeat his statements outside Parliament, I must therefore pursue that alternative.” Lee-Chin urged the Opposition MP to “seize upon this opportunity to act decently and responsibly, and to do so immediately, so that you and I, our families and friends, and our respective countries, will be spared the stress that will necessarily arise.”