British QC outlines case against ex-PM

SPECIAL Prosecutor Sir Timothy Cassel QC said yesterday that between 1997 and 1999, 921,000 pounds sterling, or $10.1 million (TT), passed through the London bank account of Basdeo Panday when he was Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

According to Cassel, Panday’s annual salary as Prime Minister at the time was TT $180,000. Cassel, leading Senior State attorney Wayne Rajbansie, opened the prosecution’s case to Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court. It is not customary in the Magistrates’ Courts for prosecutors to make opening addresses as most of these high profile matters are indictable.

But in Panday’s case, the matter is summary. Not to be outmatched, Panday also turned up with a British QC Alan Newman who is leading Desmond Allum SC, Fyard Hosein SC, Rajiv Persad, Anand Beharrylal, and Devesh Maharaj.

But the proceedings did not start at 9 am as Newman had to be admitted to practice before a special sitting at the Hall of Justice. He arrived at the Magistrates’ Court 30 minutes later, but the court audio digital recording system was giving trouble.

The system is not normally used in Mc Nicolls’ court. He normally presides over preliminary inquiries which require his note-taker to take notes in long hand for witnesses to sign. The use of the audio-digital recording system was tested yesterday but it collapsed several times, forcing Mc Nicolls to leave the court to sort it out.

There were several interruptions during the day, frustrating both Cassel and Newman, but at the end of the day, two witnesses for the prosecution testified.

In his opening statement, Cassel said Panday made declarations under the Integrity in Public Life Act 1987, but did not indicate anywhere that he and/or his wife Oma, had a bank account at Nat West Bank in Wimbledon, London.

Cassel said at the end of December 1997, there was about $110,000 (TT) in the London account.

By the end of December 1999, the prosecutor said the account had in excess of $1 million (TT). But Cassel said that was not all. During this same period, he told the court of vast sums of money passing in and out of the same account.

Between November 28, 1997 and September 13, 1999, Cassel said 921,000 pounds sterling or $10.1 million (TT) passed through Panday’s account at Nat West Bank. Cassel told the court that it was not until May 21, 2002 that the Registrar of the Integrity Commission wrote to Panday inquiring about the London account which was not declared. Panday wrote back asking for time to find out about the account, and when he did respond, he gave three explanations.

The first explanation was that his family had given money to his wife in 1987 for the education of their children, and that it was his wife Oma who had opened the account in 1993.

The second explanation was different. He said the account was opened in 1989 and not 1993, and that it was a joint account held in the names of Basdeo and Oma Panday. Cassel said Panday’s name was removed from the account on May 20, 2002, the day before the Commission wrote to him asking him about the account.

The third explanation from Panday was that he went to London for heart surgery in 1989, taking with him a cheque to pay for his expenses. But in order to pay for the operation, he and his wife opened an account at Nat West Bank, Waltham-on-Thames.

In April 1993, his wife transferred the account to Nat West Bank, Wimbledon.

According to Cassel, Panday’s declarations showed that he owned two savings accounts at the Bank of Commerce, and two current accounts at Republic Bank in Trinidad.