Duprey: Gave OMA money

Last Friday, Panday told the court it was Duprey who gave his wife Oma 119,183 pounds sterling (TT$1.2 million) in November 1997, representing scholarships for two of Panday’s daughters who were studying in England. Yesterday, Duprey admitted giving the money to Mrs Panday, not as scholarships, but as financial assistance.

Panday is before Mc Nicolls charged with knowingly making a false declaration to the Integrity Commission, in that he failed to disclose his Nat West bank account for the years 1997, 1998, and 1999. Mc Nicolls will give his decision on April 24.

When the case resumed yesterday, lead defence attorney Alan Newman QC called the name Lawrence Duprey. Right away, the silence of the court room was broken with one lawyer at the bar table asking, “Duprey coming to court?”

Within seconds, Duprey walked through the door and was shown the witness box. He said he was executive chairman of CL Financial Holdings Limited, with assets at the end of 2004 at $62 billion. He said his company was involved in many ventures including insurance, banking services, energy and petro-chemicals, communications and health. Duprey said he regarded Panday as his friend. They first met in the mid 1970s during a march organised by OWTU. Their friendship blossomed politically. He said when the NAR got into Government under ANR Robinson, he became adviser to many of the ministers.

Duprey said he got involved with the UNC when his good friend Carlos John campaigned with the party in 2000.

Asked by Newman if he has ever been to the Prime Minister’s residence, Duprey said he first went there during the term of the then Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams. He said his aunt was a founding member of the PNM and he even went out and collected money for the party.

“I was very friendly with Mr Robinson. I was very friendly with Gordon Draper. I have been to the home of Mr Manning when he was Prime Minister the first time around.”

NEWMAN: What about Mrs Panday?

DUPREY: I have been social friends with Mrs Panday.

NEWMAN: What about Mr Panday?

DUPREY: Mr Panday requested me to arrange for Carlos John to act in his Cabinet. We are a socially conscious company. We have to take part. We have people working for our company on statutory boards.

NEWMAN: At the time, Carlos John was a director of CLICO?

DUPREY: Yes.

NEWMAN: Have you ever discussed any matters as favours?

DUPREY: No.

NEWMAN: Did you look at Mr Panday for that?

DUPREY: Not really.

NEWMAN: What about your personal finances?

DUPREY: I don’t even take care of that. My wife takes care of my personal finances. Look at my cheque book. Her name, Sylvia Baldeen, and I are on the cheque book.

NEWMAN: Now, at your company, do you have a policy of granting scholarships?

DUPREY: Yes, we grant to those who need assistance. We do it in education, soccer. We have someone from England to establish our outreach centre, with a football club and to help the community.

NEWMAN: Look at this document, I see 119,000 pounds sterling put in a joint account at Nat West bank in Wimbledon in the names of Basdeo and Oma Panday in November 1997. Is there anything extraordinary and unusual about that?

DUPREY: Nothing. That amount, take it by itself for two people, is normal. It was for the daughters of Basdeo Panday educating themselves in the United Kingdom in the field of law. This was not the best amount, nor the least amount.

Our assistance is across the whole political spectrum. We also gave to the two children of Makandal Daaga, the leader of NJAC, the party I supported, part of the population we think need help. They work in an area called Laventille for people who try to better themselves. In this morning’s paper, I read that a guy we supported, Mr Cudjoe, was killed. He went the wrong way.

The priest of St Finbar’s Church asked us to assist with the homes of single parents. We educated the parents so they can teach the children. It is the same area as Mr Cudjoe in Diego Martin. Crime is rising so the parish priest said he needed help. I willingly gave him over one million dollars. Another subsidiary in the group, Republic Bank, gave another million. So, our group gave $2 million. We have no connection in that area, I do not even live in that area.

NEWMAN: Did you speak to Mrs Panday?

DUPREY: There were things I spoke to Oma about. I did not talk to Mr Panday. With Oma, we spoke about business, I conversed with Oma because she was a businesswoman. We travelled together, we were in some places together. She phoned me from London and she said her children wanted to pursue law in the United Kingdom as it was a safer environment. I was sympathetic to her. I said ‘yes, I would go and organise something for you.’ I spoke to the people who organise and we organised for her to get the money.

NEWMAN: How was this done?

DUPREY: We would most likely have gone to the bank, buy sterling and wire the transfer.

NEWMAN: That was over $1 million.

DUPREY: There was nothing unusual in giving $1 million in financial assistance. We gave a scholarship to a person well connected in society, of a different political persuasion to Mr Panday. That person graduated and came back home as an actuary. The amount was larger than this, that person attended Cambridge University.

EWMAN: Did anyone contact you and tell you anything?

DUPREY: Oma contacted me and told me ‘‘thanks’’. Her daughter Mikela is working at one of our companies, Angostura. Sometimes when we give financial assistance, people come back and work with us. I never spoke to Mr Panday about these scholarships. The time we spent together was too short, we talked about political philosophy. He said he was writing a book, so I said I want to write a book.

NEWMAN: Did you ask anybody for favours for the money?

DUPREY: I will be a fool to do that. I came into contact with very high politicians. I was in Chicago when Kennedy was chosen to run for the Presidency of the United States. I would be sort of stupid to seek political favours. I have met Presidents, the two Bushs, Kennedy, Reagan and his wife, even Prime Minister Trudeau. It would be stupid of me to go and ask for political favours.

NEWMAN: Do you have any employees who are supporters of the PNM?

DUPREY: Yes. My financial director Andre Monteil, I think he is the treasurer of the PNM. I knew Anthony Jacelon, he was on the BWIA Board with me.

CROSS-EXAMINED BY SIR TIMOTHY CASSEL QC:

CASSEL: Where did the money come from to pay for the scholarships?

DUPREY: It came from CL Financial, and we got the money from CLICO.

CASSEL: From which bank?

DUPREY: I do not remember the bank in Port-of-Spain.

CASSEL: Who paid the money?

DUPREY: I do not remember the person exactly.

CASSEL: You gave instructions to an unknown person to transfer the money?

DUPREY: I do not remember who I gave the instructions to. It could have been a number of persons. I couldn’t tell you which bank account CLICO used to give the scholarships. As chairman of CLICO, I would not know which bank it came from. I wouldn’t have signed it. We have a fund for scholarships. From 1990 to now, we have given 85 scholarships or more. There are two areas, financial assistance and scholarships.

CASSEL: Which is it?

DUPREY: It would be financial assistance.

CASSEL: Which account did it come from?

DUPREY: We have over 100 bank accounts. If investigations are to be made later, it would be Mr Monteil who can help us. I can’t name someone who was working and who can help because there are over 100 people working in the accounts department.

CASSEL: How can we trace the money?

DUPREY: If somebody goes, that was ten years ago, they can check the records of the bank, bank statements. It could be anyone of the banks.

CASSEL: So was this a scholarship or financial assistance?

DUPREY: I am not saying one or the other. It did not sound like a scholarship. They sat no exam, there was no interview, no appearance before a committee to see if they were suitable.

CASSEL: Did you have a motive to curry favour with the Panday government at the time?

DUPREY: That is a dangerous statement.

CASSEL: Did you think Mr Panday’s daughters were going through some sort of hardship?

DUPREY: I thought so.

CASSEL: Did you think it was a priority to help the Prime Minister’s daughters?

DUPREY: No. There were more deserving people, but Mr Panday’s daughters needed it, so I gave it.

The other witness was Dr Rampersad Parasram, a pundit and retired Chief Medical Officer of Trinidad and Tobago.