Lawsuit over Eden Gardens sale

The lawsuit is claiming bribery, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.

The State also brought claims against all of the defendants for conspiracy to perpetrate fraud and corruption, including bribery on citizens.

The defendants are Jearlean John (former chairman of the HDC), John Henckle Lall (former chairman of HDC), Greg Davis ( former deputy chairman of HDC), Peter Forde and his company Special Projects Limited, Ronald Harrilal (former Commissioner of Valuations in the Finance Ministry), Point Lisas Park Limited and existing owners - Anthony Sampath, Patrick Soo Ting, Azad Niamat and Everil Ross.

Minister Stuart Young, addressing the issue of white collar crime during a news conference yesterday at the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs in Port of Spain, said corruption and in particular white collar crime, are scourges on this country.

“Twenty months have passed as an administration and there has been a lot of commentary taking place as to what has this Government done with respect to the fight against corruption,” Young said.

He said there were two types of actions to tackle corruption - the criminal courts and the civil courts.

He explained the criminal courts were under the direct constitutional purview of the Director of Public Prosecutions with the assistance of the Police Service. A Government does not have the power to forward criminal charges.

“The civil courts are in a different arena where any action brought by the State in the civil court fall within the purview of the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs.

“Over the last 20 months, this administration has been working very carefully on a number of matters with international teams of lawyers, investigators and forensic auditors, along with the Office of the Attorney General in the pursuit of actions against white collar crime,” he said.

Young said they had been gathering of evidence for months now and have moved from an information and intelligence stage to an evidential stage.

He said the evidence has been analysed and they have drafted cases which have now been filed in the court.

“I expect a lot of fear-mongering to take place, a lot of accusations of political witch hunts and other cries meant to distract the population from the real issues. We will not be deterred by that.

Ultimately, everyone of these matters will be determined by the courts,” he said.