Former govt minister may face fraud charges

Charges are to be laid against a former Government minister and his wife early in the new year, high-level sources revealed yesterday. Newsday learnt that the charges are to stem from money that the couple held in a foreign account. Senior Superintendent Wellington Virgil is in charge of the investigations, this newpaper was told. Sources stated that the former Government Minister had US $130,000 (TT $800,000) transferred to his account in an offshore bank in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands off England.
 
The issue was raised by former Attorney General Glenda Morean in the House of Representatives in June this year. Morean had stated: “Here you have two cheques of US $50,000 being transferred in a Minister’s account in the name of himself and his wife in a foreign bank in Jersey. You have two cheques for US $20,000 and US $10,000 respectively being transferred into this very Minister’s account. These are cheques in the possession of the Government,” she added. The then AG stated that she could say no more since  “these investigations are still ongoing.” But she cautioned: “This is not a question of lies, this is a question of a Government ensuring that corruption is rooted out of this country. We are not sitting back and hiding anything.” The PNM Government has launched a series of investigations into the activities of the former regime.

There are investigations into the InnCogen Deal, the Airport Project, the Biche High School, the Desalination Contract and the South West Soldado Oil Field Contract. The public has developed a measure of scepticism over whether these investigations will result in the arrest of anyone. But the Government has insisted that anyone found in any impropriety would be brought to justice and would pay the price. It has also argued that getting justiciable evidence takes time. But sources said yesterday that the investigations were now closing in on the former Government minister and his wife and they promised that action would definitely be taken against them.