Is Leroy Parris "The man who knows too much?"
CBC says it hears “reports” that the Chairman of CLICO Holdings will be retiring before the year end and that he made his intentions known to the board last Monday.
That is the story from CBC where last time we heard, Parris was still in charge. CBC says that Parris couldn’t be reached for comment – which is a rather strange admission from the CBC that they can’t reach the boss, don’t you think? Or maybe he keeps his phone number secret from the CBC?
Pretty silly.
So don’t call it a “report”; call it a “controlled leak” or “planted story”. The questions are “Who planted the story?” and “Why?”
Here’s a kicker…
“He has spent 30 years with CLICO Holdings moving its asset base from two million dollars to one point four billion dollars, and he has also been responsible for the development for all the subsidiaries of CLICO holdings.“
… from the CBC story CLICO Chairman may retire
Parris “responsible for the development for all the subsidiaries of CLICO holdings.”
It seems that the CBC “journalist” who wrote the story forgot about the collapse of CLICO and the revelations of fraud, excess and Florida swampland “investments” that devastated so many families. The journalist also forgot that so much of the four billion dollars in assets was inflated smoke that blew away leaving despair and human wreckage. There was big talk of criminal activities in Barbados and people going to jail until Prime Minister David Thompson stepped in and killed any kind of public accountability by appointing a secretive insider group to keep the lid on de boiling over pot.
Thompson was CLICO's lawyer when bad things happened. Now he's Prime Minister
After all, David Thompson was CLICO’s lawyer when the company illegally failed to file financial statements. Can’t have the courts and the public looking at things too closely then, can we? And don’t think that the BLP weren’t benefiting from CLICO either. No Sir, don’t think that the BLP piggies didn’t share in that trough for 14 years!
Notice how quiet Mottley and Arthur really are on CLICO and the relationship between Parris and Thompson? The BLP aren’t going to look under that rock, that’s fur sur!
Leroy Parris will retire because they wouldn’t dare to fire him
They wouldn’t dare fire him. With most companies Parris would have been out the door for non-performance years ago, let alone the lack of audited statements. It was only after the house of cards collapsed that some of the truth came out. Independent fair market appraisals and reality showed that CLICO’s “four billion dollar” valuation was one big papered lie.
As the top man at CLICO Barbados, Leroy Parris was a big part of that lie.
So Prime Minister David Thompson will continue to shield his friend, and Leroy Parris will retire with honours and a full bank account while thousands of ordinary people suffer because of his actions and failures.
Further Reading
For some background and many links to relevant stories, please read our previous article…
Conflicts of Interest and Sinister Secrecy Continue in CLICO Scandal
Barbados Free Press 
Keep telling it BFP. Thompson’s secret Clico committee has a mandate to keep that lid on the pot. What secrets Leroy Parris know.
How do you fire a Godfather to your daughter when you, as lawyer for Clico, were partly responsible for not insisting that audited statements were completed and submitted , as required by Law?
You can’t, because in a transparent world with full accountability, you would have to accept responsibility and resign immediately as well.
In Japan not that long ago, one would suffer so much shame from the misery created on other peoples lives, one would do the honourable thing and commit Seppuku ( Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment ).
Apparently, we have no shame in Barbados.
I think I read in the press an indication of who made up the Oversight Committee. It mentioned the titles of some heads of Government Minstries like Permanent Secretaries etc. and I also recall mention of “an insurence executive” but no name. I think it included at least 2 Clico staff, one being Mr. Parris himself?
Just Googled it and found this on Trinidad Guardian website:
“Thompson said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the government and Clico for the establishment of the Committee, which will comprises four members appointed by the government and two chosen by Clico Holdings.”
In the the spirit of accountability and transparency much touted by DLP and BLP we should know exactly who the members of the oversight committe are and the details of the MOU that estalished the Committee.
Guess that would be expecting too much.
Sounds like a “No Confidence Vote” in the making…..hhmmm where Mia?
Well, I’m no fan of the BLP but they will have a hayday with this information.
Instead of indulging the local appetite for gossip and intrigue, BFP should try to serve the public interest by pointing out the following:
(a) In every capitalist society, there are periodic collapses of major components of the financial system. In the U.S., for example, there were major collapses in the 1930s, the 1980s, and in November 2008. The most recent meltdown in Asia occurred in the 1990s.
(b) There are always close relationships between senior politicians and major financial firms, including financial firms that collapse, or are at risk of collapse. In late 2008 and early 2009, for example, the U.S. government (headquarters of World Civilization according to BFP) provided more than US$120 billion in loans and other forms of assistance to bail out American International Group (AIG), America’s biggest insurance company. The man who made the decision to use taxpayer money to help AIG was Henry Paulsen, the Treasury Secretary (i.e., Minister of Finance) of the United States, whose previous job was Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs, an investment bank that would have lost billions in dollars (and perhaps collapsed) if AIG collapsed (because AIG owed huge sums of money to Goldman Sachs).
In other words, conflicts of interest between politicians and financiers are part of modern capitalism. If you believe in capitalism, there is no avoiding this “corruption,” and “Gotcha Journalism” is entertaining but trivial.
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BFP says,
Sure. That’s nice Danjuma.
Now… how much did Clico provide in “campaign donations” to the DLP?
Hmmmmm? How much?
Is the Prime Minister or any member of his immediate family engaged in any business dealings or joint investments with Mr. Parris? Has there ever been such a relationship?
Just tell us about those very valid questions for a start.
Thanks!
He can’t retire until they issue the 2008 financials to the public for clico life and clico mortgage. Why all the quiet about the names of the persons on the oversight committee? How much are they being paid? Who is paying them? What are the terms of the memorandum of understanding? How much funds has been extracted from clico life since the problems with clico first surfaced?
Here we go again:
In every capitalist society, the successful political parties are funded primarily by the business community and the trade unions. Some parties, like the Obama’s Democrats in the US, take money from both business and the labour movement. Periodically, the electorate is “shocked” to discover that a great deal of this funding is “secret” (i.e., not executed, or not disclosed, in accordance with all requirements of the law). For example, the presidential campaigns of virtually every U.S. presidential nominee of the last generation have been fined for various “campaign finance violations”. In the most recent Labour Party funding scandal in the UK (another world headquarters of Civilization, according to BFP), Lord Levy, then-prime minister Tony Blair’s Special Ambassador to the Middle East, and a key Labour Party operative, was arrested in 2007 for complicity in an arrangement which funneled 400,000 British pounds in undisclosed “contributions” to the Labour Party from a group of businessmen. Tony Blair himself was questioned by police in connection with this case. There have been similar scandals in France, Germany, Sweden, India and many other countries in recent years. In fact, I am not aware of any major political party which has avoided funding issues of this kind for any lengthy period of time in its history.
Do we have to pretend we don’t know how the world works? Or, to put it another way, as a practical matter, how on earth do you finance a major political party without bending the rules from time to time? And why are the electorates of democratic countries so dishonest and hypocritical about the funding needs of their political parties?
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BFP says,
Oh well, thank you Mr. Prime Minister for telling us why you did not keep your promise to implement Integrity, Transparency and Accountability Legislation or the Ministerial Code.
Why would he make his intentions known just to the Board of Clico holdings? Should he not resign from clico life and clico general? Did he make his intentions known to the oversight committee?
So Prime Minister Owen Arthur will continue to shield his friend, and Leroy Parris will retire with honours and a full bank account while thousands of ordinary people suffer because of his actions and failures.
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BFP, I presume that you mean Prime Minister David Thompson in this context.
It looks like a typo mistake to me, but it works too, doesn’t it?
Hi Tell me Why,
Yes, made a mistake that is corrected now. Thanks for alerting us.
Akabozik: yes, Owen Arthur worked just as well because the BLP won’t be doing anything. They are in up to their eyeballs with CLICO too.
@ Danjuma
“In every capitalist society, there are periodic collapses of major components of the financial system. In the U.S., for example, there were major collapses in the 1930s, the 1980s, and in November 2008. The most recent meltdown in Asia occurred in the 1990s”
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You are quite right, but in so called “first world developed countries” some heads roll, some take responsibility and resign etc. But not bout hey! It’s business as usual. You mention Lord Levy in the UK but anyone in Barbados ever been investigated far less arrested?
The long knives are out for Parris.
Instead of criticising him, he should be showered with praise.
How is it that a man, who reports say, was not favoured with any academic training, could be a partaker in the building up of the massive Clico empire?
I bet most of the academics on this blog who are crying for his head, never made a fraction of the contribution he has made.
BFP filter got my post
give up. no one is taking you seriously. Bfp
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BFP says,
Hey… maybe the BLP should have taken the blogs more seriously last election, don’t you think?
“Do we have to pretend we don’t know how the world works?”
No we don’t, but lets not deliberately lie to the general population just to grab power.
Even though Obama took money from wherever he could get it, do you think he is backing off of any of his promises for fundamental change and reform?
He is doing an amazing job within the restraints of a democratic country with lots of faults and problems.
What are you doing?
Another view, you are obviously not a bajan.
Leroy Parris will never be showered with praise because he was a poor lack boy who “in went to nuneversity.” He in even went to Kolij nor nuh wey so.
He get bout babadus driving big mercyben playing he is a maguffy wen he in come from nuh way.
De real maguffes is peepul like King an Prickhard. Dem went to Kolij en nuniversity tuh.
Ef Duprey did smart like de neel an musse trinis,he wudda hire a right Kolij boy to run Clico in South Africa, sorry uh mean babadus.
Doan mine me. I jes in a mood for ritin bare shstuff.
But fuh tru. People did talkin bout Parris fuh years now, en duh en dun yet.
Ef I did he I wud tek de few million an go an buy a house in de Bahamas or Miami an lef babadus.
I gotta try an read dah TomClarke book call de polishhoe or sumting so. Maybe I cuh stop writin shstuff on BFP an write a novel.
wanna see how yuh does use a free press. write all kines uh foolishness and nuhbody doan k.
Danjuma wrote “as a practical matter, how on earth do you finance a major political party without bending the rules from time to time”
Well you might want to start by asking the people.
I’ve lived in Barbados for the better part of 100 years and no political party has ever asked me for any money at any time.
And yet I would be happy to give money to one or both parties.
But the parties all seem to have forgotten what our foreparents knew “that a sheep head a day is worth more that a hog head once a year”
And so the parties go on selling themselves to big business, but haven’t they noticed that big business becomes big business by selling salt fish and onions or in the modern world telephone credit for $2.00 a time?
I can’t wait for the day to come when either political party will ask me to give them $10 a week (or $2) for the rest of my life. Digicel now come and they get $10 each and every week from me and from tens of thousand of Barbadians and Digi is doing ok for themselves.
When will political parties learn?
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reality check wrote:
He (Obama) is doing an amazing job within the restraints of a democratic country with lots of faults and problems.
Doesn’t look like everyone has quite such an optimistic view of the Obama presidency (so far).
wickedness in the world–a kind of game , telling lies , racketerring by BIG maguffies
This is a kind of game for these people, who feel that they have a right to money and to swindle poor people – a kind of slavery –
They want to project a certain image because of ego and a desire to meet the approval of others and will hide and do things. It is called corruption-CORRUPTION- and it is rampant bout hay IN EVERY SPHERE of activity , in ways that you can not imagine unless you are familar with the game.
Green Monkey
I wouldn’t disagree with a lot of those comments and my sentiments, only to say compared to what?
Obama is already taking heat for too much debt to rescue a “made in America” world wide credit disaster caused by no enforcement of regulation and deregulation. He had no choice or the Second Great Depression would have occurred.
He is now tackling corporate compensation on a formula basis and will be fought tooth and nail every foot of the way.
General MacArthur at the end of the Second World War started to dismantle the power of the huge Japanese Zaibatsus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaibatsu ) but had to stop because their economic power was needed to fight the Korean War.
I think I restricted my comments by saying ” within the restraints of a democratic country with lots of faults and problems”
Obama is a pragmatist and realist.
It was a given that the goodwill of the elections would only last six months and then the knives would be out.
Its still my view that he is facing many of the issues in the US, that have been shunned for over a decade, in a very proactive way. I still find what he and his team is trying to change for the long term betterment of the US as remarkable.
I see real change and a good attempt to communicate his ideas with the elctorate— not so with Barbados.
Can you guys at Free Press tell me if the letter that the Board of Directors gave Leroy Parris a year and a half ago that if they have to send him home for any reason before age 70 that he has to be paid 1million for each year up to 70 still stands?
Do you know that this is exactly what Leroy Parris wanted since he could not stand to see Clico in any one elses hand when he was gone?
Do you know that he has actually be sent home but they are nicing it up to save his face?
Do you know that he cares nothing about about the poloicy holders who loose money once he has his millions in Miami?
Nobby
the law is there to be enforced. just a class action against the directors of clico under section 95 of the companies act…….all of then….they have a kegal liability. Why are there no responsible leaders in society making these directors responsible. and the NATION NEWS GROUP…….silence. no investigative reporting…..why…..conflict of interest. clico owns 20% of the NATIONS holding company. …..silence has been BOUGHT. SIR FRED…….what do you have to say, as a reputable BAJAN ??