Smiles come easily when spending OPM – other people’s money.
Lawrence Durprey - Barefoot Billionaire in Monaco 2007
Readers throughout the Caribbean deserve to see these photos and read the story of Lawrence Duprey and friends visiting the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix. After all – our grandchildren will be paying for Mr. Duprey’s crimes until they die. And yes, that is a US$100 “per cigar!” Cohiba in one of the photos. You can bet the wine isn’t from Tesco either.
Enjoy… but first a word about where this material comes from: Monaco Revue and DiversityCanada Foundation.
Although we are using this material under the Fair Use provisions of copyright because we are commenting upon the material and it is also public evidence of the crimes of Mr. Duprey and his gang, and therefore contains an overriding public interest in its publication at BFP, we ask each of our readers to visit Monaco Revue HERE to read the original material.
It looks like DiversityCanada Foundation and Monaco Revue have worthy goals and we encourage each of you to at least visit their websites and give them consideration.
We do note that according to the article, former Trinidad government minister Carlos John (and then “advisor” to Lawrence Duprey) is the “compatriot” of Monaco Revue’s editor.
Colman Commission evidence?
We also see that what was once an article about the elites having a good time in Monaco is now certain to be of interest to the Colman Commission inquiries into the CL Financial Fraud. Especially as the commission looks into the close relationship between Duprey and Ministers and former Ministers of the Trinidad & Tobago Government. This 2007 article is evidence of crimes and has a compelling public interest. Therefore we have been advised that the Fair Use provisions of copyright are exceptionally strong and allow us to publish the material here at BFP.
We hope that DiverstyCanada Foundation and Monaco Revue have the journalistic integrity to leave this information published at Monaco Revue.
Now on to watching Mr. Duprey and his friends spending your money on a good time…
A Trini lime at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix…
We at Monaco Revue hadn’t planned on particpating much in the Grand Prix. With our lease expiring at an inopportune time, we had prepared ourselves to be scurrying around moving office equipment while everyone else was having fun. The only event we intended to cover was the Grand Prix and Fashion Unite show on the Friday before the race. However, a chance encounter at the show between our editor and her compatriot, former Trinidad government minister Carlos John, led to an invitation for Monaco Revue to take in the premier Formula 1 event the proper way — aboard a yacht with a view of the track.
“We couldn’t miss out on a Trini lime in Monaco,” editor Celia Sankar said. Translated from Trinidad slang, that means it was impossible to say no to joining fellow Trinidadians to hang out (ie “enjoy a lime”, a term that has noting to do with eating the fruit, by the way).
So, after a frenetic move, it was off to the Grand Prix to join a Trini posse that included industrialist Lawrence Duprey (head of the conglomerate CL Financial, which encompasses 65 companies in 28 countries, involved in everything from banking to making Trinidad’s famous Angostura Bitters); Duprey’s advisor, Carlos John; and Rampersad Motilal, CEO of Methanol Holdings Trinidad Limited (MHTL, a CL Financial company which is building the world’s largest methanol processing facility at an industrial estate in Trinidad). After meetings earlier in the week in Oman, where MHTL owns a plant, executives of the company stopped over in Monaco to celebrate MHTL’s tenth anniversary, which coincided with the prestigious F1 race. “It was great; it was exciting,” Duprey said of his first Grand Prix, adding he plans to attend again.
(Left) Monaco Revue editor Celia Sankar and barefoot billionaire Lawrence Duprey
(Right) David Cassidy, a member of the MHTL contingent, enjoys the Mediterranean weather
MHTL board members and stakeholders (left to right) Hermann Kastner, Joseph Cassidy,
Daniel Eggenberger and Niels Hoffmann relish their unobstructed view of the Grand Prix race
Carlos John, former Trinidad government minister, now advisor to Duprey (in the background)
MHTL’s CEO Rampersad Motilal and Monaco Revue’s editor Celia Sankar
Barbados Free Press 
Duprey deserves to go to jail but he knows too much about politicians and gave them too much money to be taken down.
He’ll walk on like nothing happened. His homes are in his wife’s name and you can guess that his money is too.
I really do not believe that that means anything. But for Duprey he knows fully well that in the Caribbean the judicial system is flaud and fradulent. He will not spend a day in jail. I wish in some way that we could bring in American law in our jurisdiction to root out the evil that men do and gave them their just reward. This type of shite makes me very angry especially when these sons of bitches live like lords and those who put their money into clico expecting returns suffering sleepness nights as a result.
Pingback: Barbados: CL Financial Back in 2007 · Global Voices
@Sunshine Sunny Shine. You appear to be somewhat naive when you write, “I wish in some way that we could bring in American law in our jurisdiction to root out the evil that men do and gave them their just reward.”
Following is a snip from an article by Paul Craig Roberts, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Ronald Reagan Administration.
Totally Corrupt America
by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Last March I reviewed Matt Taibbi’s important book Griftopia, an entertaining account of the through-going financial fraud that gave us the financial crisis. Taibbi shows that the US “superpower” can match any third world backwater in the magnitude of greed and fraud that is endemic in business and government. Taibbi’s Griftopia was published last year. This year Henry Holt publishers have provided us with Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner’s Reckless Endangerment.
Morgenson and Rosner tell the story again, but with less drama and provocation. Possibly, it might be more acceptable to those gullible Americans who wrap themselves in the flag and refuse to believe that their country could ever knowingly do anything that is wrong.
I am not suggesting that Morgenson and Rosner pull their punches. To the contrary, the authors deliver enough knockouts to be contenders with Taibbi as world champions in exposing the reckless fraud that the US financial sector and its regulators now epitomize.
The financial crisis, which is very much still with us, did not result from accident or miscalculation; neither did it result because of a flaw in Alan Greenspan’s theory, as he told Congress when a feeble effort was made to hold him accountable. It was the intentional result of people motivated by short-term profits who wanted to get theirs and get out.
As Reckless Endangerment shows, fraud characterized every stage of the process from the fraudulent borrower incomes and credit scores that mortgage issuers gave to unqualified buyers, through the securitization of the mortgages and their triple-A investment grade ratings by the rating agencies (Standard & Poor’s especially, but also Moody’s and Fitch) to the investment banks that sold what the banks knew was junk to investors around the world as investment grade securities. Indeed, Goldman Sachs was simultaneously betting against the mortgage derivatives that it was selling to clients.
snip
What Taibbi, Morgenson and Rosner make clear is that while monster criminals continue to collect their multi-million dollar annual incomes, depressed single mothers, deserted by the men who fathered their child, are sent to prison for having small quantities of illegal drugs to boost their depressed spirits, and their children are put out to adoption.
This is “justice” in America where there is “freedom and democracy.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/24/totally-corrupt-america/
Anyone finding any of that “American law” knocking about, I suggest you box its ears and send it back to America post-haste ; they need it there every bit as much as we do, or even more so.
American Law? ROFLMFAO
Max Keiser Vampire Banker Hunter reports:
While Green Monkey is bang on, lets not forget that when the US gets aggressive and wants to throw a sacrificial lamb or two to the wolves like Conrad Black and Martha Stewart, justice may be perceived to have been done.
No one serious has taken the fall for the world wide credit crisis and banking fraud, but maybe a Trinidadian or two could be an easier target?
Green Monkey
Thank you for pointing out my naiveness. It may due to the fact that I have read abour more politicians, prominent business persons and other persons perceived to be untouchable ending up behind prison bars under the American law system. Maybe my naiveness stems from the fact that with American law when they come after you your status or money has no relevancy or baring in the matter. Now when I comapare the conviction rate of prominent persons in Barbados and around the region who have been incarcerated for their blatant corruption or missappropriation of government funds, I see no convictions. Call me naive at acknowledging the system of American law for our region but if that system is no respector of persons nor their money at times I think it is a far better system then the law in the Caribbean which protects the haves and crucifies the have nots.
should be /…..who have not been….
What nonsense!The fact that Mr.Dupre and friends attended the Monaco Grand Prix in 2007 is “public evidence of his crimes?”This is journalistic crap at its best.Mr.Dupre developed and ran a successful company which,like many others in the world,has now run into trouble and failed.Investigation will show why and how and he should be evaluated accordingly and punished if found to have broken the law.It has nothing whatsoever to do with his visit to the Monaco Grand Prix or the like.
Mitchel Bell
There are irregularities with respect to CLICO financial undertakings that now have policy holders scatspradle. So the mere fact that Duprey could be jet setting after abandoning the big ship with millions of dollars is an insult to those who invested in his business. The face of his happiness does not tell the sad tale and stories being told by thousands of policy holders struggling to get thier monies out of CLICO. Regardless if he started out as a good business man who built his own success on a once and reputable company, there are developments that are labelling him and others as PONZI schemers . So your futile attempt to defend this man leaves me quite dumbfounded. Why don’t you defend the many who invested in CLICO thinking that their finanacial security was assured at the end of their maturing policies only to find out that there might not be anything there for them at all. IDIOT
@ Mitchie Bell: November 25, 2011 at 1:47 pm
“Mr.Dupre developed and ran a successful company which,like many others in the world,has now run into trouble and failed.”
You described another thread as “nonsense”. But if you knew the history of the CLICO business empire you would not have made the above quoted statement. Mr. Cyril Duprey, Lawrence’s uncle, was the genius behind this business. Lawrence fattened it with ordinary people’s money and cannibalised it. It was turned into a Ponzi scheme to the detriment of ordinary investors. Read the reports emanating from the Trinidad Inquiry and then tell us if, in your opinion, CLICO was properly managed in the interests of policyholders.
Duprey want a jail cell small enough to force him to sleep on top of his friend Parris, his cell mate. The driver get millions, the secetary get millions, Leroy ‘dyslexic’ Parris get millions, jail them all.
@Sunshine Sunny Shine
Point is that the USA has its own class of untouchables who feel themselves to be above the law and who are treated as being above the law because of their wealth and influential connections.
See this transcript of a Feb 2011 interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewing Mat Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine:
“Nobody goes to jail,” writes Matt Taibbi in his the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine. “This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world’s wealth.” Here is the complete interview from which we played an excerpt on our Feb. 22 show. Taibbi explains how the American people have been defrauded by Wall Street investors and how the financial crisis is connected to the situations in states such as Wisconsin and Ohio.
Taibbi gave Amy Goodman several example of how the influential players are able to shut down investigations or evade taking responsibility for fraudulent or illegal actions. In one case when SEC investigator Garry Aguirre tried to interview a Wall St. mover and shaker, John Mack, suspected of possibly passing on information that was used by another party in some illegal insider trading. His SEC bosses denied Aguirre permission to arrange the interview while at the same time explaining to him that it was because Mack had powerful political connections, and then Aguirre was fired when he refuses to let the matter drop:
MATT TAIBBI: Art Samberg was the name of this hedge fund manager. He was a big star on Wall Street. In fact, there are articles about, you know, how does Art Samberg manage his amazing returns year after year? Well, you know, this was sort of a clue as to how.
Anyway, this SEC investigator named Gary Aguirre wanted permission to go interview John Mack, and his superiors at the SEC told him — they basically told him that he couldn’t, and the reason they said was because Mack has, quote-unquote, “powerful political connections.” At the time, he was a Ranger, one of Bush’s fundraising Rangers. He would later become a major fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. So he played both sides of the fence. This, again, is very typical of Wall Street. And Aguirre, when he pressed the matter, he was fired by the SEC.
Taibbi explained that there are show trials and prison sentences of the smaller players in the Wall Street rip off games. e.g. Bernie Madoff. SEC insiders also explained to Taibbi that Madoff went to jail because he made the mistake of going after the wrong class of people with his ponzi schemes::
AMY GOODMAN: Has anyone gone to jail?
MATT TAIBBI: Well, Bernie Madoff. And clearly, he’s the only person in this whole tableau —
AMY GOODMAN: Always called the greatest swindle of all time.
MATT TAIBBI: Right. But Bernie Madoff, honestly, compared to all these other guys, he’s really small potatoes. He’s also not really representative of what went on on Wall Street during this period. He’s a garden variety Ponzi scheme artist. Of course, he did it on a much bigger scale than most Ponzi scheme artists, but this is a crime that could have happened in the ’20s, the ’30s, the ’40s. It had nothing to do with this incredibly sophisticated, complex criminal fraud scheme involving, you know, the mortgage bubble and the sale of these phony baloney mortgage-backed securities. Madoff had nothing to do with that. He was just a garden variety criminal. And this is exactly the kind of case that the SEC and the Justice Department do prosecute: these outliers, these guys who are not part of the top echelon executives. And they make these cases, and they say, “Here’s evidence we’re doing our job.” The reality is very different. (my emphasis /GM)
snip
AMY GOODMAN: You suggest in your piece that Bernie Madoff went to jail because it was rich people who were the victims.
MATT TAIBBI: Absolutely. Every single former investigator or current investigator that I talked to said the same thing: Madoff went to jail because the wrong people suffered. You know, it was famous actors. It was, you know, the glitterati in New York. If these were teachers and firemen and all the usual suspects — you know, look at the — we have a million people in foreclosure in this country right now, and a lot of them are there because of predatory lending and because of this fraud scheme, but there are no criminal prosecutions. I think that’s the reality now, is that we don’t see anybody being criminally targeted unless their victims were powerful people themselves.
snip
You have people in this country who — we have two-and-a-half million people in jail this country, you know, more than a million who are in jail for nonviolent crimes. And yet, we couldn’t find a single person on Wall Street to do even a day in jail for losing 40 percent of the world’s wealth in a criminal fraud scheme? And that tells you that we have — this goes beyond the cliché that rich people have better lawyers and they have an advantage. This is a step beyond that. This is a situation where the system is completely corrupted, and it’s true regulatory capture. The SEC and the Justice Department are essentially subsidiaries of Wall Street. (my emphasis /GM)
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/2/22/matt_taibbi_why_isnt_wall_street_in_jail
Green Monkey
Your point is taken. Will you accept mind that no member of the status quo throughout the Caribbean has ever served jail time for acts of corruption.
Sunshine Sunny Shine, you ask, “Will you accept that no member of the status quo throughout the Caribbean has ever served jail time for acts of corruption?”
SSS, I never denied this particular point. I was just trying to bring it to your and the readers’ attention that, in regards to your expressed wish that we could bring in some “American law” to take care of our own well connected, Caribbean crooks, commentators in the USA also complain that “American law” has its own, very similar problems when it comes to dealing out justice to their own crooks and fraudsters of the extremely wealthy and/or politically well connected sort.
Another good read on this topic is Salon.com columnist and US Constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald. He actually has a book out: “With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful.”
Snip from a published excerpt of Greenwald’s book at Salon.com:
Time to Test Corporate Leaders to Weed out Psychopaths
Shark-like, they rise fast but risk killing the world economy, concludes a business professor.
Given the state of the global economy, it might not surprise you to learn that psychopaths may be controlling the world. Not violent criminals, but corporate psychopaths who nonetheless have a genetically-inherited biochemical condition that prevents them from feeling normal human empathy.
Scientific research is revealing that 21st century financial institutions with a high rate of turnover and expanding global power have become highly attractive to psychopathic individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of others, and the companies they work for.
A peer-reviewed theoretical paper from 2011 titled “The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis” details how highly-placed psychopaths in the banking sector may have nearly brought down the world economy through their own inherent inability to care about the consequences of their actions.
The author of this paper, Clive Boddy, previously of Nottingham Trent University, believes this theory would go a long way to explain how senior managers acted in ways that were disastrous for the institutions they worked for, the investors they represented and the global economy at large.
If true, this also means the astronomically expensive public bailouts will not solve the problem since many of the morally impaired individuals who caused this mess likely remain in positions of power. Worse, they may be the same people advising governments on how to resolve this crisis.
snip
Scientists believe about one per cent of the general population is psychopathic, meaning there are more than three million moral monsters amongst normal United States citizens. There is emerging evidence that this frequency increases within the upper management of modern corporations. This is not surprising since personal ruthlessness and fixation on personal power have become seen as strong assets to large publicly traded corporations (which some authors believe have also become psychopathic).
However, appearance and performance are two different things. While psychopaths are often outwardly charming and excellent self-promoters, they are also typically terrible managers, bullying co-workers and creating chaos to conceal their behaviour.
When employed in senior levels, their pathology also means they are biochemically incapable of something they are legally required to do: act in good faith on behalf of other people. The banking and corporate sector is built on the ancient principle of fiduciary duty — a legal obligation to act in the best interest of those whose money or property you are entrusted with. Asking a psychopath to do that is like recruiting a pyromaniac to be a firefighter.
The folly of mixing psychopathy and senior corporate management has been borne out by recent history. At the end of the last decade, numerous banking institutions representing hundreds of years of corporate financial stability ceased to exist within a few short months due to the reckless acts of a few individuals — none of whom have ever been charged with a crime.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/11/21/Corporate-Psychopaths/
If a Barrack Obama can go to Hawaii why cant someone like this guy go have some fun? Its idiot Journalists who should go to Jail….lmao
Nothing in your article contains proof that Mr. Duprey has done anything illegal. There is no proof of a ponzi scheme. I have not seen Mr. Duprey or his wife Sylvia Baldini Duprey in years. However, I knew them well and they lived well below their means.
Sadly, our economy has taken a crash but this does not make every CEO evil or guilty of wrongdoing. They simply failed to foresee the economic downturn. It is a very sad when the economy crashes and good people lose money. Everyone starts looking for someome to blame.
I have no doubt that Lawerence and Sylvia feel horrible about the economic crash. However, making them out to be the cause and the bad guys is not only short sighted. It is wrong.
,
Penny Moss Douglass Furr
@pdf:You must live in a different world from the rest of us
@PDF…within their means?? Really? They live in one of 5 multimillion dollar properties on a private island in Fort Lauderdale.. I’m sure they’re so concerned about the people who lost money