Abby Martin interviews Afra Raymond about the corrupt CL Financial – CLICO disaster.

“On the 30th of January 2009… that bailout was wreathed in political corruption because it was discussed and agreed behind closed doors. We later discovered the Minister of Finance who negotiated the bailout is a lady called Karen Nunez-Tesheira, I will call names.

She is an attorney at law, former lecturer of law, and in fact was a shareholder of CL Financial. She was later revealed by my research to be a shareholder of CL Financial that she was negotiating a bailout of.”

“The people who caused this collapse have really gotten away scot-free because the government purchased their debt.”

Afra Raymond to international journalist Abby Martin.

Two-thirds of Caribbean Government money stolen!

If this interview doesn’t rock you about how corrupt your Caribbean governments and politicians be then go back to smokin’ whatever you be smokin’ an doan bother with life.

Afra Raymond tells it like it is to international journalist Abby Martin. It’s all here – the whole history of corruption in the CL Financial collapse and bailout.

Ministers of Government who were CL Financial shareholders gave your public funds to shore up their own interests.

That was the corrupt foundation of the bailout.

I saw this interview on YouTube and had to post it. Don’t know when I’ll be back.

One Love… Cliverton.

Code of Silence in effect over CL Financial Bailout

by Afra Raymond

Sad to say, this CL Financial bailout is resembling a situation in which well-connected persons are getting what they can, any way they can, but making sure not to get caught. Who were the beneficiaries of this lavish payout? What is this reluctance to release details?

That is the Code of Silence in effect.

I was not at all surprised at the reported statements of the Minister of Finance, Larry Howai, on the 22 July 2015 High Court judgment ordering him to provide the detailed information I had requested on the CL Financial bailout. The High Court granted a 28-day stay of execution and the Ministry is reportedly in consultation with its lawyers, claiming that “A decision will be made within the period of time allowed by the court,”. The article closed with this quote –

“…Finance Minister Larry Howai said in the statement it should be noted, none of the requests refer to “how over $25b was spent in the Clico bailout”…”

Given that the very request was for the detailed financial information which has been deliberately suppressed since 2009, it is of course impossible to say with any certainty just how much Public Money was actually spent on this CL Financial bailout. That is the inescapable fact at the center of this scandal. The Minister’s tautology is really a powerful explanation of this point.

The fundamentals are that Public Money must be managed and accounted for to a higher standard than that which applies to private money. That is the accepted position in terms of good practice in public administration. Larry Howai is a qualified accountant and was a career banker before his appointment as Minister of Finance & the Economy. I do not accept that Howai is unaware of these standards. We are entitled to a full and detailed accounting of how this vast sum of Public Money was spent…

… continue reading this article at Afra Raymond’s blog: CL Financial Bailout – The Hidden Truth

Afra Raymond – CL Financial bailout enters end game with Bait & Switch

The Code of Silence Rules…

The CL Financial bailout seems to be entering its end-game, with repeated claims from the Minister of Finance that the recovery of the $25 Billion of Public Money spent is now on the cards. The consistent failure or refusal to publish any audited accounts and my ongoing research are telling. We are witness to yet another ‘Plot to Pervert Parliament’, this time it is the biggest project to ever hit this country. The CL Financial bailout…

… read the entire sorry truth at Afra Raymond’s CL Financial – Bait & Switch

Afra Raymond on More 104.7fm – talks about his lawsuit against the Minister of Finance

Afra Raymond chats on the show ’Forward Thinkers‘ with David Walker on 104.7FM, dealing with the CL Financial bailout and my lawsuit against the Minister of Finance to get at the detailed information as to how the $24B in Public Money was spent. 24 October 2013. Audio courtesy More 104.7 FM. Listen here.

Programme Date: Thursday 24th October 2013
Programme Length: 0:45:41

CL Financial – CLICO bailout: Afra Raymond documents The Treasury Scandal

“In my view the failure and or refusal to account for the colossal and unprecedented expense of the CL Financial bailout is indicative of a ‘Quiet Coup‘ against our Republic.  I am deliberately borrowing Simon Johnson’s potent phrase, used to describe the coup of Financial Capital against the USA published in a fascinating and essential article from The Atlantic.  The fact that two successive administrations have remained bound to these arrangements and the low priority given to transparency and accountability in this matter all speak to the potency of the plotters.”

Afra Raymond gives ’em hell with The Treasury Scandal

CL Financial scandal: Government ignores Freedom of Information request, Activist heads to court

At least Trinidad and Tobago has a Freedom of Information law!

What is being pursued here is our right as citizens of a modern republic to the details of these huge expenditures of Public Money – the CL Financial bailout is costing some $24Bn, about $3.5Bn USD! – and the background to how critical legislative support is obtained.  It is my view that S.34 was not the first time and that the spectre of ‘regulatory capture’, which underlines much of the discourse around the Great Depression 2, is in fact founded on a sinister degree of ‘legislative capture’.

Having had a series of ‘cat and mouse’ exchanges with the Ministry of Finance since my Freedom of Information Act application made on 11 May 2012, this is my pre-action protocol letter sent to them by my attorney on Thursday 7 March, seeking their proper reply in 7 days…that time expires at midnight today, Wednesday 13 March.

So stay tuned, because we are going to the High Court after that…

Afra Raymond

CL Financial bailout: switching attorneys an act of political revenge!

CL Financial bailout – without rhyme or reason

by Afra Raymond

The last month or so has spoilt us for choice when it comes to amazing scenes being witnessed in relation to the CL Financial bailout and the ongoing Colman Commission.

As I wrote in July 2010, in criticising the appointment of Jack Warner to the Cabinet –

“…We need to be mindful of the relationship between morals, ethics, law and of course, that scarce commodity, good sense.  Obviously, law is the paramount authority, because we live in a republic ruled by laws, not men. No one should break the law and there are penalties for doing that.  

But we also know that in life we make many important decisions without referring to any laws. Those are sound decisions, which form norms, eventually described as custom-and-practice or culture. There are many acts, which are at one and the same time both deeply offensive to right-thinking people (and I think that most people are right-thinking) and in breach of no particular law.  Many acts, with no need for examples, since this is a newspaper any child could pick up and read…”

Attorney Seenath Jairam’s serious lapse of judgment…

The main talking point was the decision of the Law Association President, Seenath Jairam SC, to accept the Ministry of Finance brief for the Colman Commission after the dismissal of Michael Quamina and Fyard Hosein SC.   Apart from our friendship, Seenath Jairam is an attorney in whom I have utmost confidence in these areas.  That said, his acceptance of that brief was a serious lapse of judgment, since in my view a leader cannot behave the same as the ordinary members of an association.  A leader who is unable to realize that his role demands unique sacrifices will soon exhaust his supporters’ loyalty.

Afra Raymond: I will not be stopped!

“It is a wonder that you are continuing to write these articles Mr. Raymond. Have you received any pressure to stop? If only our Bajan journalists had your integrity and courage.”

Barbados Free Press reader WSD comments on Afra Raymond’s article CL Financial bailout “a major failure on any scale”

In response to a reader’s concern for his safety, journalist Afra Raymond replies:

Readers,

I am going to continue on my course, this is an epic crisis, being the single largest episode of corruption in our region’s history, so it is essential that the few of us keep on informing the public and agitating for Economic and Social Justice in this matter.

I am independent enough to maintain these efforts – no one is ever absolutely independent in our small societies – and it is a painful reflection in this, our 50th year of T&T’s Independence, that our leading institutions, academies and thinkers have remained resolutely silent in the face of this tidal wave of ‘commesse’ and ‘bobol’. It does make me wonder what was the ultimate purpose of all the sacrifice of our foreparents who struggled for liberation from colonialism, education and self-determination. What was that all for?

It is a disturbing measure of the depth of the corruption in all the western democracies that so few of the main players in this global meltdown have actually been imprisoned, but that is an issue for another column in this series.

My rallying call is –

SILENCE IS THE ENEMY OF PROGRESS!

Thanks for your support

Afra Raymond
www.afraraymond.com

CL Financial bailout “a major failure on any scale”

“The region’s largest privately-held group of companies is now under State control, in a situation of huge insolvency, with no proper accounts and no declarations being filed by the Directors…

This development is a serious peril to our Treasury.  It must be a matter of the gravest possible concern to all right-thinking people that our fundamental Integrity safeguards appear to have been circumvented or ignored in a matter of this size and consequence.”

A call to order

by Afra Raymond

The CL Financial bailout continues to be a major failure on any scale, both in the causes of the fiasco and especially the manner in which it has been handled. This is my update on what has been the progress in this campaign.

First… A Reality Check

The equation for our reality check is –

Expenditure of Public Money
Minus      –      Transparency
Minus      –      Accountability
Equals     =     CORRUPTION

In May 2009, I wrote that the Directors and Officers of the CL Financial group should be required to file declarations under the provisions of the Integrity in Public Life Act (IPLA). According to the IPLA, the Schedule detailing those persons is at page 31 – one of the classes of person required to file declarations to the Integrity Commission is –

“Members of the Boards of all Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises including those bodies in which the State has a controlling interest.”

I have put the last part of the sentence in italics to emphasize the deliberate choice of language by the legislators.  The drafting of legislation is a painstaking exercise of strategy, debate and sometimes compromise…my point being that the inclusion of that last phrase must mean that the legislators intended to go beyond merely saying ‘Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises’, which would be the obvious, to specify that the IPLA must also apply in situations where the State has a controlling interest.

The CL Financial Shareholders Agreement (the Agreement), of 12 June 2009, which I obtained by using the Freedom of Information Act, specifies at clause 3.1 that the Board of Directors of CLF shall consist of seven Directors, four of which shall be nominated by the Government.  The government has been exercising its rights under this clause, so it is clear that the State’s controlling interest in the CL Financial group is effective.

Why was a profitable division of CLICO sold off?

Dear Barbados Free Press,

I don’t pretend to be knowledgeable about high finance or corporate affairs, and therefore I have to look at situations on a simple level. I’m having difficulty understanding something about how the powers that be handled the CLICO debacle. Here is my observation and questions:

In the current issue of Barbados Today, the news article “Upturn” says,

“One year after being rescued from under the beleaguered CLICO Holdings umbrella, Capita Financial Services, formerly CLICO Mortgage and Finance Company, is projecting a profit of just over one million dollars at March next year.”

Barbados Today Upturn

Why would the trustees of the CLICO mess sell off a profitable operation?

To my mind it would make more sense to hang onto it. The profit from this successful operation could have been used to shore up the rest or at least reduce the damage to policy holders who were ripped off.

That is unless the vultures saw an opportunity to grab a profitable piece of the company at the expense of the already-victimized policy holders.

Can someone please explain why this selling off of a profitable piece of CLICO was necessary and how it was good for the victims of Mr. Leroy Parris and Mr. Lawrence Duprey?

Thank you,

A fellow victim

Continued mismanagement of CLICO – CL Financial “devastating” to policy holders

Policy holders: Your Country Needs You

by David Walker of Santa Rosa Team

• The realities of the “offer” are not as described by the Minister and others.
• Once you sign, you have given up all rights, even if they don’t honour the stated terms.
• The “offer” is open until June 2012, so only your financial circumstances should force you to sign now.

While the happenings at CLICO and CL Financial have already had a devastating effect on your lives, it pains me to say that the continued mismanagement of the companies is about to hit you even harder. Like every other taxpayer and citizen, you will suffer from both the immediate financial impact, and the long term destruction of our investment and business climate. And YOU are the only ones standing in the way of the impending catastrophe.

“When a nation abandons the rule of law, when there is no attempt at regulatory oversight, when accountability and transparency are non-existent, and when any pretense of equity is openly shunned by authority, the inevitable result will be economic decline.

Who would invest in a country where you cannot enforce contracts against a company? Who would leave their money in companies that do not offer audited statements for over five years, with evident impunity? The answer is obvious.”

Recently, the authorities took legal action against directors of e-Teck for failures far less severe and with much milder consequences than what happened at CLICO/CLF. No authority has seen it fit to take similar action against the directors of CLICO/CLF. The nation needs to cleanse itself of these heinous acts. YOU are the only ones who will take the necessary action against both former and present directors of CLICO/CLF.

The Regulators failed disastrously at CLICO/CLF. Rather than punishment and condemnation, they have been handed the reins at CLICO.

There is now no Regulator at CLICO as a result. The ills that the Regulator identified as causes of the collapse have been continued, even accelerated under his stewardship. We still see interlocking directorships and related party transactions at the expense of policyholders. Only YOU and your actions can force the Governor of the Central Bank to honour his role as Regulator, and look after the interests of policyholders.

CL Financial Fraud: 31 months of government control and no accounts yet!

UPDATED: November 9, 2011 – 6pm

Afra Raymond testified today at 2pm before the Colman Commission into the CL Financial collapse. No word if the video or audio of his testimony will be made available.

CL Financial bailout – The Final Solution?

by Afra Raymond

The new bailout formula was approved, as two new Acts, by Trinidad and Tobago Parliament on 14^th September, 2011…

The Central Bank (Amendment) Bill, 2011

The Purchase of Certain Rights and Validation Bill, 2011

The first one prevents any lawsuits against the Central Bank by claimants, while the second gives the Minister of Finance the right to borrow up to $10.7Bn and places the Republic Bank Ltd. (RBL) shares formerly held by CLICO into a new investment vehicle, NEL 2.

A perversion of our Treasury

These seem to represent what I am calling the Final Solution, in that the clamour and protest which had marked the last year seems to have been fading away.  There have been queries from the various ‘Policyholders’ groups’, but those have been limited.

Whatever one thinks of the actual bailout, which I maintain is a perversion of our Treasury, there are valuable lessons to be learned from all this.  The main lesson for me is the Power of the Few. 

In that although only about 16,000 investors were affected, they were able to mount a successful campaign to improve their position.  We need to note that lobbying and campaigning can be effective in gaining benefits for limited groups.  To all the weak-hearts who say nothing ever changes, please take note.

Duprey, Parris, Thompson and some other people need to go to jail

CL Financial, CLICO – one huge unsustainable Ponzi Scheme

“Lawrence Duprey was paid $90 million a year from the deposits of policyholders in collapsed insurance company CLICO, attorney Neal Bisnath said yesterday.”

“CLICO invested US$445 million of policyholders’ money in a Florida real estate project called Capri, while the investment was worth only US$200 million.”

If Prime Minister David Thompson was alive today, he would have some difficult questions to answer about his activities as CLICO’s lawyer, and about how he and his government participated in building the house of cards Ponzi scheme known as CLICO. The public deserves the truth about what Thompson knew, what he did – and how his long-term service putting deals together for CLICO, Duprey and Parris put him in numerous conflicts of interest as Prime Minister.

David Thompson knew that CLICO policy holders were paying outrageous money to Duprey and Parris – probably illegally with no segregation of funds even where the rules called for this. David Thompson knew that the payments were being hidden. David Thompson was CLICO’s lawyer when ten years of accounting records were illegally withheld.

“We know now that on May 15, 2005 while acting as CLICO’s lawyer, David Thompson signed a secret contract between CLICO and Leroy Parris’ private company that in effect deceived shareholders into believing that Parris was being paid less than he really was.”

…from the BFP article Leroy Parris’ defence of Prime Minister David Thompson rings hollow now

David Thompson knew that CLICO was being raped by Duprey and Parris. David Thompson was part of it and you can bet that when he became Prime Minister his senior Cabinet members had to have known the truth too. That house of cards was wobbling long before it collapsed – and the Thompson-Stuart government covered up and protected Leroy Parris for as long as they could. After all, the government politicians got their bizjet rides, the DLP got its funding and Thompson’s law firm got big contracts – paid for with policy holders’ funds.

Now the only “solution” that the Thompson/Stuart DLP Government can come up with is for taxpayers to “invest” more money. Well, I guess that’s better than riots in the streets.

As for Leroy Parris and Lawrence Duprey – they laughed all the way to the bank and they are laughing still. There are hundreds of millions of assets missing, just vanished into thin air at the end of fraudulent paper trails, but nobody will go to jail for this massive fraud and breach of the public trust. No big shot ever goes to jail in Barbados.

This Barbados Today article lays it all out…

Bisnath made the statements as he cross-examined Michael Carballo, the former group financial director of CL Financial, during the commission of enquiry into the collapse of CL Financial and the Hindu Credit Union at the Winsure Building, Richmond Street, Port of Spain, yesterday.

Bisnath said CLICO’s cash stream was also used to fund investments made by CL Financial.

“Is it true to say that from what we have seen CLICO was really used as a cash cow in the group?” Bisnath asked Carballo.

“Yes, because CLICO was really the one that had the cash flowing in it,” Carballo said.

“And that cash that was flowing happened to be policyholders’ money and Mr Duprey and CL were using CLICO policyholders’ monies without regard to the risk that it was putting those policyholders under,” Bisnath said.

Bisnath described Duprey as a “great investor of other people’s money”.

He said CLICO invested US$445 million of policyholders’ money in a Florida real estate project called Capri, while the investment was worth only US$200 million.

“We know in taking on risks he (Duprey) used policyholders’ money, not his personal money; and when you use OPM, other people’s money, you can have all kind of fancy dreams and you can make all kind of fancy investments because if you lose it, it is not your money you are losing,” Bisnath said.

“He (Duprey) could therefore have a bold and aggressive attitude toward business, and an insatiable risk appetite because it was not his money he was using,” Bisnath said.

Read the entire story at Barbados Today: Duprey paid $90 million a year

Further Reading

Trinidad Express: Duprey bagged $1.1b before bailout

Coleman Commission into CL Financial: Ministry of Finance, Central Bank want to exclude Afra Raymond’s testimony

“A Commission of Enquiry can only make findings on the evidence submitted to it, so it would be very important for some people to have certain evidence omitted.”

The Colman Commission – Balancing the Scale

by Afra Raymond

The Colman Commission into the failure of CLF Financial and the Hindu Credit Union is just about to move into its second round of Hearings and the public can expect to have further testimony on the losses suffered by people who deposited monies with CL Financial.

I have made several submissions to the Commission and have been invited to give evidence. 

I am reliably informed that there have been strong and unanimous objections to my participation in the Colman Commission.  It would seem that only the Commission itself is interested in having my testimony go onto the record.

It is not surprising to me that objections of that sort would be arising now, but readers need to have a context.

The Colman Commission was established to find out how this fiasco occurred, recommend methods to stop a recurrence and also to identify responsible people who are apt for lawsuits or criminal charges.  The main parties can be expected to give self-serving evidence, designed to exonerate themselves from any blame.

We can also expect to hear more attempts to put the blame onto Wall Street, despite the claims in the CL Financial 2007 Annual Report – this is from the preamble –

“…“The Next Wave of Growth” is the theme of this annual report, highlighting, to quote our Chairman, “that out of any crisis opportunities will emerge and our progress during the year under review prepares us to seize those opportunities and unlock value.” We have confidence in our ability to not only navigate this financial storm but to find fresh and profitable opportunities within it…”

That Annual Report was published on 23^rd January 2009 – yes, that is 10 days after Duprey wrote to the Central Bank Governor for urgent financial assistance and one week before the bailout was signed on 30^th January.

The Colman Commission is a Public Inquiry into a matter of major importance; it was approved by the Cabinet and installed by the President of the Republic.  A Commission of Enquiry can only make findings on the evidence submitted to it, so it would be very important for some people to have certain evidence omitted.

Without fear of punishment CL Financial – CLICO Executives had no limits

“If you let people get the idea that they can never be punished, there is virtually no limit to the rules they will break.  Asset-stripping, Bribery and Corruption can become the new norms of a governing class and that is what has happened in our country.”

This is an edited version of Afra Raymond’s address to the 4th Biennial Business Banking and Finance Conference (BBF4) held at the Trinidad Hilton from 22nd to 24th June, 2011.

The session he participated in was devoted to ‘Lessons from the Financial Crisis: The Resolution of Failed Entities’.

by Afra Raymond

Thanks for the invitation to speak at this forum, it was last-minute, but welcome, since our local Institutions of Higher Learning have not spent the necessary time to explain and analyse this financial fiasco.  I have been very critical of the Institute of Business, the Institute of Social and Economic Research, the Faculties of Economics and Management and the Caribbean Centre for Money & Finance, so it is great to see you making a start on this overdue work.  It is my pleasure to participate in these proceedings.

I want to start by shifting focus to the arena of the mind and the existence of elements such as moral and ethical values, as well as social standards.  In 1971 there was a famous series of psychological experiments in which selected students entered a two-week role-play as prison-guards in control of other people who were playing the role of prisoners.

That experiment was conducted at Stanford University in California and the results were that most of the prison guards adopted cruel behaviour with most of them being upset when the experiment was stopped after only six days.  The entire experiment was filmed and the prisoners suffered from regular acts of wickedness, abuse and sheer perversity – one-third of the guards acted sadistically.

The Stanford Prison Experiment as it is now known, was heavily criticised as being unethical and unprofessional.  Of course the other aspect is that it re-opened the perennial discussion into the nature of things.  The nature of our nature, as it were – ‘Are we humans naturally evil and cruel?’  The learning seems to be that well-adjusted and reasonable people can very quickly lose their moral compass in a situation with a lack of the conventional controls such as disapproval and laws.

The New Norms of the Governing Class…

No surprise to those familiar with history and politics, but the lesson for us in T&T is that…

If you let people get the idea that they can never be punished, there is virtually no limit to the rules they will break.  Asset-stripping, Bribery and Corruption can become the new norms of a governing class and that is what has happened in our country.

We have never had a strong tradition of detecting and punishing White-Collar Criminals, so if we are to make a start in terms of the resolution of failed entities, that has to be the starting-point.  We cannot reconstruct or resolve the failed entities if we do not change that aspect of our culture – the absence of consequence has to be abolished.

Finance Minister Chris Sinckler silent on CLICO’s political donations to DLP

Sinckler: “Bajans aren’t mature or intelligent enough to see raw or incomplete data. They might draw conclusions different from what the government wants.”

How else should voters interpret Mr. Sinckler’s recent statement that the 30-day judicial manager’s report on CLICO International Life Insurance Limited should be kept hidden? Mr. Sinckler wants the big-ups and elites to put everything together in a tidy little report that directs Bajans to whatever conclusion the elites want to sell us.

“Let’s get this straight, Mr. Sinckler: Bajans don’t trust you or your government to tell the truth about CLICO.”

The late Prime Minister Thompson was way too close to CLICO’s Leroy Parris. David Thompson was also CLICO’s lawyer when proper financial statements weren’t filed for ten years. And when it all hit the fan for CLICO and CL Financial, Thompson used the power of his Prime Minister’s office to deny judicial oversight. Not to mention the cushy job he gave to Leroy Parris at the CBC that allowed the government to control the news about this fraud.

“We know now that on May 15, 2005 while acting as CLICO’s lawyer, David Thompson signed a secret contract between CLICO and Leroy Parris’ private company that in effect deceived shareholders into believing that Parris was being paid less than he really was.”

…from the BFP article Leroy Parris’ defence of Prime Minister David Thompson rings hollow now

Friends forever: Finance Minister Sinckler & Leroy Parris chatting over champagne

Finally, the DLP received big money from CLICO in the form or political donations and who knows what else on the side, including executive jet use for free when the cost was tens of thousands of dollars or more per ride. The DLP was brought into power in good part through the big money of CLICO.

That was OUR MONEY that was given to the DLP. The money that policy holders and investors placed with CLICO in good faith and it was sucked out of the company into phony land purchases, mansions in Florida and who knows how much into YOUR POLITICAL POCKET MR. SINCKLER.

Answer the policy holders this Mr. Sinckler, or sit down and shut up:

“How much did the DLP Democratic Labour Party and the candidates receive from CLICO and associated companies and persons in the last 15 years?”

Until you answer that question Mr. Sinckler, just sit down and shut up. We’ve heard enough of your opinions on how this fraud should be investigated, thank you.

Signed,

A policy holder and a victim.

Further Reading

You should go to Barbados Today to read the story about Sinckler, but we’ll reprint the entire passage here because the Barbados news media has a habit of re-writing history and deleting stories, and that includes staff at Barbados Today who used to be at The Nation.

So read the story at Barbados Today, but if it’s gone, then read it here…

CL Financial Bailout: The final Annual General Meeting was a Lie!

Shareholders not told about billions in missing assets

by Afra Raymond

CL Financial’s final Annual General Meeting was the most interesting meeting in the saga of its collapse.

That meeting took place at the Trinidad Hilton on Friday 23^rd January 2009, so consider the timeline –

• 18^th November 2008 – CLF publishes its 2007 Annual Report, including its audited accounts, which showed assets of $100.666Bn and after-tax profits of $1.74Bn.
• 13^th January 2009 – CLF writes, under Lawrence Duprey’s signature, to the Governor of the Central Bank to request urgent financial assistance.  See pg 628 of Hansard of 4^th February 2009 for the text.  That letter specified that CLF’s asset value was $23.9Bn.
• 16^th January 2009 – CLF pays a dividend of $3.00 per share.
• 23^rd January 2009 – CLF convenes its final AGM before the ‘official’ collapse.
• 30^th January 2009 – The bailout of CLF is announced at a Press Conference at the Central Bank.  All the speakers at that event stated the CLF asset value at $100Bn.

Given that the normal function of an Annual General Meeting is to inform shareholders and stakeholders of a company of its performance and prospects, that timeline raises some intriguing questions.

For whatever reason, there have been no published reports of that final CL Financial Annual General Meeting, so I posed these questions to a CLF shareholder in an email exchange –

Retirement planning by CL Financial Directors & Officers: They got their money!

Florida: Just one of the Duprey family mansions

When did CL Financial & CLICO insiders know that the group was heading for collapse?

by Afra Raymond

When you consider increasing lifespans, inflation and the greater likelihood of major medical expense, it is clear that proper retirement planning should be a major factor for most people.

Central to the growth and long-term success of the CL Financial group was its ability to mobilise the retirement savings of the Caribbean people in pursuance of its wider commercial objectives.  I have been writing on how it all went wrong and who is to blame.

In preparing my submissions for the Colman Commission it occurred to me that the retirement planning of the 3 CL Financial chiefs is central to understanding the entire fiasco.  It is rich in irony.

Fiduciary Duty of Directors and Officers

When did the Directors and Officers of CL Financial (CLF) know that the group was heading to collapse? 

When did the Directors and Officers of the failed subsidiaries know? 

What did they know and when did they know it? How much warning did their management controls give them?

The questions are pertinent and the time-line is instructive –