The Trinidad and Tobago government says it has decided to end an appeal now before the London-based Privy Council involving Proman Holdings Barbados Ltd and the local conglomerate, CL Financial Ltd (CLF).
In a statement, the Office of the Attorney General, said that the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government which came to ffice in April last year, had been confronted with several complex legal disputes, including the Privy Council matter arising out of a controversial share transfer involving Clico Energy Company Ltd, now known as Process Energy (Trinidad) Ltd (PETL).
The dispute centred on a February 3, 2009, purchase and sale agreement under which CLF, purportedly acting through its then-chairman and director, the late Lawrence Duprey, sought to transfer a 51 per cent shareholding in Clico Energy to Proman for US$46.5 million.
High Court judge, Justice Devindra Rampersad in a ruling in September 2021 found that the transfer was invalid and Rampersad ordered Proman to return the 51 per cent shareholding to CLF and to account for dividends and distributions received. Those sums were ultimately valued at more than US$185.9 million exclusive of interest.
Proman lost an appeal before the Court of Appeal, which described the case as ‘high stakes, full-blown, adversarial litigation involving well-renowned titans of trade and industry’.
Proman subsequently pursued a final appeal before the Privy Council.
But in its statement, the Office of the Attorney General noted that immediately upon taking office, the government, as the majority shareholder and largest creditor of CLF, sought advice from a London based King’s Counsel on the prospects of success before the Privy Council and the likelihood of the appellate court’s decision being upheld.
It said that after receiving the advice, the government opted to continue settlement negotiations that had been initiated, but not concluded, under the former administration.
The statement from the Office of the Attorney General noted that careful consideration was given to the litigation risks involved, including the ‘very real possibility’ that certain findings of the Court of Appeal could be overturned by the Privy Council.
Ultimately, CLF, with the express agreement of its liquidator and the sanction of the court, agreed to sell the disputed shares to Proman Holdings Barbados Ltd as part of a compromise to bring the Privy Council proceedings to an end.
The Attorney General’s Office said the completion of the transaction allowed the government to recover significant funds for the state while avoiding the substantial financial and legal risks associated with continuing the litigation before the country’s apex appellate court.
‘This decision balanced the national interest, the prospects of success and the need to protect public finances,’ the statement said, adding that the settlement brought finality to one of the most significant and long-standing disputes arising out of the collapse of the CLF group.
Last week, the government announced it was ending the civil matters involving the collapsed conglomerate CL Financial Group after indicating that billions of dollars (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) had been spent on attorney fees.
Attorney General John Jeremie in a statement to Parliament last Friday, told legislators that the Persad-Bissessar administration had decided to end the decades old probe that included a legal ‘feeding frenzy’ even as a ‘joke’ investigation took place.
Jeremie, who laid the Sir Anthony Colman report into the failure of CL Financial in Parliament, said he had been tasked with deciding the way forward and ‘whether to continue this decades-long joke of an investigation, because that is what it was, spending money on lawyers, billions of dollars on lawyers, and not having people check boxes, or putting one police officer to watch a box.
‘What do I do? Well, as guardian of the public interest and having consulted with the Honourable Prime Minister, I have to say that we are not able to continue to spend hard resources, government resources.
‘And we are not able to authorise and to allow for the spending on professional services to persons who are sometimes golfers but who are always very wealthy, move in various parts of the world. Some of us live next door to the Governor General of Barbados.’
On January 19, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago asked the High Court to adjourn the continuation of its long-running lawsuit against former directors of CLF and Duprey, while it reviews the Colman report to determine whether it has a bearing on the case.
The matter, filed by the Central Bank in 2011, concerns allegations arising from the collapse of Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Ltd and other entities within the CLF group.
Justice Robin Mohammed granted the adjournment to January 26.