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Source: The Trinidad Express, Sunday, June 7, 2009
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index...s?id=161487723
CLICO SCHEME
Forensic investigator Lindquist uncovers...
Sunday, June 7th 2009
ACE INVESTIGATOR: Robert Lindquist
FORENSIC investigator Robert Lindquist has uncovered what is being described as an elaborate scheme within the CL Financial Group, where annuities, with attractive returns, were being sold by insurance power house CLICO but that customers' investments were being funnelled for ghost services to the group.
Reliable sources have disclosed that the scheme, akin to the Ponzi scheme operated by Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff, was launched back in 1997 as CL executives took advantage of a loophole in the existing insurance legislation and excess liquidity in the marketplace.
In Madoff's case, the fraud, which US prosecutors say may have totalled nearly US$65 billion, turned him into an overnight global disgrace, as his name became synonymous with the current economic meltdown.
In his court appearance in March, Madoff pleaded guilty to all 11 counts he was charged with, including fraud, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan and two counts of international money laundering.
CLICO's insurance agents, the Sunday Express was told, were rewarded with astronomical commissions to push the annuities which offered a 30 per cent return every year, far exceeding that offered by other insurance companies.
Financial records under probe have revealed that large deposits were made to the Statutory Fund a month before the deadline, but the scheme began to collapse with the downturn in the economy and the slowdown in the sale of the annuities.
Lindquist's preliminary findings have also found that CL Financial purchased Jamaican rum producer Appleton for US$370 million, some US$150 million more than its original selling price.
These revelations from the preliminary findings of Lindquist and his team of investigators come on the heels of Lawrence Duprey, last Tuesday, signing off on a new agreement that sees him relinquishing all control over the CL Financial Group.
Sources said that for former CL Financial executive chairman Duprey and his team of his advisers, signing off on the new agreement was an about turn for them as they dropped their objections to several clauses, including the right of the State to pursue criminal investigations in the event wrongdoing was uncovered.
Sources also reminded that even after Government intervened on January 30 to bail out CL Financial and after he signed a memorandum of understanding and subsequently provided a guarantee to policyholders, Duprey nevertheless went ahead with the sale of the company's stake in Clico Energy Co Ltd to longtime equity partner Proman AG.
CL Financial's attempt to sell its 51 per cent interest in Clico Energy to Proman AG sparked the court action initiated by the Central Bank on Carnival Sunday (February 22), when the Central Bank obtained an injunction preventing Duprey from disposing of any CLICO-owned assets.
In a previous Sunday Express report, sources claimed that the $300 million sale price was substantially less than the book value of the shares which are owned by CL Financial (34 per cent) and the insurance company, CLICO, 17 per cent.
Following the signing of the memorandum of understanding on January 30, former attorney general Bridgid Annisette-George, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira and Duprey met at the Office of the Attorney General for further discussions even as the Central Bank was involved with its High Court matter seeking to get detailed financial information from the CL Financial Group.
Lawyers for the Central Bank are also seeking to challenge a High Court order which prevents the State from using disclosed information in any future criminal proceedings.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index...s?id=161487723
CLICO SCHEME
Forensic investigator Lindquist uncovers...
Sunday, June 7th 2009
ACE INVESTIGATOR: Robert Lindquist
FORENSIC investigator Robert Lindquist has uncovered what is being described as an elaborate scheme within the CL Financial Group, where annuities, with attractive returns, were being sold by insurance power house CLICO but that customers' investments were being funnelled for ghost services to the group.
Reliable sources have disclosed that the scheme, akin to the Ponzi scheme operated by Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff, was launched back in 1997 as CL executives took advantage of a loophole in the existing insurance legislation and excess liquidity in the marketplace.
In Madoff's case, the fraud, which US prosecutors say may have totalled nearly US$65 billion, turned him into an overnight global disgrace, as his name became synonymous with the current economic meltdown.
In his court appearance in March, Madoff pleaded guilty to all 11 counts he was charged with, including fraud, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan and two counts of international money laundering.
CLICO's insurance agents, the Sunday Express was told, were rewarded with astronomical commissions to push the annuities which offered a 30 per cent return every year, far exceeding that offered by other insurance companies.
Financial records under probe have revealed that large deposits were made to the Statutory Fund a month before the deadline, but the scheme began to collapse with the downturn in the economy and the slowdown in the sale of the annuities.
Lindquist's preliminary findings have also found that CL Financial purchased Jamaican rum producer Appleton for US$370 million, some US$150 million more than its original selling price.
These revelations from the preliminary findings of Lindquist and his team of investigators come on the heels of Lawrence Duprey, last Tuesday, signing off on a new agreement that sees him relinquishing all control over the CL Financial Group.
Sources said that for former CL Financial executive chairman Duprey and his team of his advisers, signing off on the new agreement was an about turn for them as they dropped their objections to several clauses, including the right of the State to pursue criminal investigations in the event wrongdoing was uncovered.
Sources also reminded that even after Government intervened on January 30 to bail out CL Financial and after he signed a memorandum of understanding and subsequently provided a guarantee to policyholders, Duprey nevertheless went ahead with the sale of the company's stake in Clico Energy Co Ltd to longtime equity partner Proman AG.
CL Financial's attempt to sell its 51 per cent interest in Clico Energy to Proman AG sparked the court action initiated by the Central Bank on Carnival Sunday (February 22), when the Central Bank obtained an injunction preventing Duprey from disposing of any CLICO-owned assets.
In a previous Sunday Express report, sources claimed that the $300 million sale price was substantially less than the book value of the shares which are owned by CL Financial (34 per cent) and the insurance company, CLICO, 17 per cent.
Following the signing of the memorandum of understanding on January 30, former attorney general Bridgid Annisette-George, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira and Duprey met at the Office of the Attorney General for further discussions even as the Central Bank was involved with its High Court matter seeking to get detailed financial information from the CL Financial Group.
Lawyers for the Central Bank are also seeking to challenge a High Court order which prevents the State from using disclosed information in any future criminal proceedings.
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