The Trouble With T&T Laws… Or Why No Arrests Made Yet In Over $200+ million Scandal Involving Newsday Shares

      Sam Bankman-Fried  …Now in Jail                                        Dawn Ford …. Awaiting Officials To Act                                                                                                                     Against Ford’s Fraud

 

In mid-November 2022 Crypt exchange filed for bankruptcy. On 12th December, less than one month later, the head of the company Sam Bankman-Fried, was s sitting in a jail in the Bahamas awaiting extradition to the U.S. on massive financial charges and fraud. He’s now on $250 million bail while the company sets about retrieving billions stolen.

Compared this to a several cases here in T&T where there have been no actions after reports have been made to several agencies concerning similar fraud.

The latest is a massive rip-off and fraud involving well over $200+ million dollars from the Chookolingo media empire by one of Choko’s estranged children, Dawn Ford. This fraud resulted in the closure of the once profitable Mirror and Sunday Punch newspapers and the sale of the multi-million dollar printing press for $20,000. Most of the other multi-million dollar printing assets remain unaccounted for despite several requests from irate shareholders with the response that you can “take it to court if you can.”  Some 40% of Newsday’s shares owned by the Chookolingo family which was admitted to be worth well over $100 million dollars, but was instead were sold quietly for $8 million after certain shareholders were illegally paid off discreetly disappear. The last value of those same Newsday shares was done in 2008 for around $84 million dollars and the company made hefty annual profits since then. Ford has since migrated to Canada where she thinks she in beyond the reach of the T&T laws just like Sam Bankman-Fried who felt he was safe in the Bahamas. It is said that her Canadian status was hastily arranged by people who bought the Newsday shares, the almighty 1% of T&T who could teach the world a thing or two, one of which is to take control of the National Security apparatus (including phone tapping) which is supposedly run by the police. The Newsday financials showing massive profits and value which Ford has steadfastly refused to provide the Chookolingo family with any details but just to blame the former management and are finally being presented here for the first time (see the actual 2011 and 2012 Newsday accounts at end of this article) which show how they were robbed over $200 million by uneducated and simpleton Dawn Ford for the 1%. This same strategy was then used by them to rip off, defraud and close down the State’s premier oil company, Petrotrin and other companies like Clico to name just 2 of the biggest known examples. It has been argued that State’s Housing Development Corporation (HDC) also fits this bill and strangely enough it was Dr Rowley’s last ministry before becoming PM, the only ministry to be restructured under a new name.

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Steve Castagne (see link to ‘Who is Steve Castagne’ …click here)

The various laws that were broken include:

The Companies Act:  Under this act it states quite clearly that dividends are paid from profits which must be shown in the annual financials. Ford has never presented financials at any AGM for the past 12 years but has been paying dividends by using all company’s monies as a slush fund. So for 12 years annual financials were never approved at AGM’s because Ford promised shareholders that she could get $100 million for these same shares that she eventually sold for $8 million and only distributed $5 million of that part of that, each of the to shareholders, each receiving a meagre $400,000. She had promised each shareholder over $6 million each. Now several credible allegations are circulating in the Chookolingo family about who got paid, off the books, to support the sale, thereby robbing themselves. But Ford has the backings of the majority of shareholders who she convinced many by paying them off or conning them. (see link to ‘The NIB Amendment ….” to see reports of made  to the T&T authorities …click here)

1. The Vat Act:  Since accounts were never kept, Vat was never paid to the B.I.R. The BIR has been informed of this. Why the BIR never did a field visit as is normally done is a mystery.

(3) The Income Tax Act: Similarly, since payroll records were never kept, no individual tax deductions (PAYE) were submitted. Ford, 67, has never worked a day in her adult life and doesn’t have a clue about any of this…she was misguided by the 1% so they could rob the company. It is now clear that the buyer (s) have been calling all the shots at the company to get her to sell the company, lock, stock and barrel for a couple million.  Ford and her 1% cohorts fabricated and circulated lies like they were professionals, maybe knowing the police and courts will not act….which has been the case up to now.

(4) The Corporate Tax Act: This Act spells out all the regulations for submitting taxes and the severe penalties incurred, which must be done at minimum every 4 months.  Since no form of accounts were kept for those 12 years, Ford was able to concoct stories to those she paid (some of them off the books) to keep them quiet. Her M.O. was to create maximum bacchanal to get shareholders to lose interest which is how ‘the 1% oligarchs’ normally conduct elections in T&T.  These fraudulent acts against the State was foisted on the Chookolingo shareholders by the buyers of the Newsday shares, top PNM big wigs (AKA The 1%), who are well versed in paying both sides to create havoc whereby they control the entire economy.

(5) The National Insurance Act: (see link to our previous story on the NIB Scam) Besides a revenue earning department, this act ensures that all employee deductions are paid to the Board. This Act was amended in 2022 by Parliament, so that Ford could file these deductions (all bogus anyway) since she never deducted any money from employees from salaries since there was never any payroll. This amendment to the Act was hastily arranged by the 1% after former employees of the company (Mirror) started to file for pension payments and were told for the past 12 years there were no records they were employed. Once you are employed, your employer is obligated to submit those payments to the Board. Failure to do so is a criminal act as outlined by the NIB Act. (see link to ‘The NIB Amendment ….” …click here)

What these several breaches of the laws show is that Sam Bankman-Fried should have set his company up in T&T, and he would have been protected by high people (1% oligarchs) in Government who could amend the laws or do anything else. The NIB amendment was rushed through to cover-up this $200 hundred million dollar rip off at Mirror / Newsday, while Sam Bankman- Fried is said to have ripped off US billions. There is no way the US Government is going to amend laws to free Sam Bankman-Fried, so why is this happening in T&T? The almighty 1%, oligarchs, is truly a law unto themselves thanks to the PNM. The titular 1% head is DOMA’s Gregory Aboud, who went public recently on how ‘pure and clean’ the 1% people are. (Click here to see ‘Stink Mouth Aboud Bats For The Malicious 1%’ click here)

TTJF asked 2 accountants for their analysts of the records available to us and they were able to agree on the following based on the audited accounts of Newsday for 2011/2012:

It is highly unusual for the payables (money owing to third parties) would suddenly go from $10 million a year in 2011 to $17.8 million in 2012 without proper notation, a 70% rise. They suggest this may be fictitious bills. (see the actual and valid 2011 and 2012 Newsday accounts at end of this article).

The accounts show hefty cash in hand of $15 million, annual profit of over $20 million and a dividend of $10.6 million, dividend could have been higher than what was paid in 2012. Both accountants agree that something was amiss.  (TTJF note: This was the year that crooked Ford was on the board ‘managing’ or instead ‘ripping-off’ the 40% shareholding that she herself claimed was worth over $100 million at that time … and now worth much more). Ford remained on the Newsday board for the next decade, where she is allegedly still a board member, during which period the company made over $200 million in profits paid well over $100 million in dividends, extrapolated from the 2011 / 2012 accounts, while Ford was telling her ‘broken’ supports how well the company was now doing while she was there…but instead dividends had mysteriously dried up.

Ford’s detractors insisted that ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’ so if the company was doing so well where were the dividends? 

Ford never gave any answers up to this day.

In any event, shareholders of Mirror Group who owned the 40% Newsday shares, never saw much of the millions in Newsday dividends per year (or multiply by 10 since 2010, another $90 odd-million more) before the pandemic hit. The accounts speak for themselves.  A colossal rip-off if there ever was one. (Yet those shareholders gobbled up Ford’s stories that she had personally “fixed” the hemorrhaging at the company. What shareholders were told by Ford is that dividends from the super profitable Newsday shares would cease being used to keep Mirror alive, which was the hemorrhaging she referred to, but in fact, as we have seen from the 2011/2012 accounts, the hemorrhaging really increased because of her crookedness. Only shareholder K. Mohammed, asked the question: if the Mirror was now so profitable as Ford insists, why hasn’t the dividends increased? Instead, dividends were always on the decrease until Ford sold the Newsday shares in 2021.

Ford made her brother, Wayne, truly look like a kid if nothing else. In any event, over the years after Ford said she “fixed” the company, dividend never recovered from what was paid by the former chairman, Wayne Chookolingo, yet Wayne’s wife sided with Ford to sell Newsday shares worth well over $100 million for which she supposedly collected a grand total of $400,000., TT, a total disgrace. Ignorance or hard times will make people do strange things.

TTJF is able to say the following:

1. The profit from Newsday had been increasing steadily over the years, and by around the year 2000, the company saw Steve Castagne making a big play to oust all board members that did not ‘support’ him. The paper’s CEO, Mills was reported to the police, which report was summarily thrown out even though Castagne had his high political connections. On the death / murder of Wayne Chookolingo, and with the help of crooked Ford, Mills was under pressure to sell her 9% shares to Castagne for $19 million, and received a golden ‘appreciation’ separation package of $5 million, including her company car. This was the same Mills that Castagne had reported to the police but was now in charge because of fraudulent Ford. So, the bottom line is Dawn Ford helped Mrs Mills get super rich but starved her own family for their part of the approx. $100 million in dividends Mirror received from Newsday between 2010 and 2019.

The icing on the cake was, in 2021 Dawn Ford sold the 40% Newsday shares (worth another $100 plus million) for $8 million. So, we can now say that the Mirror Group shareholders were robber of over $200 million during that 10 year period, since 2010 as analysed by two accountants who examined the 2011/2012 Newsday accounts. Another disgusting disgrace was that Ford sat on the Newsday board and approved a purchase of Therese Mills 9% for $15 million, while Ford bragged to Mirror shareholders that all she could get for 40% was $8 million, Yet, Chookolingo shareholders gobbled up her ‘stories’.   A couple of Mirror shareholders are insistent they must get answers and retrieve their stolen money even if the authorities will not help. They called her an outright thief and con woman, which is an offence if this was untrue. She never pursued legal action against the aggrieved shareholders and got another shareholder, Rex, to spread misinformation so she could lump all the accusations together and dismiss them all as rubbish and conspiracies. Rex’s latest email is that Ford broke the Forex laws when she changed the miniscule monies she paid as dividend in US $. When, in fact, this is the only law she didn’t break but Ford could now give a reason, courtesy Rex, why she doesn’t answer valid, fit and proper questions from others shareholders. A copy of the law breaking valid complaints was sent to all shareholders but Ford and her cohorts got Rex to muddy up the waters to make her look like a victim of misinformation by a few stakeholders, the PNM normal, tired election gimmicks which people used to fall for. The PNM propaganda machinery was in full force for this latest skulduggery. Shareholder Rex is now known as the Ford/PNM enabler by some family members in the know.

1. Approximately $10 million dollars from Newsday dividends were used to build up the Mirror / Punch stocks, including Newsprint and related inventories, before Ms Ford handed over the reins ‘free of charge’ to Maxie Cuffie, a relative of the PM. Those millions came directly from Newsday Dividends that shareholders were fed a cock-and-bull story about paying off debts left by the previous Mirror board and her brother, Wayne. The 2011 / 2012 accounts show that her accusations were fabricated like everything else she did and said. And while Wayne was known for his incessant all-night liming, he never tried to sell over $100 million dollar in assets for $8 million or stole and diverted the dividends like Ford. Ford never gave any accounting for the Cuffie misadventure even though the Mirror’s previous accountant, KM., objected to the giveaway. Finally, in 2021 without anyone ever seeing any accounts for Mirror for the previous 12 years, she tells minority shareholders that Mirror’s accounts were with the receiver. A story reminiscent of the closure of Petrotrin by much of the same people. Petrotrin (which was the most valuable State Enterprise before closure), and its mega rip-off involved the billion dollar Niquan coverup. The billion dollar Petrotrin assets were sold to Niquan for a couple of million dollars to mostly active PNM members, partly on credit. The Niquan story is still on-going, as during its start-up operations in 2020, the Niquan plant suffered a massive explosion crippling it. Was that payback from above? The T&T 1% are truly the greatest rip-off artistes ever seen. Apparently the rip off of Mirror and Newsday was a dry run for the rip off of many more companies under ‘their control’ including Clico. PM Rowley very much like Ford and her Newsday fiasco, now insists that he saved Clico, just like he saved Petrotrin. The Petrotrin books are now with the received too and unable to be audited while the Opposition says practically nothing.

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Former PNM Minister who got rich off of Mirror money… now a semi-cripple

 

Anyway, back to the Cuffie rip-off. After a year of using all the multi-million dollar assets and consuming all the Newsprint, and not paying his stipulated rental, Mr Cuffie returned a severely run down company in literal tatters to Ford, so he could take up his Cabinet post. But after that, Ford continued to bamboozle the shareholders with the help of PNM propaganda and ran the paper into the ground until it was unceremoniously closed forever in 2019. On its closure, Ford finally praised the founder, her father, Choko, the only time she ever did acknowledge him since she spent her entire married life running away from being a Chookolingo. One family member quipped that she’s mentally and psychologically unbalanced since she is the only member of the family that thinks she’s white (though chocolate covered) and has been running away from her roots ever since…trying to please her white partners even while jail is beckoning. She still thinks Massa is boss and needs to get with the times. Her smart, white partners who are free to spend the loot, are suddenly trying their best to save her by getting the NIB laws amended; this was being done only because several criminal acts were reported against Ford that may eventually expose the 1% co-conspirators.

Besides the $10 million Ford pumped into Mirror for Mr Cuffie to win the 2015 election for the PNM, she turned the newspapers into a laughing stock to all other newspapers and used untold additional millions to do so, which is why the company’s shareholders never saw any of those highprofits that can be seen from the Newsday financials…financials she refused to show anyone but which TTJF was easily able to secure the 2011 / 2012 accounts showing massive r profits and dividends of over $10 million every year. Ford’s shareholders were busy being frugal while she blew away everything and then sold the biggest slice of the company for $8 million while she sat on the Newsday board and approved $24 million for 9% for Mills shares, $19 million for the shares plus an additional $5 million for Mills past services. The highest average profit from Newsday came between the years 2009 to 2019, just before the pandemic. Meanwhile, Cuffie bragged that he made(meaning millions) while running Mirror but these millions were courtesy Mirror shareholders (who were mostly ignorant) and believed Ford was helping but the truth is she was giving away the millions from their dividends ….Ford was lying about everything and took them all for fools and knowing stole the dividends and, like Dr Rowley in the Petrotrin and Clico matters, brags how she saved the company. Soon after pulling off that massive con job, Cuffie suffered a massive stroke for which he is still being treated. Was this payback like the Niquan explosion?

The 1% oligarchs unwittingly disclosed their M.O. in the Newsday debacle:  The non-payment of taxes, bribing all sorts of state officials to ignore proof that laws were being broken while government fees, deductions and taxes are not paid to BIR /NIB, the false police reports which they know will be dismissed but will help tarnish their ‘enemies’ like Therese Mills to secure control.  According to one of their own, Ms Karen Nunez-Tesheira, former PNM finance minister, these 1% people are the biggest dealers in illicit drugs. She once wrote a book on ethics but mistakenly thought she could purge the PNM of the 1% crooks. The new PNM mantra is now that all persons have a price and can be bought….even your worse enemy. Tapping phones is the weapon of choice that could compromised the most well-intentioned public official. Former Commissioner of Police, GG, has testified to this.

Newsday (Castange) & Mirror (Ford)  False Police Reports

In the Newsday / Mirror matter, 2 police reports were made, both of which backfired. One was against a manager Ms Khan. Ms Khan was able to fend off the attacks and was awarded $200,000. by the Industrial court, which Ford refused to pay anyway complaining at a company AGM that such payment will negatively affect dividends. The majority shareholders present, including some past employees, lapped up the explanation. While the ‘Chookolingo’ shareholders never saw the company auditor, Ford, instead, was always accompanied by her attorney, one Mr Coppin, a former PNM senator, who could be seen cringing after many of Ford’s bogus answers. Anyway, former employees would soon learn that their NIS deductions from salaries were never submitted to activate their pension. Ford told them she could ‘fix’ that.

The only other police report was made against Ms Therese Mills by master law breaker and  mischief maker himself, Steve Castagne.  The police subsequently cleared Ms Mills.  But, if there was wrongdoing by Ms Mills, there would have been no need to pay her a massive $24 million, since Newsday could have used her reported ‘guilt’ to avoid paying her this massive $24 million which everyone knows is trite law.  But, the police reports did have the desired effect. However, the police reports were used to tell Ford’s shareholders that criminal reports were made against the people in charge when all along the real law breakers were the people making the fake police reports. Predictably, the police authorities have not charged Castagne or Ford for these fake reports.

Another ploy used by them is to intimidate and harass people into thinking they will be next targets. Newsday founder, Daniel Chookolingo, made a valid report to the police that persons who robbed his then computer store (very early on in the life of Newsday when he started to oppose Castagne’s agenda) gave Chookolingos employee a message for him. The message was to tell Mr Chookolingo that he knows who the attackers are.

Just like Sam Bankman-Fried, where millions of funds were funneled to both political parties, Ford funneled millions to Max Cuffie to help win the 2015 elections for the PNM and that was the start of the end of independent journalism in T&T…by the company that invented independent journalism.

So, the big question is how the US and the Bahamas could approve the jailing of persons (Sam Bankman-Fried for example) of fraud in less than a month when the year-old reports have been made to various state agencies by Mirror shareholders against the fraudulent operations spearheaded by Dawn Ford and her associates? What’s really going on in T&T? This is why violent and white collar crime are so prevalent in this population of 1.5 million.  Is this also why the procurement legislation has been ‘gutted’ by the current government?

The UNC official Opposition, who passed the procurement legislation, may now be part of the entire operation since barely a word comes from them except when it is already in the public domain. Of course the UNC know more than they are pretending …but why are they quiet? Are big wigs in the UNC also collecting their share of the billions being ripped off?

The only real way to fight this criminal 1% (indeed, not all 1% are criminal) is to enact laws that will force state officials, including the DPP, police, BIR, NIB (to name a few) to act on reports.

These reports are to be sent to a public select committee every few months. Can we expect the PNM/ UNC to do that? We think not since most of them may already be on the payroll of the 1% if we are to listen to former finance minister Ms Karen Tesheira.  The PNM are well known for running racist and dirty election which they blame the opposition for. However, the same tired tricks used at every election in the past decades, are becoming increasingly difficult for the most ardent PNM supporter to swallow since even the simple folks are asking for the ‘proof of the pudding’ since all the profitable State companies are being stripped and closed one-by-one. There are increasing signs of disaffection by the rank and file.

But, Ford is not done yet since trickster Ford’s latest ploy continues to get her one-time biggest detractor, shareholder and brother Rex, to write emails telling other shareholders she broke the laws to get them US dollars, when in fact that is the only law she didn’t break since it’s legal to buy and sell Forex. Like Ford, Rex now wants the company to sell its' valuable $10 million dollar office / warehouse complex for $2 million and gave some bogus reason to sell just to get out. He also insists that family members ought to stop wasting money in court since he tried doing that and failed. However, the only court matter he filed was when he challenged Ford to control his deceased mothers’ estate, nothing else. He could not explain to family members the basis of his legal challenge. Rex’s brother, Paris, convinced him that Ford paid him over 1 million dollars to disappear and he could also benefit from this illegal payments. Brother Rex swallowed any last remaining pride he had and made a deal with the devil by touting Ford’s innocence and peddling the most amount of rubbish anyone could. Ford is mortally afraid to explain anything in the open since all the sordid facts will come out about how she ripped off the $200 million (plus) and gave Max Cuffie about $10 million, and never did any accounts or pay any government taxes etc, etc. She’s afraid that the truth about her brother’s Wayne’s death (and others) will emerge.  The most transparent death of people who opposed what was going on at Newsday was that of former Newsday editor, Suzanne Mills, daughter of Therese Mills, who actually complained she was targeted for murder by the company because she knew too much. (see link to Murder She Wrote article …click here). 

Another likely murder suspect is Frank Thompson, former Mirror employee for over 30 years, who was very upset about minimal termination benefits and questioned why the NIB deductions were never paid by Ford but revealed and confirmed that Ford dismissed the accounting staff so that was why the lawful NIB ‘bogus deductions’ were never submitted to NIS.  (see link to NIB article … click here). 

Frank died of what they called a stroke the same weekend at Suzanne Mills.

Meanwhile, TTJF, has learnt that Newsday’s founder, Daniel Chookolingo, who sued Steve Castagne for his illegal activities at the company to wrest control of it, has also made an official complaint to P.M. Rowley, concerning underhand activities of CJ Archie in his court matter. This Archie complaint comes after similar reports were made against Justice Aboud for his role in the initial hearing when Aboud made very damaging and bias comments. The verified report was that Justice Aboud had improper discussions with his 1% brother about the Newsday lawsuit while the matter was still in Court, something which is unlawful. But Justice Aboud was then promoted for ‘his part’. Justice Aboud is on a short list to be made President of T&T.

The P.M. acknowledged the complaint against CJ Archie in March 2022 but is yet to act, almost a year later.

And the Government says they are worried why the murder rate has crossed 600 for 2022. But people in the know  are well aware that the majority of the State’s anti-crime personnel and the telephone surveillance equipment are all working for the politicians and their 1% friends to rip off the billions like Petrotrin, Clico and Newsday, while the criminals are free to commit their crimes, since the guardians are preoccupied.

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