There’s an ongoing battle for ownership of the mega-million dollar newspaper, Newsday. The company launched by Daniel Chookolingo in 1993, is getting no media publicity because two years after its launch, the daily immediately became the fastest selling newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago outstripping the then 30-year old Trinidad Express and the mighty Guardian which was then over 75 years old. Both newspaper and their vast billion dollar media outfits have remained silent since the case was filed in the High Court in 2014.While Newsday’s up-to-date value remains shrouded, there was a valuation done a decade ago which put its worth at over $200 million dollars. Sources close to Mr Chookolingo says this is a bogus value which was given by the Steve Castagne controlled board to buy out minority shareholders to gain full control of his company.
First Published: November 15, 2024
Drug Link To The PNM, The 1%, Legal System & Economy
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List of PNM Operatives / 1% Named
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PNM and 1% Plot To Make T&T An Authoritarian State Exposed
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1% Were Lining Up Outside Calder Hart’s Office
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Rowley-Gate: T&T Version of 1MBD
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Freedom of Information Targeted
This is the developing story about how T&T’s top elites have trampled on the rights of almost every law abiding citizen and how they control what passes for journalism which citizens consume through the mass media. Besides the control of the media there are many examples of how they control the three (3) constitutional and ‘independent’ arms of the State: the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. For the first time the facts have come together to show the inextricable link with the 3 arms of the Government, control over the legal profession, supposedly incorruptible auditing firms, the police and the 1%, criminal elements and more. Hell, even four (4) top members of the dreaded 1% were shown to be involved in the cocaine trade some years ago. They are: (i) The case of the cocaine found in a Carib beer container being loaded for export at the factory (ii) The cocaine intercepted in a Pizza Boys delivery box (iii) A supposedly ‘upstanding’ member of the 1% being caught smuggling cocaine into the UK on a scheduled commercial flight (iv) Tens of millions in cocaine found in the holiday residence on Monos island of one of the top elites in T&T. In the Monos island instance, the lowly gardener was sent to prison and prompted the judge, Justice Alice York to ask why the police never questioned the owners of the property. This ought to have caused the Judge to call a mistrial. Such penetrating questions would never be asked by a judge again. In the other noted examples mentioned here, they all faded away and the ‘accused’ are now prominent ‘businessmen’ now dabbling in other unsavory activities where the entire media landscape is owned by this crooked 1% ostensibly to feed citizens half-truths, lies and innuendoes in which journalists regularly conspire with these ‘upstanding’ citizens to withhold major stories from the public.
In the Newsday case involving the Chookolingo family, it involved the rip off of Newsday through fraud and criminality in the first instance, but it is widely believed to involve the murder(s) of several persons who were either against the illegal takeover by these elites or were known resistance minded persons, who didn’t like what was happening to sweet T&T before their very eyes. The Newsday fraud is a two-part story that initially involved fraud against Newsday’s founder, Daniel Chookolingo, for the 22% undistributed shares which was filed in court in 2014 and was derailed by several instances of fraud and manipulation by attorneys and others. Definite proof of that came to light in AGM minutes in 2022 in previously unseen documents of the Chookolingo owned Company, CHL, and caused a police / BIR report to be made in 2024 detailing the list of laws that were broken. This report recently was published on this web site. No value has been placed on the 22% shares owned by Chookolingo that Deborah Peake corruptly assisted stealing but this is not part of the $200 plus million stolen otherwise..
The 2nd part of this story is actually a reaction of the said 2024 police report that shows heinous criminal activity by the international firm of PKF (Pannel Kerr Foster), 3 well-known attorneys, company directors and many others. The illicit acts described in the court documents, show the attorney Mr Coppin and his benefactor, Dawn Ford, used the company bank account and assets as a slush fund to bribe many people including auditors, attorneys and shareholders. As a result of that police report made by Daniel Chookolingo, Mrs Ford and Mr Coppin, both named in the police report, filed an injunction against Daniel Chookolingo, ostensibly for possession of a Maraval property he controlled on the death of his sister, Francesca. The property is owned by the estate of Patrick Chookolingo, his father, of which he is the sole Executor, so there is no question of any successful outcome in Ford’s favor except by another fraud like they did in the 2014 case. Investigators have told Chookolingo he should watch his back, since when this case is determined it will surely send many of those identified in fraud filed to prison for contempt of court and a number of criminal conspiracies. so the perpetrators are expected to make every move to assassinate him. Meanwhile, all the news media have been silenced and will not report a word of this heinous case that now implicates the top elites, their auditors and lawyers, who are unable to respond to the mind bending police / court disclosures so are now seeking extra-legal recourses.
The corruption which has been going on for over a decade involves the non-submission of annual accounts for over ten (10) consecutive years which was made possible by PKF (Pannel Kerr Foster) auditors and a slew of very senior attorneys. None of those accused have been able to reply to Mr Chookolingo, the maker of the criminal reports that involves the embezzlement of at least $200 million and counting. Facts of the said corruption have been well documented on this web site. The inability of the mainstream media to publish facts that would (a) expose the illegal acts of the elites and (b) attack and unfairly taint anyone who is not part of their nefarious schemes. The group ultimate and wider goal is to control the very sizeable assets belonging to the State which includes the hundreds of billions of dollars in State enterprises and the annual, very sizeable 60 billion dollars budget, the smaller of the 2 government assets. It has already been published that some instances of the nefarious operation involve Petrotrin and the subsequent A & V Oil legal matter which the government refused to appeal in spite of public advice from their own attorneys. Another example of the indiscriminate feeding by the 1% involves Clico, which has been under Government control since 2010. The Clico matter could have been dispensed with several years ago but remains in abeyance while directors, auditors and other numerous parties continue to bleed the company. The ultimate aim is to wind up Clico as was done with Petrotrin to hide all damaging evidence against those who looted same. The Clico and Petrotrin examples involve billions of dollars which is far larger when compared to the Newsday rip off as can be seen. The fraud and theft at Newsday were to control the last bastion of independent mass media which could have been used to expose all the ills perpetrated by the elites / oligarchs. Yes, the elites are firmly in control of all the major arms of the government or quasi-government operations including the police and operatives at the DPP’s office which can initiate criminal action against breaches in any sphere of criminal activity. For many years the police commissioners have been hand-picked, bypassing all existing safeguards for the appointment. The BIR who was also sent the Newsday fraud report has been of no help in any prosecutions and with the coming on stream of the Revenue Authority (RA), it has been claimed the RA can be manipulated even further by the Minister of Finance. It is interesting that the much maligned property tax has exempted corporate customers and their properties since it is well known that the elites have their multi-million dollar properties in the name of their companies. None of the mainstream media has reported on this aspect of the property tax exemption. The Forex crisis is another smoke screen, as it is reported that the elites get 90% of the allocation and many have VIP credit cards with limits of hundreds of thousands in most cases. There is absolutely no transparency since Mr Imbert likes it so.
In the Newsday travesty, we saw where attorney Peake SC, telling the Court outright untruths which is against the attorneys Code of Ethics. In that case, Chookolingo is awaiting a decision from the PM, as per the Constitution, who is the only authority to deal with such breaches by the C.J. The second case which was filed by the Dawn Ford and Michael Coppin duo in 2024, Michael Coppin has somehow convinced the court by a series of falsehoods, fraud and contempt to grant a bogus injunction since Ford’s name does not even have legal standing and ought to have been struck out for that fatal error. He wonders how long it will take the court to correct this travesty of justice that the judiciary has subjected him to since 2014.
TTJF is now putting the national community on notice that the One Percent (1%) plan to take over every minute aspect of T&T life is at a very advanced stage.
From the smallest everyday products like bread and ice to the biggest products like cars, insurance, building materials etc are already controlled by the by the insidious 1%.
As with the 2nd Newsday case, the well-known international auditing firm of PKF has been shown to have broken all auditing standards to help the One % and obviously themselves, it is no stretch of the imagination that this is a widespread practice but it is now exposed for the 1st time with incontrovertible facts. The same is the case with the lawyers who are prepared to break the laws just like police, journalists and others to secure the interest of the oligarchs and their ministerial friends and paymasters. Mr Chookolingo has said if there is widespread untruths in his report, he is sure the police would have charged him with making an untruthful police report. The individuals named have not sued Mr Chookolingo for defamation for the very serious and damaging statements to their dishonorable characters. They especially include Marc Superville and PKF auditors, Deborah Peake SC, Michael Quamina SC, and attorney Michael Coppin.
Meanwhile, the first 2014 case which is technically alive since it is awaiting a response from the PM on the complaint against the C.J. Ivor Archie, when he is said to have unlawfully intervened in his appeal by personally hearing the matter involving Mr Chookolingo’s attorney, Raj Joseph, who was not authorized to appear before any court in T&T, since he had just retired from a High Court position making him ineligible according to law. The CJ hearing stems from other bias actions against High Court Judge, James Aboud, who went to his home and spoke to his family members about the case which is in contravention of all judicial guidelines.
TTJF web site is unique since it names so many people in this circle and the burning question is who are their friends and accomplices or henchmen who are willing to do their bidding to shut down these investigations and court cases.
Below is the partial list of the people who are known to be involved in the takeover attempts which eventually led to the criminal acquisition of Newsday and the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars and assets.
Anthony Sabga Daniel Chookolingo - vendetta by courts
never said a word about the cocaine
Anthony Sabga: He was the first person who targeted the takeover of Newsday in the early 1990’s when it became obvious the citizenry was looking for an independent source of news. Sabga’s approach was rebuffed. His multi-billion dollar conglomerate then included the Guardian Newspaper and a few radio stations but has since expanded to include the TV station, CNC3. The Group includes several car dealerships, insurance, the manufacture of beers, building materials and distribution of almost every kind of product in T&T. Sabga’s offer was made through his friend on the board of Newsday, Steve Castagne. His mantra was that money ‘solves’ everything but most notably he never explained how cocaine ended up in a Carib container he owned and was destined for export. The matter faded from the news and no charges were ever brought against anyone. This is precisely why the elites need to control the prosecuting arm of the State assets: the police and DPP. The cocaine story may very well be the defining moment when the elite decided to take over the media to fully control what is in the public domain.
Soon after rejecting the Sabga offer, the Guardian Newspaper started writing defamatory articles about Mr. Chookolingo causing him to file two lawsuits against the Guardian which were settled out of court, meaning they did not contest the lawsuits and accepted their offence.
Steve Castagne: Castagne made known his intention to take over Newsday almost from inception after Raffique Shah told Mr Chookolingo he (Castagne) wanted to be included in the company. Shah was then one of the editors of TnT Mirror. Prior to that recommendation to Chookolingo, Shah was given an exclusive interview by Castagne to defend his contract in supplying millions of dollars in gym equipment at the PM’s residence. Back then spending millions of dollars on gym equipment was unheard of. That was the start of an unholy alliance between Shah and the PNM since Shah was looking for a way to get back at Basdeo Panday for kicking him out of the then opposition. These days Shah is suffering from age related forgetfulness and Parkinson’s and only conveniently remembers the past. It is widely felt that the fall of Clico due to the 2009 global collapse was engineered by PNM insiders because Duprey dared to show open support for Basdeo Panday, the arch enemy of Shah and the PNM. It was now known that a plot was later hatched to wipe the UNC off the local scene with the stories of Emailgate and many other fabrications, including the fraud involving another crooked lawyer, Vincent Nelson KC, and EMBD (a State company), allegations which were struck down by the Privy Council (PC). In the Newsday case, TTJF has also seen a very unusual application before the Privy Council asking them to make a ruling that Chookolingo ought not to file any further appeals in this matter which would also bind the T&T Courts. The Privy Council refused. It soon became obvious that Newsday wanted the case struck out permanently by the PC so that if the fraud committed ever became known, any Chookolingo appeal would be dead in the water. Indeed, it was learnt just over a year ago that of all sorts of criminality and conspiracies were exposed in AGM minutes. Criminality and fraud committed by the attorneys, auditors and directors have destroyed the purported illegal sale of Newsday to Steve Castagne at a giveaway price without due process. These are some of the reasons investigators have told Chookolingo that Mr Castagne is a prime suspect in assassination attempts, as per a previous article in TTJF since it is obvious the perpetrators are willing to commit more crimes to get away with the theft of several hundred million dollars as outlined in the police report.
Dominic Hadeed: Hadeed is the owners of the billion dollar Blue Waters Company. His offer to purchase Newsday shows, at minimum, the involvement of many of these elites and how they are prepared to put their names and businesses reputation on the line to support each other. This Hadeed offer, like the others, are all suspected to emanate from the Mr Castagne clique which in any event were devoid of any negotiation to value the shares / assets and were said to be fraudulent offers.
Robert Ramchand: Ramchand describes himself as the chairman of M&M Media Communications Co. This company has the same address as M&M insurance owned by oligarch, Steve Castagne. Mr Castagne eventually bought Newsday for an insignificant $8 million dollars through a series of payoffs by Dawn Ford to many of the company’s shareholders using illegal slush funds from the company. That is the crux of the police and BIR report made earlier in April 2024 after an investigation into the various fraudulent activities.
a: Fouramie Enterprises (b) Creation and Control Ltd (c) Impermeability:
Mr Aboud, owner of Fouramie.
After the failure of several buyout offers, these three companies made an offer in 2013 to acquire all the shares owned by the Chookolingo family through trickery and subterfuge for $5.5 million, which was stopped by three shareholders, all who later died. Their deaths gave Dawn Ford and her crooked 1% friends the opening to proceed with the illegal Newsday sale despite ongoing objections. The particular convoluted offer for $5.5 million bid by Fouramie failed because Ford’s own attorney, Mr Quamina, admitted the sale was illegal. Fouramie Enterprises which is owned by one Mr Aboud, was later chosen to get State lands to open the multi-million dollar business, Five Islands Water Park in Chaguaramas. Mr Aboud has now invested heavily into the hotel industry throughout the Caribbean. It was later discovered that Aboud’s offer is part of the 1% community rallying around one of their fellow 1% to own the media in totality at the behest of Steve Castagne who had been instructing Dawn Ford on how to criminally rip off the valuable family assets for $8 million or less. These actions are the definition of fraud and conspiracy.
Andre Monteil- Made offer for Newsday
Andre Monteil: Monteil made an offer to buy / merge the failed Independent Newspaper owned by Clico with Newsday. This offer was summarily rejected. Monteil was then PNM Treasurer and also a director of the then largest conglomerate in T&T, Clico. Monteil is a very close friend of another Clico insurance agent, Steve Castagne. Monteil later tried to buy out the state owned Home Mortgage Bank for $500 million through a convoluted loan which essentially meant he was putting up almost zero. PM Patrick Manning then put a stop to the sale and Monteil faded from the scene. Mr Manning’s second fatal ‘intervention’ was firing the board of Piarco Airport (Project Pride) for suspected ‘irregular’ activities of which Steve Castagne was the vice chairman. After the slight of 2 of the top elites, it was all downhill for Patrick Manning.
Jerry Chin Lee – questions about Pier 1.
Jerry Chin Lee: This is another 1% whose family made their fortune from building houses for the government under PM Eric Williams. Many of these houses started to disintegrate or melt when the rains came. Their next fortune was at the behest of another PNM administration, PM Manning, when Chin Lee was appointed to the board of the Chaguaramas Development Corp (CDA). Chin Lee applied to the same board he sat on and got a 500 year lease at a couple of thousand dollars annually for a spot where he built Pier One port and restaurant. His input regarding the Newsday buyout was that he fully supported Steve Castagne no matter what. It is not known what latest get-rich quick scheme he is up to.
Dawn Ford: Ford is the person who illegally transferred the family assets after she was illegally supported by her three different crooked attorneys and international auditing firm, PKF. These ‘professional’ attorneys and auditors ought to have informed Ford that she was obligated to vacate her position on the board of directors which she surely held illegally, due to the fact she never presented annual financials for over 10 years and to the use of illegal slush fund payments to bribe certain shareholders and others. Nevertheless, these professionals directed and assisted her professionally to misappropriate massive sums of money and she subsequently transferred the Newsday shares worth over $100 million for $8 million after raiding the bank account as the AGM minutes explain. Some shareholders are said to be in deep fear for their lives since one shareholders and editor of Newsday, Ms Suzanne Mills, who had expressed fear for her life, died after she opposed the Ford court case with Daniel Chookolingo saying she (Mills) was privy to their shenanigans. Ms Mills died suddenly in her 50s. Ford now lives in Canada with her share of the loot but is still represented by at least one of her previous attorneys, Mr Michael Coppin, who also featured prominently in the police report. Madness overtook Michael Coppin when he filed a case in May 2024 on behalf of Dawn Ford for control of a property possessed by Daniel, a property which is owned by Daniel’s father, Patrick, who appointed him as the sole executor of his assets. What is even more puzzling and disturbing with the 2024 lawsuit against Daniel is that the Justice Kangaloo Court granted an interim injunction, preventing him from entering onto his own property. Daniel told the Court that Mr Coppin (along with 2 other criminally accused attorneys) is a person before the police on serious conspiracy and criminal activities and this lawsuit was ostensibly their response to Daniel’s police report. Mr Coppin’s reply was that the Court ought to forget the lapses and lack of details in his legal documents and insisted the case must go to trial despite these severe shortcomings even though his client, Dawn Ford is also criminally accused and has no legal standing. Meanwhile, Chookolingo was advised by investigators that a renewed hit was made against him since he is the only one who dared take on this criminal gang and, if he is out of the way, the Ford case will prevail…hence getting away with the crime of the century. We wait to hear the Courts’ decision in December.
Calder Hart, his defenses Deborah Peake, crooked lead attorney
handled by Frank Solomon
Deborah Peake: Having hoodwinked the court with a fake affidavit in the first Chookolingo Newsday matter, which Peake contaminated before Justice James Aboud, the fraud case was further aggravated by Justice Aboud’s decision to commit his own breach of the Court rules by discussing the case with his family members, and illegally dismissed the Chookolingo case. Mrs Peake later submitted a bill amounting to over a million dollars which was submitted out of time in 2016 and has been in abeyance ever since then. But incredibly and coincidentally, in 2024, the million dollar bill which was abandoned for whatever reason was miraculous revived after the Chookolingo police report in April 2024. So the vendetta and persecution against Chookolingo has resurfaced with a vengeance as a lesson to him and others to warn them not to oppose elite lawyers, even if they are crooked. Is the Kangaloo Court going to oblige? It is hoped that Justice Kangaloo realizes the people who filed the bogus claim against Chookolingo in May 2024 must be dealt with as a matter of urgency if only to wipe the partisan stigma off her family name. We must note that any defamation case that involves false allegations of criminal acts against anyone is an easy case to win without bending and breaking court rules and it begs the question why these attorneys and auditors who were named in criminal conspiracies have not filed a defamation case instead of a trumped up, convoluted case for illegal possession against Chookolingo? TTJF also note that truth is a defense to defamation and if these 3 attorneys sued Chookolingo they are sure to find a very sympathetic court as this seems to be the only way Peake can triumph. With all these questions over Mrs Peake’s head, she is still the attorney of choice for the PNM government and in November 2024, AG Armour refused to inform the Parliament who the beneficiaries were of multi-million dollar legal briefs some of which were paid to Mrs Peake. Peake’s benefactor, attorney Frank Solomon, was the attorney for the accused lawbreaker, Calder Hart who fled T&T rather than face a Commission of Enquiry. While Mr Hart was in charge of tens of billions of TT dollars, almost all 1% identified here, were known to be lining up at his office waiting for an audience to get their share of the billions he dished out, some to his wife’s Malaysian family. Indeed, this type of corruption identified here is only surpassed by the Commonwealth country of Malaysia where the billion dollar corruption scandal, 1MBD, sent that Prime Minister to prison. In Malaysia the judiciary, media, police and DPP were not hopelessly compromised. TTJF suggests that Dr Rowley must take credit for much of the corruption identified over the past 10 years under his watchful eyes and ought to be dubbed Rowley-Gate after his own accusations when he conjured up the infamous Emailgate. In short Rowley-Gate could be described as the period when the 1% oligarchs were given the approval to run rampant over T&T.
Michael Quamina: Quamina SC, is one of the 3 complicit attorneys referred to in the police report filed in April 2024. As an attorney who is paid the big bucks to advise clients how to respond to technical situations, he found himself in a similar position when he advised Dawn Ford how to evade a prison term instead of telling Ford she must resign immediately. Ford continued to seek illegal reappointment to the CHL board after breaking the most basic requirement of failing to provide annual financials which amazingly went on for over 10 years. All this was made possible by Michael Quamina SC. Quamina now holds down the position of Chairman of the billion dollar Heritage Petroleum, formerly Petrotrin, that involves complying with the same corporate rules he so infamously misadvised Dawn Ford to break. The police report implicating Mr Quamina and his complicit colleague, Deborah Peake and Michael Coppin has failed to get a response from them. Daniel Chookolingo has admitted forwarding many shareholders with this groundbreaking information so the legal trio can use that admission to institute legal proceedings. Mr Quamina still serves on the billion dollar Heritage board doling out multi-million dollar contracts that are not independently vetted.
Michael Coppin: Michael Coppin must qualify as the most serious offender of the 3 attorneys when one looks at his letters to shareholders who queried the illegal operation and the illegal sale of shares and other assets. For example, when a shareholder asked about the sale of the multi-million dollar printing press for $20 thousand dollars he promised to send written valuations but never did. Additionally, attorney Mr Coppin usurped the functions of the auditors by promising to act on their behalf.
Marc Superville, the crooked PKF representative
PKF Auditing and Marc Superville: Marc Superville is the lead auditor who was dispatched by PKF to audit the books of CHL involving their main asset, the Newsday shares. For 9 years Mr Superville studiously made appearances before shareholders to assure them that all the books were in order but not once did he present an audit report as mandated, to show the significant value of this company which was worth hundreds of millions. He was part and parcel of the conspiracy and fraud of the brazen, massive rip off of the hundreds of millions that belonged to 14 shareholders. When alarm bells were raised by one shareholder, Ms Sutton, who later appointed Daniel Chookolingo to get answers, Mr Superville suddenly sends 4 year of audits in bulk, albeit a few years late. Word is that he allegedly promised PKF that the matter would be dropped by December 2024 so PKF would not be blacklisted internationally. Interestingly, that is the same date the bogus case against Chookolingo is set to resume in December.
Justice Aboud, behavior called injurious
Justice James Aboud (Judiciary): Justice Aboud’s actions in this matter is most disturbing since he admitted to making fundamental errors of judgment and errors of law by disclosing that he talked to his immediate family members about the Chookolingo matter while he was still hearing it. His actions resulted in 22 percent of Newsday stock being taken away from Mr Chookolingo, the founder of the company. Justice Aboud was then elevated to the highest Court, the Court of Appeal, despite the charges against him for bias. The C.J. is the head of the JLSC that promotes judges.
Chief Justice Ivor Archie (Judiciary): CJ Archie was reported to the PM Dr Rowley on 28th March 2022 regarding misbehavior in public office. Mr Archie sat on the Chookolingo appeal and entertained submissions by Mr Raj Joseph, a retired High Court Judge. Like Justice Aboud, he broke fundamental rules of behavior since it is trite law that former Judges ought not to appear in court matters for 7 years after they have left the bench. After more than 2 years, Chookolingo is still awaiting action by the PM. Otherwise, the Judiciary is regularly accused as being in the worst state it has ever been in with increasing case loads and rampant reports of injustice. People can’t want to see the back of CJ Archie and the beginning of a new era.
CCN Group (Express Newspaper, TV6 and Radio):
The CCN Group was once thought to be the most independent media organ but this has now been brought into question. In 2022 the Group announced that person(s) with very deep pockets have been making attempts to destabilize the company and devalue the stocks of the multi-billion dollar company. They reported their own shares were bought at a high price and offloaded at much lower price mere days after. CCN stated that this is an illegal manipulation according to rules of the stock exchange. Word around town is that an ‘investor’ by the name of Aboud is behind the destabilization. Nothing else has been heard about this breach and there have been subtle changes in the content of the style whereby many top stories that tend to show the establishment and elites in a negative light are now ignored. It is noted that the Express now prints the Newsday newspaper, its competitor. This type of arrangement for printing news by competitors is unheard of internationally. This arrangement shows the same elites that ripped off Newsday are now calling the shots at CCN as well as the other media outlets. No serious and independent newspaper will ever allow their competitor to print for their paper. The CCN Group has never published an article about the Chookolingo cases regarding Newsday, something which would definitely embarrass the 1% and their crooked attorneys and auditors. Indeed the only newspaper that ever published stories about the matter is the Sunshine Newspaper. By the silence of CCN group on this significant story involving the exposure of all these crooked professionals and directors, it shows the CCN Group has been compromised.
Attorneys for Chookolingo who have shown to compromise their profession:
Dinesh Rambally, Raj Joseph and Kenneth Munroe-Brown are 3 attorneys that stand out. Disciplinary complaints against Joseph were dismissed without a hearing. The Disciplinary Committee is a statutory panel.
Dinesh Rambally / Elizabeth Darwish: Former attorneys for Mr Chookolingo, have shown their complicity in this matter after their contract to represent him ended. Mr Rambally is on record as sending all the appeal documents electronically to the Privy Council attorney and refusing to supply a copy to Mr Chookolingo for vetting. The Privy Council attorney, Mr Anand Beharrylal, then refused to show Mr Chookolingo any drafts of the documents until mere hours before they were due to be filed, depriving him an opportunity to correct anything. Rambally, UNC MP for Chaguanas, has recently showed his true colors when he made public his differences with the opposition leader resulting in accusations from his colleagues that he is a PNM operative. He once shared legal chambers with crooked Deborah Peake.
Raj Joseph who got promoted to Ombudsman
Raj Joseph: Mr Joseph was retained to petition the Court to hear the bias appeal against Justice James Aboud. He misrepresented the case and failed to respond to Mr Chookolingo’s many requests for details and precedents. He also failed to tell his client that he was barred from appearing before the CJ Archie panel as he was a recently retired judge. Joseph was subsequently appointed by the JLSC led by CJ Archie as T&T’s Ombudsman.
Kenneth Brown – dismissed for failures
Kenneth Munroe-Brown: Attorney Mr Brown who once represented Mr Chookolingo in the 2nd matter in 2024 is better described as a deadbeat. He was dismissed because he failed to raise the issues of contempt of court, deceit / fraud in his draft documents. He said clearly that he is unable to call the attorney for Dawn Ford dishonorable as he is an officer of the court which Chookolingo found was unacceptable reasoning. His refusal to raise fundamental facts amounted to a breach of the Code of Ethics. Sadly, his inability to proceed according to his instructions and the facts, show this 65 year old attorney had no transport and no printer which are indispensable tools of his trade causing him to make regular trips to the internet café to print documents. Even junior attorneys now have printers. Documents show he also lacked reliable transport and besieged Chookolingo to make a car available to him which he absconded with after he was dismissed.
THE REBELS AND THE RESISTANCE:
Some Notable Resistance Fighters who dared to stand up for Righteousness:
Like many freedom fighters, they refuse to accept the status quo in T&T where known wrongdoers and criminals conspire to shares the spoils. TTJF offers our sincere respect and admiration to those who gave their lives / careers for the movement.
Appeal Court Judge, Des Vignes
Justice of Appeal Des Vignes – Hero of the show, Justice De Vignes was the only Judge who stood for justice and allowed Mr. Chookolingo a genuine opening to challenge Justice Aboud bias in the face of the Court. Soon after he advised Chookolingo of the course to take to challenging Justice Aboud, a client’s legal right, he resigned and died suddenly. It is not known what he died from but TTJF will take a guess that it was from a stroke that was likely brought on by a spiked drink, like so many rebels in this matter. Anyway, when all this was said to be taking place in the Judiciary, no other judge would dare stand up for him for fear of being ostracized themselves. This speaks of a sad state of affairs at the top Constitutional institution in the country that is populated by ‘yes’ men. That nation owes its gratitude to you, Sir.
Suzanne Mills – Editor Mills was once represented by the Deborah Peake SC legal team. Mills then wrote Mr Chookolingo telling him she was no longer represented by these attorneys and was seeking her own new attorney. She indicated that she knew all the shenanigans that the Peake’s legal team was up to and she now feared for her life since making that decision. She asked him to report this to the court and the police and died soon after at the relatively young age of 55.
Michael Hart – Hart was the smallest shareholder in Newsday and a lifelong friend of the Chookolingo family. He said he was offered all sorts of ridiculously huge sums of money for his one share. He refused their several monetary advances and fell terminally ill from a stroke the very same day he had drinks with a couple Newsday representatives who continued to pester him to sign over the one share. He was a relatively young, fit and active man, also in his fifties.
HONORABLE MENTION:
The Late Choko who set the ground for others to follow.
Patrick Chookolingo AKA Choko – Choko was larger-than-life and the first person whose work to expose evils of the system which landed him in trouble with the judiciary and their friends. He was sentenced to 3 weeks in jail when he published an article entitled the ‘The Judges Wife’.
The story described how the wife of an unnamed Supreme Court Judge had regularly accepted gifts from persons presumably for judicial favors. Instead of getting to the bottom of the story, the powers prosecuted him for saying this. Choko refused to name the source of the story like a true soldier but it is understood it was the judge’s driver who, as a simple person, knew that accepting gifts amounted to favors for the judge to rule contrary to the evidence in matters. In other words: corruption. Indeed, that is what Magistrate Jaggessar was later jailed for. Choko served 1 week in jail for this ‘travesty’ after he was granted a Presidential pardon but always felt betrayed by his own attorney Frank Solomon, a member of the elites in 1970s, who advised him to throw himself at the mercy of the court and apologise. Back then Choko did not think that lawyers would so brazenly mislead their clients. Frank Solomon died in 2018 not before training the likes of Deborah Peake on how to manipulate the judicial system, by misadvising her clients, by deceiving the courts and generally by breaking the laws they are sworn to uphold. It is noted that today, the power of the 1% is even more prevalent with the likes of Deborah Peake and Michael Quamina, both SCs, who helped themselves to money / assets and betraying their respective oaths of office. The bottom line is these crooked elites and oligarchs are so all powerful they don’t care if they are caught as they clearly control the system. In the Newsday instance they clearly didn’t expect Daniel Chookolingo to be as tenuous as he is. The elderly Choko learned a valuable lesson after that and continued telling it like it is until his untimely passing in 1986. He epitomized the saying that even though he walked through the darkest valley, he feared no evil.
Keith Shepherd: One of the few journalists who openly linked the elites with drug trade through the pages of the Mirror newspaper which ultimately made him a target. He will be remembered as exposing the activities of the Freemasons operating in T&T who he also linked to the judiciary, a common thread in many matters. He exposed the drugs found in a Carib beer container destined for export and the hundred million dollar drug bust found at the Monos holiday, home of another 1%, where a lowly, poor caretaker took the fall. Even though Keith didn’t play a part in any of the exposure regarding the current Newsday battle with the 1% and the various rip offs going on in T&T especially under the Rowley administration, his work is outstanding as a long standing resistance member.
Daurius Figueira has been exposing deadly cocaine for decades
Daurius Figueira – Noted criminologist and the man who told TnT Mirror readers in the 1980s about the link between the local elites and the drug / gun trade and how they got so rich so quickly. This was later confirmed by the U.S. State Department. Daurius regularly called out the 1%, the who’s who in the illegal drugs and guns trade.
The legendary Jack Warner who was hamstrung by allegations of the 1%
Jack Warner: Jack deserves kudos for his efforts through his Sunshine Newspaper. Jack and Sunshine have left their mark on the T&T landscape as they continue to expose the seedy underbelly of politics, corruption and the rip off of the treasury by the oligarchs, not unlike some of those mentioned in the Newsday rip off. TTJF understand his limitations in publishing some of these facts because it is printed by the Guardian. Jack Warner was one of the only genuine offers to buy the TnT Mirror / Newsday but the meeting was attended by a low level family member who did not attend with accounts, valuation or sales pitch. In fact the sale was already sealed between Dawn Ford and Steve Castagne and that meeting was only for show.
Ken Ali – wrote stories where others failed
Ken Ali: Ken Ali who has been an editor for approximately 50 years deserves an honorable mention as his stories are up-to-date and revealing about the behind-the-scenes shenanigans in corporate Trinidad usually involving the oligarchs. He is a long time torch bearer for the downtrodden. Even though he was never a part of exposing the likes of Mrs Peake, Quamina, SCs, and PKF Auditors, we are assured he has been looking on with keen interest.
Deborah Thomas Felix – From all stories by people in the know, Ms Felix did an exemplary job as head of the Industrial Relations Court but her ‘mistake’ was she would not compromise her professional integrity to keep her job. Her job was always a difficult one since her decisions usually went against those in big business. While she recently wrote a book on her experiences, it is widely known that she is not one for taking directions from anyone in the Executive.
Karen Nunez-Tesheira – said her piece
Karen Nunez-Tesheira – Former Finance Minister in the Manning administration, she also told Trinis about the link between the who’s who in T&T businesses and the deadly drug / gun trade as she was kept well informed of these developments by PM Manning, then head of the National Security Council. She was virtually expelled from the PNM instead of the party thanking her. The leader of her former PNM party, Dr Rowley, has infamously stated quite openly that the PNM will ensure the 1% members become wealthier since when they get rich they will pass on the wealth to the poor. Such uninspired comments by the PM. It is now known that what Ms Thesheira informed the nation about the big businessmen in drugs, she was informing what is just the tip of the iceberg. The true extent of the drug / gun trade is never known since they are covered up by the Police and Customs. Remember the Carib beer container.
Gabriel Faria – Sacrificed himself for the greater good
Gabriel Faria – Faria once held many important positions in corporate T&T including the Chamber of Commerce and several directorships. He is also the brother-in-law of PNM Minister Stuart Young. Before the 2020 election when he saw the falsehoods being perpetrated by his brother-in-law and the PNM he felt it was his duty to speak out. It is unsure if this was inside information he got from the regular family Sunday dinners. In referring to the PNM operatives, he said “There is one interest: to win the election at all costs so the party in power can continue to live high off the backs of honest tax paying citizens.”
That was the last time we ever heard from Garbriel Faria. Maybe he will resurface when we have seen the last of this current bunch of politicians who are just looking out for themselves.
Gabriel’s show of resistance came as a surprise to many due to the positions he then held.
Francesca Sutton who stood up to Dawn Ford.
Francesca Sutton: Mention is also made of one of the Chookolingo clan, Francesca Sutton who sadly passed away from cancer in July 2023. She was key in getting Dawn Ford to release over 10 years of AGM minutes which showed the criminality that took place involving attorneys Peake, Quamina, Coppin, PKF auditors and directors. While all this was going on Ford was telling shareholders her stewardship was about ‘transparency and honesty” but was now taking instructing from the 1% crooks to give away the assets and seize the balance for herself. Sutton appointed Daniel Chookolingo as her executor and directed him to use her million dollar estate to expose the fraud committed by Dawn Ford, Deborah Peake and their many accomplices.
