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.
Secret list #2
The Big Legal Rip-off
In 2015 in the midst of criticism of the way Forex was being allocated by the state, where the Central Bank has oversight, the then Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Jwala Ramberan, issued a release that named the main users of Forex. The furor it created was unparalleled as many of the One Percent, defended by Gregory About and others, who the average citizen suspected were securing much of the US dollars to export to their private foreign accounts, came to light. That list can be seen here by clicking on this button.
The Current Lawyers Who Are On Government Payroll
The Rowley PNM government has expended well over one billion dollars to hire private attorneys according to a Freedom of Information request by Ravi Balgobin, according to information released in September 2022, were only willing to admit publicly to $800 million up to January 2022. These figures do not include figures paid to attorneys from a number of ministries including the Police and Defence Force, Ministries of Finance, Energy, and Sports, Housing. Also, State controlled companies and explicitly excluded from disclosing legal briefs as they are not subject to the tendering process which was deliberately gutted by the PNM government anyway when the Independent Senators voted for the said gutting or had abstained.
The names showing the partial list of local attorneys (who Government is prepared to disclose) who were paid over one (1) million dollars:
Russel Martineau $21,745,000
Claude Denbow $17,526,000
Fayard Hosein $17,404,000
Reginald Armour $13,027,000
Deborah Peake $10,655,000 (It is well known she was also paid separately by Heritage)
Gilbert Peterson $10,641,000
Jason Mootoo $9,986,000 (Justice Coleman made stinging criticism of him at the Clico COE)
Seenath Jairam $9,252,000.
Netram Kowlessar $9,075,000.
Roger Kawalsingh $7,430,000
Kerwyn Garcia $6,830,000
Douglas Mendez $6,278,000
Michael Quamina $5,600,000
Ravi Nanga $5,300,000
Ian Benjamin $4,320,000
Elton Prescott $4,3000,000
Israel Khan $4,200,000
Kelvin Ramkissoon $2,562,000 (UNC)
Raphael Ajodhia $2,187,000
Sunita Harrikissoon $2,038,000
Keith Scotland $1,800,000
Terrence Bharath $1,691,000
Christlyn Moore $1,297,000 (Former NAR)
Theresa Hadad $1,112,000
FIRMS (local):
Pollonais, Blanc and De Labastide & Jacelon – An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Fitzwilliam, Stone and Furness-Smith – An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Charles Law - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
MG Daly and Partners - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Mair and Company - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Hove and Associated - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Price Waterhouse - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
JD Sellier - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Lex Caribbean - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Alexander, Jeremie & Co - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Devesh Maharaj and Associates - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Harrikissoon and Associates - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
Hinds and Company (wife of Minister Hinds) - An undisclosed amount but in the millions
The squandering Rowley administration made claims that the UNC government spent a billion dollars during their term but this partial list of payments to attorneys (which shows deliberately deleted amounts and names and were manipulated) shows a figure close to a billion already. When omitted ministries and state companies are added that figure is likely to be approaching a scandalous $1.5 to $2 billion, roughly double what was paid by the last government they bitterly complained about.
To be part of this disgraceful legal clique, you know how to manipulate people and laws, lie, take and pay bribes, suck up and knock cocktail glasses with the rich and powerful (1 %) and politicians, exploit junior attorneys and be generally deceitful.
It is also well known you don’t even have to do much work or be intimately familiar with most of the law because people familiar with the process know that this clique of attorneys pass on the bull work to very junior attorneys and pay them peanuts so they could go on million dollars jaunts around the world and buy million dollar cars, boat and properties. They justify the slave wages by telling juniors that the experience will be necessary for them so the turnover is heavy. Many of these attorneys break the Code of Ethics when they double-deal and sell out their own clients which is effectively called spying and is a death sentence in the real world…not in sweet T&T. In fact, these attorneys love to work for the state since they can demand fees that are out-of-line with fees paid by individuals and the courts only approved figures range from $550. to $2,300. per hour….so their state briefs are highway robbery and pure madness. In any event much of their work is open plagiarism as they copy hundreds of pages to reference 1 page, so unsuspecting clients will pay for extra, useless work. Karma has caught up to many of them when they get cancer, blood clots etc, etc and money does little to extend their life, when the average person lives to about 70 years without robbing people millions especially since there no need to rob people since country is full of real opportunities to make a sound living without lying, robbing people and breaking the laws. Their crimes of many attorneys include advising their well-paying clients how to win …which is usually to tell their client their case is hopeless if a certain ‘witness’ makes it to the witness box. In other words, that’s code to kill that person or threaten his family with death.
The state rip off excludes monies paid for Commissions of Enquiry (COE) and the thousands of people appointed to committees, boards etc many of them lawyers. This amount expended on government committees, boards, Investigations and COEs, has been estimated to be 6 billion dollars annually while they refused to pay more than 4% to public servants for outdated collective agreements. So, instead of gutting the Tender and Procurement process they should be gutting these committees and boards. This $6 billion annual bill does not include legal fees to the selected few attorneys outlined above.
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