Mr. Duprey's exchange of hard cash for commercial paper. Click and read Part 2 of my Newsday column.

So far the CL Financial and the Stanford issues involve distinct events: CL’s liquidity, cash flow and “management” problems and, in Stanford’s case an allegation of civil fraud and a very recent criminal charge of obstruction. Eventually, both cases will converge at two points: (i) at the doorsteps of regional Governments and industry regulators and (ii) in the hands of Court appointed investigators, who must trace assets in and out of closely and remotely “associated” companies, to unveil a tapestry of interwoven dealings which put people’s pension and insurance funds further and further away from the safe oversight of the regulators.

In the next few months, in the search for these assets, industry regulators will have the task of guiding the politicians — in Trinidad and Tobago and the OECS — through unexpected public policy issues, like the recapitalisation of what is essentially private sector interests, the pricing of listed and privately held equity and the prospect of protectionist claims, and the return of inter-island nationalism in the contrived ownership of private assets by the State.

The focus will be on the quality of Clico’s statutory deposits, including the $5 billion paper issued to the fund by the parent company and Stanford’s alleged exchange of the Bank’s hard cash for personal paper. Getting swiftly and with precision to the assets which underlie those paper issues will require the encouragement of whistleblowers.

The Governor’s Carnival injunction certainly signals that, in the financial services industry, the fete is over.

Click link above and read full column.