The continuing story of CL Financial and Stanford Investment Bank: Click link and read my Newsday column

Whatever is the outcome of the current matters facing CL Financial and now Sir Allen Stanford’s investment business, the fact is that it highlights the need for much more stringent regulation of the region’s financial markets, in which trust, cash flow and liquidity are key elements. In the midst Stanford’s 20/20 series for the US$20 million prize — the largest sum ever at stake in a single sport match up – there were questions being asked about the impact of the global financial crisis on Stanford’s investment business. Seemingly in his defence, Forbes magazine (Duncan Greenburg, 6 October, 2008) painted a very favourable picture of Sir Allen, saying that “Stanford’s investment strategy can be described as sure and steady. It doesn’t compare its investment returns with any benchmark."

Then came the about spin and the spiral: on February 19, 2009, Forbes reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complained that Stanford and the officers of his company, “lied to CD purchasers by leading them to believe the bank re-invested their deposits primarily in liquid financial instruments, monitored those funds with a team of 20-plus analysts and subjected the portfolio to yearly audits by Antiguan regulators.”

Click link above and read more....

Minister Enill says "oil sands a viable energy option for T&T".Click link and read.

I am absolutely surprised that Minister Conrad Enill will even suggest that tar sands represent a viable option for Trinidad and Tobago’s energy economy. It is even more surprising that Minister Enill would hold up Alberta as a model. Canadian media reports that "on Nov. 17, 2008 Petro-Canada announced that it would delay the final go-ahead for the mining portion of its planned C$21 billion Fort Hills project in Alberta. Petro-Canada is Canada's No. 4 integrated oil exploration and refining firm. It said it will not make a decision on proceeding with the mine until 2009, instead of December as initially promised, because it expected costs to decline as oil sands projects fall by the wayside. Royal Dutch Shell postponed a plan that would have nearly doubled its production from the Athabasca oil sands project north of Fort McMurray. Suncor Energy, the second largest oil sands operator, reduced its planned capital spending for 2009 by more than a third to $4.9 billion. Nexen Inc. and others have all rethought ambitious oil sands plans that were based on strong prices and easy credit."

Click link above and read my Letter to the Editor.

Judicial review: Illegal for City Corporation to hire people from San fernando only

High Court Judge Carol Gobin has ruled that the practice by the San Fernando City Corporation to give priority to employ people only within the jurisdiction of San Fernando is illegal. Justice Carol Gobin, sitting in the San Fernando High Court on Monday, also ruled that the practice amounts to inequality of treatment from a public authority in the exercise of its functions and is discriminatory. Justice Gobin gave the ruling in a judicial review case brought by Princes Town resident Nimchand Maharaj.

Maharaj who resides at Buen Intento, Princes Town, was first employed as a casual or non-permanent employee with the corporation between June 30 and September 13, 2005. In his lawsuit, filed by attorney Sunil Gopaul-Gosine, Maharaj claimed that following this period of employment, he was told by the acting Administration Officer II Keith Aaron that “no further gainful employment would be extended to him by the corporation since he lived outside of the jurisdiction of San Fernando.”

Maharaj challenged the legality of this policy on the grounds that it was unlawful and amounted to inequality of treatment from a public authority in the exercise of its function and/or is discriminatory. Justice Gobin ruled that the defendants did not attempt to show any justification for the differentiation in treatment of persons living within and outside of San Fernando. “In the absence even of an attempt to do so, I can only conclude that the policy is arbitrary, capricious and irrational,” she said. In the circumstances, the court declared that the policy was illegal and discriminatory. Justice Gobin also ordered the defendants to pay the claimant’s costs.

Jack's "bail out" plan for HCU.

I think it is only a fitting reflection of some very confusing times that we should now see the HCU fiasco being a political issue. Apart from the complete naive, any slightly discerning person can spot the differences between a major conglomerate facing cash flow problems- albeit stemming from serious timing risks taken – and a series of limited liability companies made to look like a Credit Union, whose deposits are gouged out and placed into private accounts, with some being left to hemorrage in these companies to create the appearance of a highly successful “group”. The UNC were silent through the painful losses of HCU’s members and depositors, who suffer further pain through the hare-brained attempts by its former leadership to get even more dollars to stoke their egos. There will be little left after the liquidator is done and Mr. Warner’s $300 million old talk will be just that. The HCU is no CL Financial and Warner and Harinarine are not likely to be the saviours of the HCU investors. Their best hope is that, somewhere along, the assets of the many handed company will be traced and restored to its rightful owners. Perhaps Warner’s $1 million can be spent in getting to the assets of the investors. My guess is that it will require a few flights out of Trinidad to do that.