(Trinidad Express) Gita Sakal, former corporate secretary of CL Financial, put the needs of Lawrence Duprey above the will of the country, Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein, legal representative for the Ministry of Finance, stated yesterday.
Hosein made the statement as Sakal took the witness stand in the first day of the fourth evidence hearing, which started yesterday.
Hosein made the claim as Sakal said she brokered the sale of CLICO Energy for Duprey despite a Memorandum of Understanding with the government in January 2009, which prohibited the sale of any assets.
Some 84 million shares of CLICO Energy, which amounted to a 51 per cent stake in the company, were sold to a Barbados-registered company called Proman Holdings after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2009 with the former People’s National Movement government for a billion-dollar bailout of CL Financial.
Sakal said she travelled to Tobago in order to discuss the possible sale of the CLICO Energy shares with Joseph Cassidy of Proman Holdings, on the behest of Duprey.
Sakal did not tell any of the CL Financial directors of the sale because Duprey requested confidentiality. She yesterday defended her position during cross-examination by former group financial director Michael Carballo.
“I obeyed the chairman (Duprey). I did a lot of things for the chairman. He said confidentiality. I took a decision, and whether it is right or wrong I stand by my decision to support the chairman,” Sakal said.
“The chairman requested confidentiality about the sale, and I respected his wishes,” she said.
