(Trinidad Express) Sylvia Baldini-Duprey, wife of Lawrence Duprey, attended only one CL Financial board meeting during her three-year stint as deputy chairman of the conglomerate because she feared being kidnapped if she returned to this country.
This was the statement made by Duprey’s attorney, Queen’s Counsel Andrew Mitchell, as he yesterday cross-examined former corporate secretary of CL Financial Gita Sakal.
Duprey, former executive chairman of CL Financial, named his wife the deputy chairman of the conglomerate during a board meeting on June 2, 2006. She resigned in 2009.
The only CL Financial board meeting Baldini-Duprey ever attended was the one held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, in June 2008.
Duprey and his wife live in Flrida.
“Would you accept that there was a particular sensitivity from certain people about kidnapping?” Mitchell asked Sakal yesterday.
“Mrs Duprey did not attend meetings because of security reasons I said earlier,” Sakal responded.
During her testimony at the enquiry on November 16 last year, Sakal said she raised the issue of the lack of attendance by Baldini-Duprey to Duprey.
Duprey said Baldini-Duprey could not attend board meetings because of security reasons, Sakal said then.
“Let us not beat about the bush; there were understandable concerns, particularly during that period; Mrs Duprey was concerned she would have been kidnapped,” Mitchell said.
“Having that meeting in Fort Lauderdale allowed her to attend the board meeting,” he said.
