(Trinidad Express) Former finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira yesterday said it was a “coincidence” she and her sister broke their fixed deposits at CLICO Investment Bank (CIB) weeks before a billion-dollar bailout of CL Financial was brokered.
Nunez-Tesheira yesterday took the witness stand at the commission of enquiry into the collapse of CL Financial and the Hindu Credit Union.
Nunez-Tesheira was led into evidence by her attorney, Frederick Gilkes.
When cross-examined by Terrence Bharath, attorney for the CLICO Policyholders Group, Nunez-Tesheira said she and her sister had broken fixed deposits at the financial institution on December 30, 2009.
Nunez-Tesheira was the minister of finance when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the former People’s National Movement government for a billion-dollar bailout of CL Financial on January 30, 2009.
Nunez-Tesheira’s husband, Russell Tesheira, was an insurance executive at CL Financial subsidiary CLICO before his death on April 14, 2004.
Nunez-Tesheira inherited the CIB fixed deposit from her deceased husband.
“Why did you choose to break that fixed deposit in December 2008?” Bharath asked Nunez-Tesheira.
“I had my own personal reasons like everyone else. They have banking arrangements. I chose to exercise my right to do that,” Nunez-Tesheira said.
“Did you have any inclination that something was happening at CIB which would place your investment in jeopardy?” Bharath asked.
“No,” Nunez-Tesheira said.
“So you just happened to withdraw your money and break your fixed deposit at the end of 2008?” Bharath said.
“In April 2004, for personal reasons and my own concerns in general about CLICO, not financial, but other reasons, it did not take much to persuade me to disassociate myself in terms of any investment with CLICO or CIB,” Nunez-Tesheira said.
Nunez-Tesheira said she told her sister of her intention to withdraw the funds from CIB and her sister opted to break her deposit there also.
Nunez-Tesheira said her sister had power of attorney over their father’s property.
Nunez-Tesheira was the executor of her parents’ estate. “I had concerns, long standing concerns about CIB, high returns equal high risk, and at that point in time she was trying to manage my father’s portfolio and put it into a treasury bond, a safer investment vehicle,” Nunez-Tesheira said.
Nunez-Tesheira will return today to face further cross-examination at the enquiry.
