The lawyer for Tameshwar Jagmohan, the new owner of the 100-acre Sunset Lakes housing development at Providence, East Bank Demerara, says his client was not a partner of former owner Brian Tiwarie in the venture and that he has fully paid for the property.
According to attorney Glenn Hanoman, Jagmohan also wants it to be known that the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) did not lose its High Court case to repossess the land but instead withdrew it as it is satisfied with his property development plans.
“He paid up fully on everything,” Hanoman told Sunday Stabroek, while noting that the payments were made by way of two cheques to receiver/manager for Citizens Bank Guyana Inc Nigel Hinds.
“So Citizens’ Bank has been fully paid. He is fully compliant. CH&PA is satisfied with his progress and he is not, no, no way, in any partnership with Brian Tiwarie or was previously a party of shareholder or anything in Sunset Lakes,” Hanoman added.
Last Thursday, Stabroek News had reported that the property, which was sold in 2014 to Tiwarie, had been repossessed by Citizens Bank after he defaulted on the mortgage and sold to Jagmohan, of Precious Mining Inc. for over $1 billion.
“Agreement of sale and purchase was made on October 9th with Precious Mining Inc. There was a bidding system, which saw seven bids and that company made the best bid. It was sold for between $1 and 2 billion, 50% of which has been paid,” a source close to the process told this newspaper.
Hanoman said that his client questioned the report of the 50% payment since he wrote two separate cheques for the total amounts of the price he paid for the property.
However, the source maintained that only 50% was paid. A bank receipt, dated November 17, 2017, for a payment of $749,000,000 to Hinds, was seen by this newspaper yesterday.
In late August, a full-page advertisement appeared in all of the daily newspapers announcing that the 100 acres were up for sale and that accountant Hinds had been appointed Receiver-Manager of Sunset Lakes Inc.
Shortly after, the CH&PA announced that it had moved to the court seeking the rescinding of the 2014 sale to Tiwarie.
The CH&PA issued a press release disclosing that on July 20th of this year, it had commenced court proceedings to repossess the land.
Although CH&PA’s Chairman Lelon Saul, when contacted by this newspaper, explained that his agency had lost its bid through the High Court to have the lands returned for outstanding payments and a breach of contract, Hanoman stated that CH&PA had withdrawn its case. This newspaper was shown a notice of withdrawal and discontinuance.
Hanoman said plans are now on stream in compliance with the housing authority’s agreement with the owner and a site visit by this newspaper confirmed that works have restarted in preparation for the resale of individual lots.
Stabroek News had on Thursday also visited the office of Jagmohan and was told by Jagmohan’s secretary that he was in a meeting. She took the reporter’s contact details and promised to return a call after she had spoken to her employer. She later returned a call and said that she was not au fait with the Sunset Lakes deal but spoke with the relevant persons who told her that “at this time they can’t really say anything because there is still a pending litigation….”
Further, she informed that Jagmohan was also part owner of Sunset Lakes.
She said that “as soon as the matter was sorted out their [Sunset Lake’s] PR person will contact you.”
One source explained that Jagmohan and Tiwarie are partners in Sunset Lakes but would not go into details as to why a party in the partnership would purchase the very lands that the company has taken Baishanlin to court for to collect outstanding payment.
This aspect was also dismissed by Hanoman, who said that his client was concerned about the report that he was linked to Sunset Lakes prior to the purchase. “Prior to it being advertised for sale, my client had no arrangement with Sunset Lakes,” he stressed.
