(Trinidad Express) The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has received final judgment in the sum of US$131,318,840.47 in the civil matter arising out of the Piarco Airport corruption scandal.
The lawsuit alleged that the defendants participated in a scheme beginning in August 1996 to illegally obtain consulting and construction contracts at hyper-inflated prices via bribes, bid rigging and money laundering linked to an expansion of the Piarco International Airport.
Following a four-week trial in March, a six-person jury in Miami returned a guilty verdict with respect to defendants Raul Gutierrez Jr, Brian Kuei Tung, and Steve Ferguson, in the civil litigation initiated by the Government in 2004.
On Monday, Judge Diaz, who sat in the Eleventh District Court in Dade County, Miami, delivered final judgment to Trinidad and Tobago.
Former Attorney General, now Local Government Minister, Faris Al-Rawi hosted a press conference on Monday where he praised the judgment in what he said was 19 years of hard-fought litigations by the State.
He noted that over the course of 19 years the basket of litigations brought against 52 persons and entities had to refines due to some of them being settled based on the result of findings of guilt in criminal proceedings which began in the United States of America.
“In 2010, the litigations in the Miami proceedings effectively went into hibernation. The record demonstrates that there was near no activity in the Piarco civil matter in the period 2010 to 2015 under the hands of Attorney General Anand Ramlogan. And that matter fell into risk of being thrown out of court,” Al Rawi- said while speaking at a press conference on Monday.
He noted that following the change in Government in 2015, they got proceedings back on track in 2017, and effectively resuscitated the litigation.
He said having made five amendments to the proceedings that began in 2004, and having narrowed the litigations down to four defendants, the case was set to commence last May. But had to be pushed back by one year.
He said that during the trial in March, the court heard from 12 witnesses for the plaintiff and several witnesses for the defendants.
“The case presented by Trinidad and Tobago included evidence which was taken on deposition. But, the evidence of guilt and the actual confessions as to how this conspiracy unfolded came from the witnesses themselves. Raul Gutierrez Jr specifically confessed in criminal proceedings and in plea agreements entered in the Unites States court. Eduardo Hillman-Waller, similarly testified and provided evidence which he laid out in guilty pleas, which now stand in the public records.”
Al-Rawi said the court also heard from Ronald Burke and Leonardo Mora, who both confessed and gave details of exactly who they coordinated, conspired and worked with in causing damage to Trinidad and Tobago.
Several of the 52 defendants in the matter would have either been found guilty or entered guilty pleas in the US courts, and would have made settlements and served prison time.
“The position today, as it stands, is that the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has this US$131.3m standing to its credit. In dealing with that the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago now has to take certain steps, and that is to seek enforcement of its proceedings,” Al-Rawi said.
Noting that the proceedings of the judgment attracts an interest of US$9m every year, and that judgment continues to accrue, he said the State has instructed its attorneys to commence steps of having the judgment enforced.
He said the State is also going in pursuit of recovering its legal costs, since there has been a considerable expenditure on legal fees, but which has been justified by the judgment in favour of Trinidad and Tobago.
“The challenges to the verdict are complete. Today, Judge Diaz’ finalization of the judgment means that a request for a new trial cannot happen. The request for what the Americans calls a directed verdict has been closed off and denied. All of those matters have now been put behind us.
“Subject to certain technical challenges, the real thing in front of us right now is the potential of an appeal, but there is no appeal as I speak to you now.”
Pointing out that the judgment is one of joint and several liability, he said this means that all three persons are exposed to paying the sum, not in one-third shares, but the entire sum can be recovered from anyone of them, or all three.
He added that it is up to the defendants to decide among themselves how they’re going to treat with the civil liability.
“What the State is going to do is to pursue its options. Right now, we have the ability in the United States…there’s a very detailed process by which the defendants must inform of all of their assets.
“The judgments are in the course of being registered today across counties so that any personal or other property that belong to the defendants will be caught automatically. And in the course of enforcement, there is something called extraterritorial reach.
He said the extraterritorial reach allow the judgments to not only be enforced in the US, but outside of the United States as well.
Al-Rawi stated that if the defendants want to stop the execution of the judgment they would have to put up a bond equal to the amount of the judgment, as well as two years’ interest.
He noted that apart from the civil matter, the US courts still has declarations of certain persons being fugitives from justice, and there are warrants outstanding in respect of Ferguson, Northern Construction and Ish Galbaransingh.
