SANDALS T&T MOU Made Public

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GOVERNMENT has finally provided chartered surveyor Afra Raymond with a copy of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sandals Resort which provides crucial information on the deal for construction of a 500-700-room hotel in Tobago.

Senior Counsel Deborah Peake confirmed this to Justice Frank Seepersad this morning in the San Fernando High Court.

In October, the judge ruled for Raymond in a judicial review lawsuit he filed because of the State’s failure to provide him with details about the deal.

Raymond contended that the proposed hotel resort, to be constructed on prime state lands in Tobago, the cost of which the State will bear after which Sandals will operate, will impact on the use of water, electricity, solid waste and further infrastructural development of the airport in Tobago.

– Gov’t hands over MoU with Sandals to Afra Raymond/Newsday

Read a copy of the MOU posted in the BU Library:

Click to access sandals-mou-scan.pdf

 

25 thoughts on “SANDALS T&T MOU Made Public”


  1. Bahamas firm owed debt unearths T&T sell-off plan
    $1B in Duprey assets frozen

    by Darren Bahaw & Renuka Singh
    5 hours ago
    Sat Dec 01 2018

    Busi­ness ty­coon Lawrence Duprey has been blocked by the High Court from dis­pos­ing of over $1 bil­lion in as­sets, in­clud­ing three mega es­tates and a lo­cal in­sur­ance com­pa­ny, af­ter a freez­ing in­junc­tion was sought by the com­pa­ny’s for­mer sub­sidiary in the Ba­hamas over a failed land de­vel­op­ment in Flori­da.

    This new in­junc­tion grant­ed by Jus­tice Ricky Rahim to British Amer­i­can In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny (BAICO), blocked Duprey from at­tempt­ing to sell off Mo­tor One In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny and over 700 acres of land that fell un­der the for­mer CL Fi­nan­cial boss.

    The pro­ceed­ings stat­ed that Gary Du­mas, an­oth­er one of Duprey’s busi­ness part­ners, con­firmed that sale of a valu­able co­coa es­tate was dis­cussed with a for­eign buy­er and that Duprey was in the coun­try for a short time which co­in­cid­ed with the sale of the land.

    “Mr Duprey’s al­leged rea­son for be­ing in Trinidad, ie, to sign pa­pers for an ap­peal is un­con­vinc­ing. His sig­na­ture would not be re­quired to file an ap­peal,” BAICO lawyers said in the in­junc­tion.

    Du­mas, BAICO said, has al­so con­firmed the sale of small­er pieces of land.

    BAICO claims a “se­ries of com­plex cor­po­rate struc­tures and trans­ac­tions de­signed to de­feat cred­i­tors” show that Duprey and his part­ners con­spired to avoid the op­er­a­tion of the law.

    Duprey and the oth­er play­ers in this mat­ter could face a fine or im­pris­on­ment if the freez­ing in­junc­tion grant­ed in the mat­ter is breached.

    The in­junc­tion freez­ing Duprey’s lo­cal as­sets was ob­tained against him by BAICO’s lawyers late in Oc­to­ber and now gives him very lit­tle con­trol over what was once his vast wealth. Ac­cord­ing to the new terms of this in­junc­tion, Duprey is al­lowed some US$500 per week as liv­ing ex­pens­es and the ju­di­cial man­ag­er of BAICO must ap­prove any le­gal ex­pense be­fore it is in­curred. The freez­ing in­junc­tion on Duprey re­mains en­forced un­til he makes good on a US$122 mil­lion pay­ment owed to BAICO or un­til the in­junc­tion is dis­charged.

    In the in­junc­tion, BAICO’s at­tor­neys said they were con­cerned that Duprey was try­ing to sell off por­tions of his as­set base to di­min­ish the ap­pear­ance of his hold­ings in or­der to avoid a court-or­dered re­pay­ment of the US$122 mil­lion to the in­sur­ance com­pa­ny.

    BAICO had sued Duprey in 2009 for a breach of fidu­cia­ry du­ty over the com­pa­ny’s in­vest­ment in the Green Is­land re­al es­tate de­vel­op­ment in Osce­o­la Coun­ty, Flori­da. BAICO filed a US-based law­suit against Duprey over a soured deal which saw the com­pa­ny los­ing some US$100 mil­lion and go­ing in­sol­vent. BAICO had in­vest­ed $US295 in the re­al es­tate de­vel­op­ment led by Duprey and when CL Fi­nan­cial col­lapsed it took BAICO with it.

    BAICO was forced to file the lo­cal pro­ceed­in­gs against Duprey to move against as­sets in this coun­try af­ter he moved back to Trinidad and To­ba­go with­out pay­ing the US court-or­dered dam­ages. The lo­cal ac­tion was re­quired as there is no leg­is­la­tive arrange­ment for the reg­is­ter­ing of US judge­ments in T&T.

    In an over 200-page court doc­u­ment ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia, Duprey ad­mits to the ju­di­cial man­ag­er of BAICO that he and his wife moved “var­i­ous as­sets” to an­oth­er com­pa­ny be­long­ing to Carl­ton Reis. The de­tails of the trans­ac­tions are an in­tri­cate web of deals and as­set trades be­tween Duprey, Reis and Gary Du­mas.

    “Duprey and his wife al­so ad­mit­ted that they moved var­i­ous as­sets be­long­ing to Mr Duprey to Reis Fi­nan­cial and Carl­ton Reis, the di­rec­tor of the Duprey Com­pa­nies pur­suant to an arrange­ment where­by Mr Duprey would still re­ceive mon­ey from those as­sets with­out legal­ly own­ing them,” the court doc­u­ment said.

    Duprey is now al­so in dis­pute with Reis Fi­nan­cial about the own­er­ship of the Duprey Com­pa­nies, al­leged­ly be­cause “Reis and Reis Fi­nan­cial have de­cid­ed to take ad­van­tage of the sit­u­a­tion and breach the terms” of their ex­ist­ing arrange­ment.

    Ac­cord­ing to the doc­u­ment, the for­mer busi­ness part­ners are now at odds over the own­er­ship of as­sets but BAICO is ques­tion­ing whether this fric­tion be­tween the two is re­al or de­signed to cre­ate the im­pres­sion of a fall­out.

    “Giv­en Mr Duprey’s pre­vi­ous con­duct of be­ing will­ing to move as­sets to Reis Fi­nan­cial to hide his true own­er­ship, BAICO have con­cerns and wish to in­ves­ti­gate whether the dis­pute be­tween Mr Duprey and Reis Fi­nan­cial and/or Mr Reis is gen­uine or a smoke­screen to fur­ther their pri­or du­plic­i­ty,” the court doc­u­ment stat­ed.

    “While in the short time since ob­tain­ing the or­der, no sale has been iden­ti­fied, BAICO re­lies on the fol­low­ing ev­i­dence that there may be a sale in progress or un­der ne­go­ti­a­tions,” the doc­u­ment added.

    “Im­por­tant­ly, Mr Reis states in the Reis af­fi­davit that he and Reis Fi­nan­cial are in dis­cus­sions to sell Mo­tor One, one of Duprey’s com­pa­nies. It is clear that Mo­tor One will be sold if the Or­der is dis­charged which will re­sult in yet an­oth­er as­set be­ing dis­si­pat­ed and the funds pre­sum­ably trans­ferred out of the reach of BAICO.”

    The in­junc­tion, lodged back in Oc­to­ber on be­half of BAICO, al­so bars Duprey’s cur­rent and for­mer busi­ness part­ners, Du­mas and Reis, from dis­pos­ing of as­sets be­long­ing to eight of Duprey’s com­pa­nies, in­clud­ing his hold­ings in Mo­tor One In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny, Stech­ers Ltd and more than 700 acres of agri­cul­tur­al land.

    Ac­cord­ing to the doc­u­ment, BAICO be­lieved Duprey trans­ferred shares to Reis Fi­nan­cial “as part of a scheme by Mr Duprey to trans­fer as­sets out of his own­er­ship to third par­ties to hold on trust or as nom­i­nee for him in or­der to frus­trate at­tempts by cred­i­tors to seize his as­sets.”

    The pro­ceed­ings state that at a meet­ing, both Duprey and Du­mas ac­knowl­edged that the is­sue of 49,999 shares in Prism Agri to Du­mas was not a “gen­uine arms-length trans­ac­tion.”

    “It was un­der­tak­en to give the im­pres­sion that Duprey was no longer the ma­jor­i­ty share­hold­er in Prism Agri,” the law­suit con­tests.

    The law­suit al­so con­tests that Du­mas did not pay Duprey for the shares trans­ferred to his name.

    In the doc­u­ment, Duprey and his wife al­so ad­mit­ted that they moved some of his as­sets to Reis Fi­nan­cial and made Reis the di­rec­tor of the Duprey Com­pa­nies “pur­suant to an arrange­ment where­by Mr Duprey would still re­ceive mon­eys from those as­sets with­out legal­ly own­ing them.”

    “BAICO be­lieves this was plain­ly an­oth­er at­tempt to frus­trate any at­tempt BAICO might take to en­force against Duprey’s as­sets”

    Ac­cord­ing to the court doc­u­ments, the freez­ing in­junc­tion bars sale or dis­pos­al of any as­sets as­so­ci­at­ed with Dal­co Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd, La Maraqui­ta De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd, e llus­tri­um Ltd, In­dus­tri­al Com­mer­cial De­vel­op­ment (T’dad) Ltd, Mo­tor One In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny Ltd, Stech­ers Ltd and Collt­wofour Ltd.

    The pro­hi­bi­tion al­so in­clud­ed Duprey’s pri­vate res­i­dence in Mar­aval.

    700 acres of land part of vast as­sets

    In a sep­a­rate af­fi­davit, Reis con­tra­dict­ed Duprey and said that he paid him fair­ly for the shares in Duprey’s com­pa­nies.

    Reis said the ma­jor­i­ty share­hold­ing in Duprey’s Dal­co Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd was trans­ferred to Reis Fi­nan­cial Ser­vices Ltd le­git­i­mate­ly through a share sale agree­ment back in Feb­ru­ary 2014 for some $3.5 mil­lion.

    Duprey’s ma­jor­i­ty shares in Prism Trust and Fi­nance were trans­ferred to Reis Fi­nan­cial Ser­vices for some $12 mil­lion and Duprey’s oth­er one or­di­nary share in e llus­tri­um, the com­pa­ny that op­er­ates Stech­ers, was trans­ferred to Reis Fi­nan­cial for $3 mil­lion.

    Reis al­so pro­vid­ed de­tails on the over 700 acres of agri­cul­tur­al lands which are part of the lien.

    In that doc­u­ment, Reis said that the La Maraqui­ta Es­tate is ap­prox­i­mate­ly 150 acres and was last val­ued at $13.5 mil­lion. The Ca­nary Es­tate is ap­prox­i­mate­ly 121 acres and was last val­ued at $1.4 mil­lion, the Hen­ry Es­tate in Moru­ga is ap­prox­i­mate­ly 512 acres and list­ed at $12 mil­lion. Reis al­so de­tailed two oth­er es­tates – Pen­land and one lo­cat­ed in Wood­brook – but was un­able to pro­vide any val­u­a­tions on those prop­er­ties.

    “I am in­struct­ed that La Maraqui­ta Es­tate and Pen­land Es­tate are cur­rent­ly the sub­ject of sev­er­al ac­tions be­fore the court be­tween Prism Trust, Kall­co Ltd, Mo­tor One In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny Lt, Reis Fi­nan­cial Ltd, a com­pa­ny called La Maraqui­ta De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny, Pen­lands Es­tate De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd and oth­ers,” Reis said.

    He said the lands in Moru­ga was sub­ject to squat­ters and statu­to­ry ten­an­cies.

    The Re­spon­dents to the freez­ing in­junc­tion are to file fur­ther ev­i­dence by Jan­u­ary 2019 with the mat­ter ad­journed to Jan­u­ary, 18, 2019. Lawyers from JD Sel­l­i­er and Com­pa­ny, Bryan Mc Cutcheon and An­dre Rud­der, rep­re­sent BAICO

    http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/us-firm-owed-debt-unearths-tt-selloff-plan-6.2.728095.2a15d681c3?fbclid=IwAR385FEHStkEvWBO2VsZHi5_MJTHaSYLfSpaRMMABJE5BsNr0qj-XdjNV6U

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  3. This Dupree scenario being unveiled here by Afra Raymond is informative because it sheds light on the Clico shenanigans and the New Life? Holdings that Jester Ince and Stinkliar effected there

    Conversely where in Barbados the bajan crew got knighthoods and ongoing jobs on the NIS board and other state institutions, in the case of Dupree, as soon as the extradition agreements are effected, the government of the United States will lock him up.

    Well done Afra Raymond

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  4. @ the Honourable Blogmaster

    You see the rampant idiocy that obtains in this cuntry?

    You comprehend how deep this fixation in faeces is when so called intelligent men an women cannot take instruction from regional issues that mirror our own maladies?

    Now all you have to do is start a trump article and the same asshole who commented above will write prolifically pun dat faeces.

    March on March on.

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  5. “The in­junc­tion freez­ing Duprey’s lo­cal as­sets was ob­tained against him by BAICO’s lawyers late in Oc­to­ber and now gives him very lit­tle con­trol over what was once his vast wealth. ”

    Afra took their game right up in their faces to a higher level and exposed everything ..well done..

    If anyone should end up with NOTHING it is that FRAUD Duprey and all his lowlife thieving employees in Trinidad AND Barbados….both Leroy Leper, Leslie Haynes and all the other hangers-on and scam artists should be in prison…one more reason to NEVER trust Mia Borrows.

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  6. @ the Honourable Blogmaster

    His efforts and success in the neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago not only show us that it can be done but, done in a country where they kill prosecutors in the middle of the day as in Dana Seetahal

    Yet this can elicit such an idiotic remark from someone whom is considered a qualified BU contributor.

    Maybe I seem to be too harsh here but this simply assails all common sense

    BU has some several thousand readers every day, so imagine what this xenophobic comment elicits?

    STEUPSEEE

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    • What we have in Barbados are keepboard warriors.

      What we have in Barbados are people who do not understand their civic responsibility.

      What we have in Barbados is a people who lack and or do not know their identity.

      What we have …

      >


  7. David the Blogmaster and @Pieces, respectfully gentlemen why assail this gent 45Govt..he continually makes these types of myopic remarks and its long been noted as nonsensical.

    However, many others here make the same type of nonsensical remark re blogs on US matters …even you my friend @Pieces tend to scoff at some US based issues garnering many responses.

    How cant we see this as different sides of the same coin?

    I am flabbergasted myself that a nation of just over a quarter million resident on the island at any one time and which has more people of Bajan descent and those who are of Bajan parentage and officially list themselves as Bajans likely living across the globe OUTSIDE the island than those on the island can EVER utter the nonsense about paying attention only to local issues.

    A nation which sent thousands of emigrants to Panama to assist in canal construction, sent thousands more across the region, to the UK, US, Europe, LatAm and Africa over these many years can expound in such ethnocentric non-speak.

    So…I dont agree with you that Bajans necessarily lack an identity or even a civic responsibility but firmly agree that we are as short sighted as anyone else, anywhere else in the world.

    It was a Trini who said “one from ten leaves nought” and that same strain of ethnocentric ‘we better than them’ thinking is found in “they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people”.

    We can all be xenophobic when it suits us and just as happy to receive the assistance be it from TnT oil revenues, the IMF or that big barrel and bank card from auntie May when it suits us too!

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  8. And what we have on the blog are some miserable, unhappy and cantankerous people, who delight in put downs, insults, denigration and other belittling behaviour, in the most condescending manner possible. They are those who think only they have knowledge, know what is right and expect others to genuflect to them and be grateful for doing it. They dislike differing opinions to the point of being verbally abusive. Such people are unhappy with themselves and want others to share their pain and become upset when stronger minds resist. Such people are lonely souls with few if any friends. They should be pitied but we feel sorry for them.

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  10. What we have in Barbados are keepboard warriors.

    What we have in Barbados are people who do not understand their civic responsibility.

    What we have in Barbados is a people who lack and or do not know their identity.

    What we have in Barbados IS SOME FOLK JUST HAVING FUN AND BULL SHITING on BU WHILE ENJOYING LIFE OTHERWISE
    LIKE I HEY WATCHING SOME CRICKET FROM UAE…
    WHILE ENGAGING IN THE BU RUM SHOP

    ONE WONDERS WHAT IS ONES CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY WHEN YUH RETURNED HOME TO WUK FOR WUH EVER DEY GIVE YOU AT WHATEVER DEY GIVE YUH TO DUH AND HAVE TO WATCH INFERIOR SUPERIORS TALKING AND DOING SHITE

    WUH YA AH DUH? as the Jamaicans say
    WUH YA AH DUH?
    WUH YA FE DUH?

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  12. @PUDYYR
    “Yet this can elicit such an idiotic remark from someone whom is considered a qualified BU contributor.”
    ++++++++++++
    Qualified? Haha. The only thing the (wo)man does is bark white supremacist tropes and silent on everything else.

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  13. RE TheOGazerts December 2, 2018 1:31 PM

    @DpD
    You continue to puzzle me.
    DONT WORRY THEO THIS MEANS THAT YOU ARE QUITE NORMAL

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  14. Lest we forget the huge footprint of Trinidad in the Chefette,First Citizens,Republic Bank,Massy and Ansa McAl and a less big laquis and kirpalani hybrid ’bout hey so.All ‘o dem is one when the chips dung.itz sout dey go.

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  15. My local newspaper ‘The Record” has a story in the travel section “Caribbean island offers history, sweeping beaches and lots of sun – Barbados” by an Erica Lamberg… Mainly about Sandals (no other hotels are mentioned) and ends with “For information or to book a vacation visit xxxdals.com or call xxx-xxx-xxxx.

    Think Adrian L need to pay a travel writer for a puff piece.

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  16. Same thing I have been saying ..if Caribbean people are EDUCATED about the role of the CCJ, they will vote to participate, but knowing the mentality and nasty attitudes of lawyers and politicians/government ministers in the Caribbean who have no problem misleading and lying to their own people to continue corrupt practices, they will fight against educating the public…because their only intent is to keep islanders BACKWARD and UNWARE to continue their own self enrichment.

    It’s beyond ugly what Fruendel tried to do..to keep that disgusting dump of a Supreme Court and judiciary in a perpetual CORRUPT mode…just because he did not like the judgments coming from CCJ.

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/219173/caribbean-nationals-educated-role-ccj?fbclid=IwAR0jKeAVlV_rA2-o8tyF_Tkuzc5ZB2-wuTDa_-wYSx2mp61A26dybQgp8Ss

    “NEW YORK – President of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice, Adrian Saunders says more still needs to be done to educate the regional public about the role of the court that was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the Caribbean final court.

    “I’m not worried about the referendum results in Antigua and Grenada. But what it tells us, we need more educational work,” Justice Saunders said as he delivered the Maxwell Haywood Memorial Lecture Friday night at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York.

    Voters in both countries on November 6 rejected the move to replace the CCJ with the Privy Council. In the case of Grenada it was the second rejection within a two year period of the CCJ that functions also as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the regional integration movement, CARICOM.

    Haywood, a Brooklyn-based Vincentian community activist, died a year ago after a short battle with cancer. He was also the chairman of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, Inc.

    Justice Saunders, the third Caribbean national to head the CCJ, questioned who in the region would be responsible for educating the public on the role of the court, adding “so, if we’re going to advance, we need to know how we’re going to make our country more independent”.

    Speaking on the topic The Role and Importance of the CCJ in advancing the Caribbean Civilisation, the Vincentian-born Justice Saunders pointed to what he said were two principal reasons for the defeat of the referendum in Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda.

    “Firstly, it is a fact that people have unhappy experiences with their local justice systems. If the court is held in a less than adequate courthouse; if the courtroom is stiflingly hot; if the case is adjourned again and again and again; if a murder accused spends 10 years on remand before his case is heard; then the idea of replacing a British institution (Privy Council) with a Caribbean one is instinctively unappealing.”

    But Justice Saunders said “that’s where the second reason kicks in,” stressing “we have not done enough to inform and educate people about the CCJ”.

    “In Antigua, those who led the ‘no’ vote claimed that we were a shiny new attic on a termite ridden house. That analogy is specious. Firstly, the CCJ is not an organic part of the local justice system. The CCJ is a separate house.

    “And not only are there no termites in this house, but we are organised in such a way as to help get rid of any termites that might exist elsewhere,” he added.

    Justice Saunders, who assumed the presidency of the CCJ in July this year, said a Caribbean Court, staffed with the best Caribbean judges, “is able to give greater effect to our aspirations as a people”.

    He said that, for the last 13 years, the CCJ has been “dispensing justice for Barbados and Guyana to the satisfaction of the peoples of those countries”.

    He said that when former Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart made what he described as “uncomplimentary statements” about the CCJ in the lead up to the last general elections in his country earlier this year, “he was roundly condemned by the ordinary man and woman of Barbados”.

    “The CCJ is more than capable of handling the region’s appeals,” said Justice Saunders, adding: “If we are to advance as a people, politics and political tussles are important for a healthy democracy.

    “But there are eternal core human values that are overarching – truth, compassion, cooperation, caring, courtesy, empathy, hard honest labour. “These are values opposition and government alike, and, indeed, all the people, must promote.”

    But Justice Saunders said there is another value, which he said is paramount – “one that is vital for us in the Caribbean with our fractured experiences of slavery and colonialism.

    “That other value is self-belief; a clear sense of ourselves; an understanding of our worth as human beings; an appreciation that we are not inferior to anyone, and that we have the capacity to forge our own destiny.”

    The prominent Caribbean jurist said a major step forward in self-reliance came when the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) established the CCJ in 2003.

    He said the CCJ is “two courts in one: It is a CARICOM treaty court, like the European Court of Justice, and it is a final court of appeal, like the US Supreme Court, or like the British Privy Council”.

    Justice Saunders said if all CARICOM nations make the CCJ their final court of appeals, “We’ll be doing a great service to our children and our children’s children”

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  17. Sandals has a bad history when it comes to public private partnership investment in its home country of Jamaica. I would advise the TT government to proceed with extreme caution. Air Jamaica was a bad deal for Jamaica while being run by Sandal’s boss Butch Stewart. The Sandals White House Resort in Jamaica was another bad deal for the taxpayers of Jamaica… Butch ended up with a new hotel that cost US$ 120 million to construct for US$ 40 million.

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  18. To digress slightly about private/public initiatives whatever happened to the landing spaces Air Jamaica had at Heathrow Airport?

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  19. I am interested in what happens in Trinidad & Tobago. I am interested in what happens in the US of A. I am interested in what happens worldwide. What happens worldwide informs me about my fayourite subject – human nature, the failures of which appear to be universal.

    P.S. WARU, great argument from Saunders.

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  21. @David. The Barbados deal was one huge fiscal sweet -heart deal. That’s standard operating procedure for the Sandals boss wherever he sets up shop in the region. Just ask the government of Antigua and St Lucia.

    @Hal. I think Virgin Airlines bought Air Jamaica’s Heathrow slot before its demise. I heard they bought it on the cheap too.

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