Duprey's billion-dollar Florida investments not affected by CB injunction

The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has received an injunction that requires its prior approval before CL Financial can sell, assign or dispose of any Clico assets. But the injunction does not apply to British American or any of the CL Financial assets in Florida, in which CL may have a “capital interest.”

The Florida assets are valued at billions of dollars.

A report in the Trinidad Guardian says CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey went on a billion-dollar shopping spree in south Florida in the last five years during which he bought or developed properties with an estimated value of US$1.5 billion.

It says some of the money that the CL boss invested overseas came from local pensioners who bought financial products from CL companies with promises of high returns.

"The jewel in Duprey’s Florida crown is a company called DYL Development Group which in 2005 announced more than US$1 billion in new development in South Florida," the Guardian reported.

It said among the projects undertaken by the DYL group are:

• a 56-storey condominium project called Infinity at Brickell which has 459 residences and is located on Brickell Street, one of the most expensive streets in Miami
• a 69-storey office office/condominium complex with 556 residences called Infinity II also on Brickell Street
• a twin, 23-storey towers comprising 346 hotel rooms and 171 condominium residences for the W hotel in Fort Lauderdale
• a 50-unit luxury high-rise oceanfront condominium complex in Fort Lauderdale where the price of the units ranged from US$900,000 to more than US$2 million

It said Duprey's other properties include 121,533 square feet of motel buildings in Fort Lauderdale which was bought in 2004 by a company called Capri Resorts LLC for US$35 million in 2004. The seller, the Guardian said, was a company called Sable Resorts, which was related to the buyer.

The paper said the investment details appeared in the CL Financial annual report in 2004 as an associated company with CL Financial holding a 26.88 per cent interest. But it is absent from the 2005 annual reports and there is no mention of it being sold.

The Guardian investigation discovered more. According to the paper, "Through a company called Dalco Properties, Duprey purchased a 1.98-acre parcel of land in Broward County in 2008 at US$92.87 per square foot. Duprey and Winston Fifi were the officers of the company in 2000, while Duprey, his wife Sylvia Baldini and Andrew Gross were listed as the officers of the company in 2008.

"Also in 2008, the CL Financial group spent US$300 million buying 6,000 acres of land that is described as “rural” in Osceola County in Florida. Duprey is the chairman of the DYL group, whose Web site describes the British American Insurance Company as its “capital partner.” The founding member and principal of DYL is Geoffrey Leid, who was listed as the corporate secretary of Clico in the CL Financial-owned insurance company’s 2007 annual report."

The Guardian said in 2004 , a Duprey company, Colonial Development, obtained a loan of US$45.6 million from Chicago-based Corus Bank for a project called Europa By-The-Sea project. Two years later that same bank lent an affiliate of DYL Development Group US$140.3 million to finance the construction of Infinity at Brickell, the Guardian said, adding that DYL took out a mortgage for US$12 million on the Infinity at Brickell property in 2005.

"Florida court records indicate that the mortgage was amended eight times between 2005 and December 2007, when the loan’s maturity was extended with US$6 million outstanding. DYL is required to pay US$2 million up front, plus a US$100,000 extension fee and US$1 million each quarter, with the total due Sunday", the Guardian said.