Documents raise questions about finance minister's transactions

Documents from CLICO Investment Bank (CIB) show that Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira closed two US dollar accounts with the bank on December 31, 2008, before they were scheduled to mature later this year, the Trinidad Express reported Wednesday.

CIB is one of four CL Financial businesses that benefited from a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer bailout approved by the Cabinet last month.

Nunez-Tesheira told Parliament on February 2 that she took the money out of a CIB account that had matured. However the paper said documents it obtained shows a different picture.

It said Nunez-Tesheira paid a 3.5 per cent penalty for closing two accounts at CIB worth a total of US$48,549.91. They were due to mature on April 30, 2009 and August 13, 2009 respectively.

She closed one account at US$37,549.45 and the other at US$11,076.34, including interest.

Nunez-Tesheira told Parliament on February 2 claims that she might have befitted from insider knowledge were not true. Opposition Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar suggested that the minister had access to privileged information about CIB, which led to her making withdrawals from her accounts with the bank and Caribbean Money Market Brokers (CMMB), another CL subsidiary, late last year.

In her explanation to Parliament Nunez-Tesheira said Central Bank Governor Ewart William only informed her of CIB's difficulties in the middle of January after CL Financial notified him of their difficulties on January 13.

Here is what the official Hansard records the minister as saying regarding a CIB account:

"On December 31, I withdrew an account which had matured on December 31, 2008. You go and check it because when you were making your accusations, I wanted to ensure that I was accurate on the information, and I called to get all the information that I had on every withdrawal I made in relation to those two institutions."

According to the Express, CIB documents show that Nunez-Tesheira sent a fixed deposit break request form to the CIB manager, Fixed Deposit Department, at #1 Rust Street, St Clair, that contained a typewritten request as follows: "Please be advised that I/we wish to break the captioned deposit.

The paper said the form had specific details, including a reason for breaking the accounts identified as 52801 and 5335. It said a handwritten explanation for breaking the deposit follows, read, "To purchase property. Funds needed. Please prepare one cheque in (in name of) Karen Tesheira."

There was also a letter from Nunez-Tesheira dated December 31, 2008 to Richard Trotman, president and chief executive officer.

"Further to our recent discussions, I hereby request the closure of the above-mentioned accounts (53335 and 4003361) with immediate effect. In this regard, it would be greatly appreciated if you could make the cheques available to me by Friday 2nd January, 2009. Thank you for your kind cooperation in this matter," the letter stated.

Documents show she broke two deposits on December 31, 2008. The first had an original value of US$34,799.65, with a value date of August 13, 2008 and a maturity date of August 13, 2009.

The second deposit had an original value of US$10,161.59, with a value date of April 30, 2007 and a maturity date of April 30, 2009. Both deposits had a seven per cent interest rate.

The Express asked the minister about the financial details and she explained the CLICO Investment Bank (CIB) accounts which she closed on December 31 last year, before they matured later this year, had actually matured previously and were "rolled over".

She claimed that she did not realise and was not informed by anyone at CIB that she was, in fact, breaking the accounts. "The request was first made verbally. In that initial discussion, no one said to me that what I was doing I was breaking an account," Nunez-Tesheira told the paper.

The paper pointed out what appeared to be a discrepancy since she signed the break-request form dated December 31, 2008, which was directed to the CIB manager, Fixed Deposit Department. The form contained a typewritten request as follows: "Please be advised that I/we wish to break the captioned deposit."

She dismissed the matter, telling the paper: "As far as I am concerned...I was asked to roll it over, if that is what the document says, that is what the document says, what difference does it make? I do not know?"

She insists she did nothing wrong.