Neil Bisnath, the attorney for the failed insurance company, CLICO paid Duprey's salary of $5 million a month. In addition Duprey collected multi-million-dollar consultancy fees throughout the year, Bisnath said, adding that the CL boss made a total of $90 a year.
Bisnath told the commission CLICO made the payments to Duprey's consultancy firm, Dalco Capital Management.
"Basically CLF billed CLICO on a monthly basis for consultancy services which CLICO then paid to CLF and that was then paid to Dalco $5 million a month, which was Mr Duprey's pay from CLICO," Bisnath said.
Bisnath suggested that CL also used CLICO's money to fund investments. he was at the time cross examining CL's former Finance Direct Michael Carballo who admitted that CLICO became CLF's "cash cow".
Bisnath pointed out that Duprey invested US$445 million of policyholders' money in a Florida real estate project called Capri, while the investment was worth only US$200 million.
"We know in taking on risks he used policyholders' money, not his personal money; and when you use OPM, other people's money, you can have all kind of fancy dreams and you can make all kind of fancy investments because if you lose it, it is not your money you are losing," Bisnath said.
"He could therefore have a bold and aggressive attitude toward business, and an insatiable risk appetite because it was not his money he was using," Bisnath added.
"He was a great investor of other people's money, but his downfall was the quality of the advisers around him," Bisnath said.
"Lawrence Duprey ran this entire group like his personal kingdom, that is what was happening in effect...Basically, it was a one-man show and Mr Duprey did it all," Bisnath said.
"My concern from the CLICO perspective is that all these investments were funded by policyholders' money without fiduciary duty, without regard for risk and without regard for the fact that policyholders could suffer tremendously," Bisnath said.
The CLICO shareholders group lawyer, Terrence Bharath, questioned Carballo earlier and asked him who was controlling Duprey.
When Bharath suggested that while Duprey was losing billions of dollars in investments around the world with no one to question him Carballo suggested that Duprey's checks and balances may have come from his family.
"Presumably his family in terms of the trust would give him certain approvals and latitude to make certain decisions, and I would say a lot of the other shareholders, my observation is, placed a lot of faith in Lawrence.
"Some of them saw that he had made good decisions in the past and some of them were just hoping that Lawrence would have the Midas touch," Carballo said.
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