Monteil's lawyer calls Carballo a liar, says Carballo resented Monteil

Former CL Financial Group finance director Andre Monteil talks with British Queen’s Counsel Andrew Mitchell, who represents Lawrence Duprey, during a break in the Clico/HCU enquiry on Friday.

Andre Monteil's lawyer went on the offensive Friday suggesting to the Clico/HCU enquiry that former CL Financial Chief Financial Officer Michael Carballo told lies about Monteil during his testimony this week.

Senior Counsel Martin Daly accused Carballo of deliberately setting out to destroy Monteil by saying that there was a conflict of interest with respect to Monteil's dealings with CL and Clico.

And Daly offered a reason why Carballo was doing it. He said Carballo was upset and resented the idea that CL boss Lawrence Duprey asked Carballo to take a "back seat" while Monteil handled the negotiations with the Manning PNM administration for a bailout for Clico.

Monteil was closely connected to the PNM and was treasurer of the party. Carballo testified earlier in the week that Duprey needed Monteil for his political connections and left Carballo out of the picture.

Carballo acknowledged that he was upset but denied that he resented Monteil. "I was just upset by the situation not particularly with any individual," he told Daly under cross examination.

Carballo also said he did not agree with Duprey's preference for Monteil to deal with the sale of Republic Bank shares.

Daly noted that while Carballo spoke of a conflict of interest in Monteil handling the Republic Bank shares it was Carballo who signed the letter authorizing the $130 million bank share offer.

"Whatever explanation you give now, is directly contrary to your publicly stated position, publicly for the last 4 days, that you were against the sale of RBL shares and you were against the appointment of Stone Street Capital to sell it," Daly said.

The lawyer also pointed out what he said were conflicting statements in Carballo's tesimony at the enquiry.

"The first lie is, you said in your witness statement, you did not sign the letter. The second lie is, when you were putting forward that you did not sign the letter, you knew all the time as evidenced by the annotation, that the truth was you could not recall. That was the second lie. Telling us you did not sign it knowing perfectly well that the truth was recorded in the annotation of your witness statement," Daly said.

He added that the "lies" led him to believe that large chunks of Carballo's 265-page witness statement are based on gossip and fueled by personal resentment.