Anna Deonarine under attack over vehicle scandal, $13M land deal

File: ILP Deputy Leader Anna Deonarine

Anna Deonarine's parents bought 20 acres of land from Dole Chadee's brother for $225,000 and then sold it to former CLICO Executive Director Lawrence Duprey for $13 million.

That was revealed Tuesday night by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan at a meeting of the United National Congress in Princes Town. The total amount was deposited in Deonarine’s name on March, 29, 2005 into EFPA Policy at CLICO.

The AG quoted all the relevant details of the transaction and also noted that the mother of the ILP Deputy Leader, Shama Deonarine, received a hefty commission for the sale of the EFPA to her daughter since she was a representative of Clico.

Ramlogan described the transaction as a “land racket”. The land was originally bought on April 16, 1997 and the value as determined by an official valuator was put at $11 million in 2005.

The AG said the land was sold under false pretences because the valuation at that figure was on the assumption that Town and Country Planning permission was granted for it to be used for residential purposes.

He produced a document to show that no such approval was ever given and said he would refer the matter to the relevant authorities to investigate.

Documents as obtained by the Express newspaper show that the Clico subsidiary, Home Construction Limited, applied for approval to use the land for residential purposes but that was denied and no such approval has been granted to date.

The Express said Deonarine has promised to talk about the matter in a one-on-one interview on Wednesday.

The issue of Deonarine's connection to a stolen Range Rover was also a hot topic at Tuesday's UNC meeting. 

Police seized the vehicle from Deonarine in November 2011, claiming that the London Metropolitan Police had written to the Trinidad and Tobago Commissioner of Police about an international car-stealing racket involving high-end luxury vehicles, which were stolen in London and shipped to Trinidad and Tobago for sale.

Deonarine has said she was a victim in the matter. But Ian Alleyne, the UNC/PP candidate for the St Joseph byelection told a different story on Tuesday night.

Alleyne produced what he said were authentic documents showing that Deonarine applied for and was granted a licence to import the stolen vehicle. He distributed one thousand copies of the documents to the people present at the meeting in Princes Town.