T&T -Government accused of enslaving

Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj has accused the coalition People’s Partnership government of seeking to “enslave” policy holders as the High Court is being asked to enforce the right of the policy holders to full compensation on the Executive Annual Premium Policy  (EFPA) issued by the struggling Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO).
Maharaj, speaking after a meeting of the CLICO United Policy Holders Group, accused Finance Minister Winston Dookeran of engineering the government’s plan to enslave policy holders.
“The Government is using the money of the policyholders and telling them they are not giving the value of CLICOI and CL Financial.
“They cannot see the financial report and the Government will take away the right of policyholders through Parliament for them to file action against CLICO. There is no difference to that and slavery,” said Maharaj, who is also representing the aggrieved policyholders.
Last year, the Government announced a plan to repay policyholders their principal balances over a period of 20 years, without interest in the form of zero coupon bonds.
Last week, the government said it had approved the creation of a CLICO Investment Trust that it is likely to meet all outstanding payments to policyholders of the troubled insurance giant within the next four months.
Dookeran told reporters that Cabinet had approved the Trust and for payments to policyholders with investments of TT$75,000 (US$12,500) and over being completed by February 29.
“Cabinet took the decision to approve the establishment of a CLICO Investment Trust,” he said, adding that the 51.9 million shares of Republic Bank which are “now in the hands of CLICO will be transferred to the trust.
“This represents at today’s market value, a transfer of approximately TT$4.8 billion (US$800 million). Those policyholders who will be issued bonds of 11 to 20 year duration will now have access to this trust to purchase units equivalent to their value of their deposit during that period of 11 to 20 years,” he explained.
“We anticipate that the total value of such obligations is in the order of TT$5.2 billion (US$800.6 million) and if they were all to take up this offer, the Government will still have to add a further TT$400 million (US$66.6 million) to the trust in order to have it fully capitalised to do this transaction,” Dookeran said.
But Maharaj said that Dookeran’s plan “will only give the policyholders 42 cents (US$0.07) in the dollar when he is saying that their plan will give them 92 cents (US$0.34) in the dollar.

Kamla should bring back some Indentureds from India... :blank:

Krish , remember what I told you about Lawrence  Maharaj , how he undercut Panday with his mantra of corruption and that he will try to do the same with Kamla , well guess what , he is at it again

Maharaj is a power hungry snake.  Peeps in TnT, trust him at your peril.

Yeah ....doan trust a Maharaja dat name Lawrence... ::redcard::

There is another Maharaj , could be his brother, equally a Naga