Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Roger Gas­pard an­nounced yes­ter­day that the Po­lice Ser­vice had start­ed a "full crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion" in­to the con­duct of in­di­vid­u­als and cor­po­rate en­ti­ties in­volved in the col­lapse of Cli­co and re­lat­ed com­pa­nies. The T&T Guardian un­der­stands that the of­fi­cial in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the po­lice be­gan last week. The an­nounce­ment by the DPP came as he ex­pressed con­cern that the me­dia "should not pub­lish or broad­cast any­thing which might jeop­ar­dise, hin­der or oth­er­wise prej­u­dice the in­ves­ti­ga­tion or any pos­si­ble pro­ceed­ings which might re­sult from it."

Gas­pard, in a writ­ten and signed state­ment, said that for the me­dia to jeop­ar­dise, hin­der or oth­er­wise prej­u­dice the in­ves­ti­ga­tion or any pos­si­ble pro­ceed­ings "may amount to a con­tempt of court. He said: "I re­main mind­ful of com­pet­ing pub­lic in­ter­est fac­tors in­clud­ing the fair tri­al rights of po­ten­tial de­fen­dants, the free­dom of the press and the re­quire­ment of open jus­tice." On Sep­tem­ber 27, 2010, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan told re­porters af­ter de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the for­mal open­ing of a work­shop on cor­rup­tion at the Cas­ca­dia Ho­tel in St Ann's that the re­ports and files of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to al­le­ga­tions of wrong­do­ing at Cli­co and CL Fi­nan­cial had been passed to the DPP "and he will be in a bet­ter po­si­tion to an­swer any ques­tions you have as to what ac­tion will be tak­en."

Speak­ing last night, Ram­lo­gan said that he was aware of the fact that a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion has been launched and that he has been kept abreast of all of the de­vel­op­ments rel­a­tive to the on­go­ing in­quiry. "I pledge my fullest sup­port for this im­por­tant in­ves­ti­ga­tion and shall com­mit to pro­vid­ing the nec­es­sary re­sources to fa­cil­i­tate it," said Ram­lo­gan. Asked if his com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the col­lapse of Cli­co with the nec­es­sary re­sources squared with his de­ci­sion to ter­mi­nate the lawyers who were head­ing the in­quiry, Ram­lo­gan said: "No lawyers in­volved in any crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion of Cli­co or HCU were ter­mi­nat­ed by my of­fice. There were sev­er­al par­al­lel in­ves­ti­ga­tions that did not pro­duce val­ue for mon­ey."

The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al said the Gov­ern­ment had ap­point­ed a com­mis­sion of en­quiry to in­ves­ti­gate the col­lapse of the CL Fi­nan­cial em­pire and the HCU group. He said the rev­e­la­tions that have come out of that com­mis­sion, which is head­ed by sole com­mis­sion­er Sir An­tho­ny Col­man, "have prompt­ed much pub­lic con­cern." Asked whether the po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion was launched af­ter the rev­e­la­tions at the com­mis­sion of en­quiry, Ram­lo­gan said he could not com­ment on the op­er­a­tional as­pects of the on­go­ing po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion. But he said: "The in­ves­ti­ga­tion rep­re­sents the on­go­ing process as the un­rav­el­ling of the col­lapse of a once great fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion that dom­i­nat­ed the land­scape with ten­ta­cles that ex­tend­ed in­to every nook and cran­ny of the coun­try."