Attorney General, Reginald Armour, SC, says he has disclosed his involvement in a pending case in the US which constitutes a possible conflict of interest following his new appointment.
At the time of his swearing-in on March 16, Armour was involved in the pending case in the Miami Dade County Court between the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ROTT) against Birk Hillman Consultants, Steve Ferguson, Raul J Guiterrez Jr, and Brian Kuei Tung.
T&T is nominally represented by the AG in the Miami Case–which first commenced in 2004 by attorneys Sequor Law on the instructions of then AG John Jeremy, SC.
The nominal named representatives of the ROTT which is the Plaintiff, and whose names have appeared on the record from inception include Armour as well as John Jeremy SC; Bridgid Annisette-George; Glenda Morean SC; Anand Ramlogan SC; Garvin Nicholas; and former AG Faris Al-Rawi.
On March 30, Armour attended the introductory first virtual meeting by teleconference with Sequor Law.
Armour yesterday said, “The purpose of which was to provide me with a brief status report on the ROTT’s readiness for trial.”
Revealing there were two representatives of Sequor Law, along with himself and Tenille Ramkissoon, who is the Director of Civil Litigation, Attorney General’s Secretariat, Office of the Attorney General present then, the AG claimed, “At the very beginning of that virtual teleconference I immediately advised everyone present that I had previously represented the Defendant Brian Kuei Tung and his girlfriend Ms René Pierre in matters involving charges brought against them by the Police involving the construction of the then-new Piarco Airport and that I wished the advice of Sequor Law in respect of any conflict of interest in my participation in the Miami Case.
“From that moment I was walled off by Messrs Sequor Law from any aspect of the case other than case management issues, that is to say, logistics for trial, naming a person to attend mediation and to attend the trial and payment of invoices as well as with regard to the Birk settlement in respect of which I had signed a settlement document prepared by others, in my capacity as chief legal officer of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Armour said that as a consequence of his stated disclosure, “I did not participate in any trial-related issues of any kind and delegated the continued case preparation to former Attorney General, Honourable Mr Faris Al Rawi and Ms Ramkissoon.”
Having recused himself, Armour said he departed T&T on April 12, for a family vacation in Europe. In his absence, the former AG Al-Rawi was appointed to act.
Whilst abroad, Armour was informed by Sequor Law that Steve Ferguson and Brian Kuei Tung had filed motions to strike out the Miami Case, as well as to disqualify Sequor Law from representing the ROTT, by reason of an alleged conflict which existed because of his appointment as AG.
Upon hearing of that Disqualification Motion, which was scheduled to take place in Miami, Armour signed an affidavit in opposition on April 24 and emailed it to Al-Rawi for transmission to Sequor Law.
In that affidavit, the AG claimed, “I gave my best recollection, stating the fact that I did not recollect any details of my former representation of Mr Kuei Tung or Ms Pierre nor was I in possession of any files related to that former representation.”
“I also gave my best recollection of my disclosure of conflict of interest declared to Sequor Law on the 30th March.”
Armour later received a call from the acting AG that the sitting judge in the 11th Judicial Circuit had ordered that Sequor Law be disqualified from continuing as attorneys for the ROTT in the Miami Case by reason of their contact with him as Attorney General.
He said, “Consistent with my prior decision to recuse myself from any involvement in the Miami Case, I left all discussion and decision-making, following on this information of the Judge’s Order to the acting Attorney General to determine how best to deal with an order which I considered patently wrong.”
Indicating he was a nominal plaintiff only and had having recused himself from the outset, Armour said his limited contact with Sequor Law should not form the basis for the disqualification to act as attorneys for the ROTT.
Armour was informed by Al-Rawi on May 1, that the ROTT had appealed the decision of the judge as being erroneous in law; and in the interest of not providing any cause for unwarranted allegations affecting the capacity of attorneys to continue with the prosecution of the Miami Case new attorneys had been retained to replace Sequor Law.
The new attorney is White & Case LLP, of Southeast Financial Center, Miami.
Armour said, “For the reason that the Miami Case is an ongoing Jury Trial involving a claim by the ROTT to recover millions of United States Dollars for the People of Trinidad and Tobago,” and believing the decision of the judge to be patently wrong, he had opted to remain silent before to avoid any possibility of any defendants relying on anything said by him, to claim prejudice which could be used to continue to delay the trial any further.
Armour added that he was responding based on questions from a member of the media which suggested that based on his continued silence a report would be published on what he said was based on "speculation and conjecture."
He said such facts could be used by the defendants to allege the very prejudice, which he had been careful to avoid by remaining silent.