Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:6 hours 19 min ago
Ramesh to Govt:
Make Craig white collar crime buster
Published: 11 Oct 2009
Raymond Craig
Deputy Police Commissioner Raymond Craig is probably the most professional white collar crime buster in the T&T Police Service, yet the Government has chosen to channel his energies to directing vehicular traffic. The scathing allegation was levelled by former attorney general, UNC Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj in the Lower House last Friday during debate on amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Bill, 2009. He referred to how Craig’s services were being used to dramatise his point that the PNM Government was not serious about fighting white collar crime in T&T and was simply seeking to pass the Bill at the 11th hour to satisfy its international obligations. The Bill was eventually passed, but Maharaj as well as his UNC colleague, Princes Town North MP Subhas Panday, aired several concerns about the amendments. During the UNC Administration in 2001, a task force headed by Craig was set up in the Police Service to tackle money laundering. Craig had been trained by white collar crime experts from the USA, United Kingdom and Canada and had been successful in laying charges against several people, Maharaj recalled.
However, since the PNM took over the Government in 2002, to date, there had been no money laundering prosecutions. Maharaj said he was surprised to see Craig had apparently been reassigned to the Traffic Branch. Told by Attorney General John Jeremie that Craig was with the Firearms Interdiction Unit, Maharaj insisted he saw Craig doing duties on the road. He might have been looking for firearms carried by motorists, Maharaj said. He insisted that when professionals like Craig who could fight white collar crime were not put to work at jobs they could do best, like being posted to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), then it was doomed to being a white elephant. Panday was concerned about an amendment which ordered that when a financial institution or business concern made a suspicious transaction or suspicious activity report to the FIU the directors and staff of the business place making the report were not to divulge any of that information to anyone else or they would be guilty of an offence which would merit a fine of $250,000 and imprisonment for three years.
He interpreted this provision to be a step that would lead to the privatisation of corruption. T&T is now at its highest ranking in the latest Global Corruption Perception report, Panday warned. He was also unhappy about the proposal for the FIU to submit annual reports to a Joint Select Committee of Parliament, recalling that the Government had wanted to have the Udecott probe conducted by such a committee and had to be forcefully dissuaded by the Opposition. Earlier, Maharaj had called on the Government to tell the nation how it planned to get the public to co-operate with the FIU in the cause of combatting white collar crime. He made the call in the context of nationals, in the face of rising crime nevertheless, being scared to even venture into a police station. Maharaj said he wanted the Government to say how it intended to improve the Police Service to be in a better position to protect people from crime. The people in T&T today were living in a country that was “totally lawless,” said Maharaj.
Did the opposition vote for
Did the opposition vote for this bill - despite what RLM is saying about the Govt's track record on White Collar Crime? DId the opposition vote for this bill because the public will see them as 'anti loyalists"? It would have been in Trinidads long term interest to get black listed. It is in the PNM's interest to pass the legislation and not get black listed. We must understand before we get action on any issue, we must pay the price. The murder rate, the state of flooding, those killed on the roads, the traffic situation, all these issues must reach astronomical proportions nearing total disaster and calamity for the authority to act. Take the situation of say one death on the road every other day - this is not going to get anyones attention. over the year 200 people would have lost their lives. But if say 50 people died on the roads in the first week of a year of counting - the authorities will swing into action and put significant measures in place and you will have less than 200 people dying on the roads in that year.
The independents and opposition should allow the country to suffer the consequences of inaction with this legislation - so they will fix the problems associated with white collar crime. White collar crime is the real problem in our society today - not the murder rate in Laventille. If you fix white collar crime - many of the ills will disappear. The benefactors of white collar crime would like the nation to focus on the murder rate while the reap the profits in the underground business who must have links to law enforcement and government. Take insider trading - why has no one been prosecuted - this robs honnest investors of returns in the market - this is a practice that is said to be rampant in the local securities market - this is very easy to detect - if the SEC gave me a spreadsheet of all the trades on the TTSE for the past 10 years i could identify all those insider trades with names of those involved. But they SEC board want to protect those involved in insider trading as i never hear of any investigation nor prosecutions, their inaction is telling. Like when they refused to prosecute those who benefited illegally from the TCL/CEMEX debacle where a certain stock brokerage firm whose members that were privy to knowledge signed off that they were not going to use the information to their benefit went out an benefited to the tune of millions of dollars at the expense of honest shareholders - and they got away with their cash.
For this reason this legislation FIU should NOT be passed - NO ONE WILL BE PROSECUTED - until somebody wants to have someone they dont like prosecuted. We dont have the insulation in Trinidad to make sure that those with the power will act fairly. This is the government's fault and the opposition and independents should not fall for this "if you love your country crap" - it is because i love my country i wouldn't vote for this bill and the blacklisting is just what we need - a good cut-tail to get things back in line. An this just goes to show - WE really dont have any independent senators - its just a farse - how many of them benefit from the government programs/jobs etc?
I agree with the
I agree with the aforementioned comments. Some of us would also like to look at historical trading on the TTSE to have an opportunity to identify irregularities...
The current TnT Government and regulators do not appear to be serious about fighting white collar crime. If they were, they would be more focused on cleaning up their own internal 'houses' and talking seriously about promoting a culture of ethics and governance within both government and the trading industry.
Integrity and ethics start at the top. Firstly, what conduct is required of government ministers ? Are they required to sign-off on certain ethics declarations periodically, and are they held accountable for their behaviour ? We have seen involvement (directly or indirectly) in the CLICO and UDECOTT affairs, without any apparent accountability. Why not ?
Government is only paying lip service to the process of addressing 'white collar' crime . There are currently millions of $'s flowing through TnT's banking system, housing, industry etc. and which may be of questionable origin i.e. a haven for 'bad' money. Does anyone question these activities ? Is there any incentive to do so ?
Put those who are trained back on the job, and let's see a concerted effort to fighting some of these ills that are contributing to the demise of integrity and lawful behaviour in this country.
When you have cocoa in the
When you have cocoa in the sun you must look for rain.
POLITICAL WILL
POLITICAL WILL -
You could have a million bills and the best people their effort will be thwarted if they are hampered by a lack of political will. There were bills to stop the CLICO and HCU fiasco; politically it was advantageous to let them fail.