CNC3 POLL -

Last Nights CNC3 Poll 87% felt they should get back their money, I thought it was going to be closer to 60%.

Yes treat them all the same - find out all who benefited illegally from depositors monies and jail them!! I am not hearing any criminal charges for any of the CL financial directors or bigwigs. Payback all bonuses. Our attitude should be about letting people off. And those depositors too - greed caused them to go and put their monies there are not all innocent victims either. IF they had benefited significantly from those schemes no one would have batted an eye. NO body is looking at this thing objectively. That's why Trinidad has to be the smartman capital of the world.

LOL ! A UNC GOVT , WHEN ?
Basdeo Panday is making sure that the PNM remains in POWER and he remains as the Opposition Leader , so the promises he is making will never ever be realised . Panday owns the UNC so he is not leaving and his minions are going to keep him as the political leader .
Panday is "trying a thing" because he knows that the 2 situations are not the same . The govt of T&T has taken over CL Finacial and if the CLF is liquidated , the govt can recover the bailout money . On the other hand , where are the assets/security of the Hindu Credit Union ? Who was in-charge of the HCU ? How will the tax-payers money be recovered ? The Finance Minister said that the govt tried really hard to assist the HCU but did not got the co-operation that was required . Panday was grand-standing in order to make the members of the HCU feel that he has their interest at heart . Panday has many cases in the courts and he may even end up in jail , again - therefore , he is looking for sympathy from the Hindu Community .
ATW-Barbados .

HCU,CLICO,Sir Allan Stanford, Madoff and Charles Ponzi, what do all of them have in common? Many people lost billions of US dollars worth of assets in their organizations or companies in which they were involved.

In an interview published in today's nytimes online, Madoff confesses to scheming billions right under the noses of the Securities and Exchange Commission officials. With respect to our local people, since I don't have any evidence whatsoever, I cannot lump Messrs Harry Harnarine of the HCU and Mr Lawrence Duprey of Clico in the same boat as Madoff, Stanford and Ponzi because then I could be totally wrong. Unlike Messrs Allan Stanford, Bernard Madoff and Charles Ponzi, these aforementioned local financial gentlemen may not be in any money scheme at all and may be totally innocent of any financial wrongdoing.

However, people's money which was deposited in both CLICO and HCU seems to be lost, or at best, under a dark cloud of suspicion and uncertainty.

This brings me to the question of Mr Panday's motion in Friday's TT Parliament. Now, I didn't read or hear the full contribution, but taken out of context, it may seem that he's favouring a government payoff of HCU depositors. With that I unreservedly agree, with one caveat, that the Executive investigate (Mr Bob Lindquist, where are you?) and prosecute anyone who may have stolen depositors' money and other assets.

Nevertheless, the more fundamental questions are: if indeed somebody or bodies did scheme people out of their monies, then who are these people? Was it organized? Where is the evidence of wrongdoing? Did the government regulators supervise these companies diligently or at all? Is any meaningful investigation taking place to uncover any wrongdoing if there is any? Are any laws going to be passed and enforced to ensure that depositors' money in Credit Unions, UTC, Insurance Companies as well as Finance Houses is covered by the Deposit Insurance Scheme?

In the end, again, it may be that everybody in this mess, including Messrs Harnarine and (L)Duprey, could be either guilty or innocent. Who knows?

At least Bernard Madoff and Charles Ponzi were caught, prosecuted and jailed, and Stanford is in jail awaiting trial. But, is anybody in Trinidad and Tobago who mishandled both HCU and CLICO depositor's money going to be caught and prosecuted? That, I thought, would have been the focus of the legislator, Oppostion Leader, M.P. Mr B. Panday on Friday in Parliament.
ajfyzabadbutlertown

I agree that the depositors should get back their money but it must be ensured that Harry spends time in jail for scheming people out of their hard-earned cash.

Same as with Lehman Bros and with Merrill Lynch as well as with AIG. The govt cant bail out every institution but must make a decision as to which post a greater risk of financial contagion. Lehman Bros was allowed to fail and Merrill Lynch was forced into the arms of another (stronger) financial institution and AIG was bailed out. Here is a snapshot of what the finance minister, Nunez-Tesheira, addressing the issue of the CLICO bailout, "Nunez-Tesheira said Government did not assist CL Financial but was acting in accordance with its responsibility under the law to manage the economy. She said the systematic risk which a CL Financial collapse posed to the rest of the economy was a critical factor. Government intervention was to prevent the contagion effect -the problem of CL Financial spreading to other financial institutions-thereby putting at risk the whole financial system.

She noted the CL Financial Group controlled over US$100 billion in assets and had financial interest in several industries, including banking, real estate, energy, general and life insurance, manufacturing, retail, distributive, media and medical services. She said CLICO controlled 52 per cent of the insurance industry, owned 55 per cent of the largest bank and 49 per cent of the total assets of the non-banking sector." taken from Trinidad Express

Don S. NY

Hindu Credit Union depositors must get back their money, since the PNM Government has been negligent on the HCU matter and is responsible for depositors’ losses, Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday declared yesterday. Panday made the point while piloting a motion in his name during yesterday’s House of Representatives’ sitting, which a number of HCU depositors attended.Building a case for Government to provide a bailout plan for HCU as it did for CL Financial depositors, Panday said the HCU dilemma was Government’s fault.......(Quote)

What typical Indo leadah rubbish talk! hahahahaha!!!!!!! let them learn when the newly elected PNM gov't took office in 2002 there was an accusation by the then junior minister for finance that something was wrong with HCU, the response was to SURROUND THE PNM PARTY HEAD OFFICE WITH SYCHOPHANTS CUSSING THE PM AND HIS MINISTER TO "LEAVE WE HCU ALONE" "HANDS OFF INDIAN PPL $$$" ETC.

NO INVESTIGATION WAS DONE AND THE REST WAS HISTORY! LET THEM BURN IN THE S..T THEY WANTED.

when bas jump on sugar workers back you can be sure election is in the air; this time UNC internal election.this latest ploy is simply to make up lost ground.imagine the man described the CLF bailout as a hostile takeover in one breath and in another say he want the same thing for HCU.HE say the HCU members had no warning but say two government ministers sounded a warning.it is he and harry who give the HCU members basket to plackard the pnm for saying the hcu in trouble. at that time the cry was RACE. WHY the hcu members aint find out from harry the reason he put out the auditors and refuse the bailout and stop this dottishnes; stop letting bas ride all yuh. one more thing, the members of the hcu look for that and if the unc is bent on rewarding they foolishnes then voters should beware