The sentencing of the State’s cooperating witness in a legal fee kickback case against former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, SC, and former opposition senator Gerald Ramdeen will have to wait a while longer to know his fate.
British Queen’s Counsel Vincent Nelson was expected to be sentenced by High Court Judge Malcolm Holdip during a hearing at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, on Thursday afternoon, but it was postponed as the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had raised a fresh legal issue.
When the case was recalled before Holdip, yesterday afternoon, DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, and Nelson’s legal team spent another hour making legal submissions in a private before the sentencing was adjourned to February 28.
Members of the media were barred from all hearings as Gaspard had applied under the Criminal Procedure (Plea Discussion and Plea Agreement) Act for them to be heard in-camera. Nelson’s actual sentencing hearing is expected to be held in open court.
The adjournment allows Nelson, who was released on $100,000 bail pending the sentencing, to return to the United Kingdom and return for the next hearing.
Since Holdip has already approved the plea deal, which has been sealed by the court, he will now have to decide if he also accepts the suggested sentence, agreed upon by the DPP’s Office and Nelson’s attorneys.
In the event that Holdip believes that the suggested sentence is disproportionate, based on the circumstances of the case, he may substitute another which he thinks is more appropriate.
The charges against Nelson, Ramlogan, and Ramdeen arose out of an investigation into almost $1 billion in legal fees which was paid to private legal practitioners, who represented the State and State companies in legal proceedings during Ramlogan’s tenure between 2010 and 2015.
The lawsuits included several over alleged corruption which occurred under the previous Patrick Manning regime.
The trio are accused of conspiring together to receive, conceal and transfer criminal property namely the rewards given to Ramlogan by Nelson for being appointed to represent the State in several cases; of conspiring together to corruptly give Ramlogan a percentage of the funds and of conspiring with to make Ramlogan misbehave in public office by receiving the funds.
The start of Ramlogan and Ramdeen’s preliminary inquiry before Chief Magistrate Maria Busby-Earle-Caddle was delayed in the past due to issues with the DPP’s Office filing and serving witness statements.
The issue had begun to be resolved, as some of the statements had already been filed and served, up to last week.
Ramdeen and Ramlogan are expected to reappear in court on April 28.
The DPP’s Office is also being represented by Edward Jenkins, QC, and Mauricia Joseph, while Tom Allen, QC, and Roger Kawalsingh.
About Vincent Nelson, QC
Born in Jamaica, Nelson was called to the bar in the United Kingdom in 1980 and took silk in 2001.In August 2010, Nelson was appointed to a five-member team selected by former attorney general Anand Ramlogan to investigate alleged impropriety on State boards during the Patrick Manning administration.
Among the cases Nelson worked on was Petrotrin’s controversial lawsuit against its former executive chairman Malcolm Jones over a failed Gas-to-Liquids plant at the now-defunct company’s refinery operation in Pointe-a-Pierre.
In early 2016, Nelson advised the then board that the case had to be withdrawn as documents from the arbitration, which Jones’ legal team sought, showed that the deal was a bad business decision and not negligence.