Mark Bas­sant

Lead Ed­i­tor, In­ves­tiga­tive Desk

Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Stu­art Young has said he saw no rea­son why present Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) chair­man Con­rad Enill should step down from his po­si­tion fol­low­ing an ex­clu­sive Sun­day Guardian sto­ry in which he was named as a de­fen­dant in a civ­il mat­ter filed by busi­ness­woman Jen­nifer Dan-Shar­ma seek­ing to re­cov­er $1.8 mil­lion.

In court doc­u­ments filed in Au­gust 2020 and ex­clu­sive­ly ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia’s in­ves­tiga­tive desk, Enill was named as the sec­ond de­fen­dant in the mat­ter, An­tho­ny San­cho the first de­fen­dant and T.A.C In­vest­ment Group Lim­it­ed as the third de­fen­dant.

In Shar­ma’s wit­ness state­ment sub­mit­ted to the court in Sep­tem­ber 2021, she in­di­cat­ed that the sum had been loaned and ad­vanced to the de­fen­dants be­tween June 2019 and Sep­tem­ber 2019, “in­clud­ing pur­chas­es and pay­ments on their be­half in the amount of $1,800,525.44 and no sums were re­paid to Jen­ny’s on the Boule­vard in this re­gard.”

Enill has de­nied all the al­le­ga­tions against him in the court doc­u­ments and re­fut­ed the claims. He al­so sub­mit­ted a wit­ness state­ment to the court via his lawyer Ron­delle Keller.

Guardian Me­dia sent ques­tions to Min­is­ter Young via What­sApp ask­ing if in the light of the claims made if he felt Enill should step down as NGC chair­man.

“As the mat­ter is be­fore the courts it is in­ap­pro­pri­ate for me to fur­ther com­ment with re­spect to it. It is a civ­il law­suit and not in any way re­lat­ed to Mr. Enill’s po­si­tion as the Chair­man of NGC. At this time, there does not ap­pear to be any rea­son for Mr. Enill to step down from his role as the chair­man(sic) of NGC.”

Young was al­so asked whether he felt that this civ­il claim would throw a neg­a­tive light on the NGC and Enill’s post.

Young said, “I have spo­ken to Mr. Enill and I have al­so been pro­vid­ed with a copy of his de­fence and his wit­ness state­ment in the high court ac­tion brought by Ms. Shar­ma to which you have re­ferred. From what I have seen it ap­pears as though the ac­tion was filed in 2020 and re­lates to al­le­ga­tions in 2019. Mr. Enil has de­nied that he is guilty of any al­le­ga­tions of wrong­do­ing made against him.”

Sim­i­lar ques­tions were al­so sent via What­sApp to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley but he did not re­spond to our What­sApp or text mes­sages.

Shar­ma in­di­cat­ed in her wit­ness state­ment that the mon­ey loaned was for a se­cu­ri­ty de­posit and six months rent for two posh Chateau de Chan­til­ly Deux apart­ments in Mar­aval for both Enill and San­cho in the sum of $343,000 for six months, pur­chase of an Au­di Q5 in the sum of $612,000, ser­vices ren­dered to Shar­ma in their re­spec­tive ca­pac­i­ties as agents and rep­re­sen­ta­tives and or con­sul­tants of T.A.C in the sum of $287,125, a fur­ther loan of $331,000 to be loaned to Enill and San­cho as agents of the T.A.C, with the promise of it be­ing re­paid by T.A.C, a fur­ther $175,900 made by Enill for fur­ther con­sul­tan­cy ser­vices and draw­ing for the project of as­sist­ing Shar­ma in con­struct­ing the Jen­ny’s Tow­ers and the loan of some $3,037USD ($20,537.41TT) to form and reg­is­ter a com­pa­ny in the British Vir­gin Is­lands(BVI) in the name of T.A.C Glob­al Hold­ing Lim­it­ed.

Enill in his wit­ness state­ment sub­mit­ted by his at­tor­ney Ron­delle Keller to the court has de­nied ever bor­row­ing any mon­ey from Jen­ny’s on the Boule­vard (owned by Shar­ma), ever promised to pur­chase any prop­er­ty, or of­fered project man­age­ment ser­vices, or bor­rowed any mon­ey per­son­al­ly to pay for the rental of two apart­ments, to form or reg­is­ter a com­pa­ny, to ac­quire an Au­di Q5 ve­hi­cle to dri­ve per­son­al­ly or for his own ben­e­fit or for any oth­er pur­pose.

While San­cho did not sub­mit a wit­ness state­ment for the mat­ter, he did tell Guardian Me­dia last week via phone that the “truth will emerge in the court.”