Six years after the collapse of the CL Financial empire, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, legal advisor to the 350-member United Policy Holders Group which is fighting to recover money from the former insurance giant, says he is confident they will soon get a full settlement of the matter.
The policy holders have filed a $500 million claim against Government which will be heard before the Privy Council in London by July or August this year.
"I think although we had a disappointment in the Court of Appeal decision and the High Court judgement, we are confident our victory will be restored in the Privy Council," Maharaj told the T&T Guardian yesterday.
"I have no doubt that the policy holders will get the full sum of money due under their policy plus interest."
He said Government had behaved dishonourably to the policy holders and had even passed a law to prevent them from filing action against Clico.
"It took draconian measures against those who lost their lives, children who could not go to school and people who died because they could not access proper medical care because they had no access to their money," he said
"The Government robbed the policy holders. The Privy council has not heard the appeal as yet but we are confident that policy holders will win this matter."
CL Financial collapsed in January 2009. Six years ago today, Government signed a memorandum of understanding with former chairman Lawrence Duprey for a bail out. A total of $20.8 billion was injected in the insurance giant to preserve the stability of the country. In April last year, Finance Minister Larry Howai said a further $1.8 billion was given to the collapsed conglomerate and the State started moving to reclaim monies through the sale of assets.