For­mer CL Fi­nan­cial chair­man Lawrence Duprey, for­mer group fi­nan­cial di­rec­tor An­dre Mon­teil and Gi­ta Sakal, for­mer cor­po­rate sec­re­tary, will not be paid un­der the terms of the 2015 Cli­co Res­o­lu­tion Plan un­til civ­il mat­ters filed against them by the Cen­tral Bank are com­plet­ed.

This was con­firmed yes­ter­day in a state­ment from the Cen­tral Bank in re­sponse to re­ports that $48.5 mil­lion is to be paid to for­mer di­rec­tors of the com­pa­ny.

The Cen­tral Bank said in June 2011, fol­low­ing a foren­sic in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the af­fairs of the col­lapsed in­sur­ance gi­ant, a breach of fidu­cia­ry du­ty civ­il case was filed against the Duprey and Mon­teil and their com­pa­nies "as they were con­sid­ered to be the prin­ci­pal de­ci­sion mak­ers for the af­fairs of Cli­co." Sakal was added as a de­fen­dant in March 2013.

"This is an on­go­ing mat­ter and based on the ad­vice of Queen's Coun­sel, de­fen­dants in this civ­il claim, where they or their com­pa­nies are pol­i­cy­hold­ers/cred­i­tors of Cli­co, will not be paid un­der the terms of the 2015 Cli­co Res­o­lu­tion Plan, un­til the de­ter­mi­na­tion of the mat­ter by the Court," the Cen­tral Bank said.

"In re­spect of the oth­er for­mer di­rec­tors and of­fi­cers of Cli­co, where Cen­tral Bank and Cli­co have not, based on foren­sic find­ings and le­gal ad­vice, con­tem­plat­ed or ini­ti­at­ed any lit­i­ga­tion against such per­sons, to date, there would be no le­gal ba­sis on which Cli­co may now with­hold pay­ment to them as pol­i­cy­hold­ers/cred­i­tors at the point of liq­ui­dat­ing its debts to cred­i­tors from its own as­sets."

The bank said un­der the terms of Gov­ern­ment's bailout of Cli­co in 2009 and 2011, re­lat­ed par­ties, in­clud­ing di­rec­tors and of­fi­cers of the com­pa­ny were not to be paid with pub­lic funds, on the prin­ci­ple that they may have con­tributed to the fi­nan­cial col­lapse of the in­sti­tu­tion.

The state­ment con­tin­ued: "The de­ci­sion to with­hold pay­ment from these for­mer di­rec­tors and of­fi­cers of Cli­co, who are pol­i­cy­hold­ers, re­sult­ed in them re­main­ing cred­i­tors on the books of Cli­co. Cli­co, by law, has to treat with all class­es of cred­i­tors as part of its res­o­lu­tion strat­e­gy."

The bank said un­der the 2015 Cli­co Res­o­lu­tion Plan, the com­pa­ny is mak­ing pay­ments to its pol­i­cy­hold­ers and cred­i­tors en­tire­ly from the pro­ceeds of the sale of its as­sets. This fol­lows mon­eti­sa­tion of the com­pa­ny's Methanol Hold­ings (Trinidad) Ltd (MHTL) shares and the even­tu­al sale of oth­er Cli­co as­sets.

The Cen­tral Bank said: "Un­like Gov­ern­ment's bailout, the 2015 Cli­co Res­o­lu­tion Plan is not fund­ed by Gov­ern­ment. No Gov­ern­ment funds are be­ing used to make pay­ments to cred­i­tors and pol­i­cy­hold­ers of Cli­co in­clud­ing re­lat­ed par­ties, un­der the Cli­co Res­o­lu­tion Plan.

Af­ter Cen­tral Bank as­sumed con­trol of Cli­co in 2009, an in­ves­ti­ga­tion was con­duct­ed in­to the af­fairs of the com­pa­ny by foren­sic ac­coun­tant Robert Lindquist. The Cen­tral Bank said it has for­ward­ed re­ports of all foren­sic find­ings since 2010 to the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions and the po­lice who have com­menced crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tions.