An­na-Lisa Paul

The po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the col­lapse at CL Fi­nan­cial (CLF) and its sub­sidiaries is con­tin­u­ing, said Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Roger Gas­pard yes­ter­day. Re­spond­ing to ques­tions re­lat­ing to re­ports the statute of lim­i­ta­tions had ex­pired with re­gard to crim­i­nal charges be­ing brought against for­mer CLF of­fi­cials, Gas­pard said: "There is no statute of lim­i­ta­tions with re­spect to CL Fi­nan­cial and a po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion is un­der­way."

In­spec­tor of Fi­nan­cial In­sti­tu­tions Carl Hi­ralal said ear­li­er that for­mer CLF of­fi­cials would not face crim­i­nal charges in re­la­tion to of­fences un­der the 1993 Fi­nan­cial In­sti­tu­tions Act. He tes­ti­fied be­fore the Col­man en­quiry in­to the col­lapse of Cli­co on Mon­day.

Dur­ing his tes­ti­mo­ny, Hi­ralal said while crim­i­nal of­fences could con­ceiv­ably be made out, one sec­tion of the act im­posed a three-year lim­it from the time that knowl­edge of the of­fences be­came known, to the time charges were laid. He said al­though the Cen­tral Bank in­ter­vened in 2009 no steps were tak­en to file crim­i­nal com­plaints de­spite the knowl­edge that pos­si­ble crimes had been com­mit­ted.

Blam­ing the DPP's of­fice for the lack of a time­ly re­sponse, Hi­ralal said that changed the way the Cen­tral Bank op­er­at­ed. Re­spond­ing yes­ter­day, the DPP said in­ves­ti­ga­tors were pro­ceed­ing with an open mind.