Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley says Finance Minister Larry Howai's job is in jeopardy and he must answer questions about the alleged purchase of Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) shares 12 years ago."The Minister of Finance has questions to answer and we want those answers as quickly as possible," Rowley said during a news conference yesterday at his office at Charles Street, Port-of-Spain.
Rowley said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had a role in protecting the public interest because Howai was in charge of the Treasury.He said he was not accepting Persad-Bissessar's claim that she was satisfied with Howai's explanation on the matter, adding that the Opposition was likely to seek an intervention in Parliament, based on the responses from Howai and Persad-Bissessar.
Howai has denied any wrongdoing in the matter and said the report was leaked to discredit his character.But Rowley was adamant yesterday, saying Howai must say whether he purchased shares or engaged in trading at TCL during the blackout period. He added: "This is a very serious matter. The Minister of Finance is in charge of the national treasury. He is in charge of the multi-billion dollar state enterprise portfolio and these allegations are too serious for us not to get the answers that we are asking for."
"Now that the matter has been drawn to the attention of the public, the tenure of this person is now in serious jeopardy because in no serious country would anyone with this kind of problem be allowed to be in charge of the national treasury."Rowley also called on the T&T Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to say when and what was the advice given to not proceed with the matter.
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In March 2007, the SEC sought a legal opinion of an eminent Barbadian Queen's Counsel, Henry Forde, who was asked to assess the strength of the cases against four of the executives who were suspected of illegal insider trading in shares of TCL during the first half of 2002.It was alleged that the four purchased shares after they were made aware of price sensitive information concerning the Cemex bid for TCL.
Before the SEC sought the legal opinion, the Market Regulation and Surveillance (MR&S) division of the SEC conducted an investigation and submitted a report on the suspected cases of insider trading in TCL shares in December 2002.The MR&S report pointed to certain executives, whose companies were shareholders of TCL, who the staff suspected of insider trading and recommended that the SEC launch a formal investigation into the trading of TCL shares in the relevant blackout periods.
The blackout period is when a public company's directors, officers and specified employees or investors cannot trade the company's stock. The blackout periods for the Cemex bid to takeover TCL were January 21 to February 5, 2002 and May 6 to June 24, 2002.
The opinion by Forde refers to an earlier investigation, which described Cemex's actions of discussing the proposed takeover bid with certain shareholders in advance as "constituting selective disclosure, undesirable activity, contemptible and a violation of fairness and equity."
In November 2008, then chairman and CEO of the SEC, Osborne Nurse, stated in a public notice:
"While our investigation found considerable evidence of unacceptable market conduct, the evidence was insufficient to meet the requirement of the law to prove intent, or to overcome defences provided in the law."SEC chairman, Patrick Watson, said last week: "We are not involved in any investigation of any matter concerning the trading of TCL shares in 2002."