Mark Bas­sant

Lead Ed­i­tor, In­ves­tiga­tive Desk

In­ves­ti­ga­tors from the An­ti-Cor­rup­tion In­ves­ti­ga­tions Bu­reau (ACIB) are con­tin­u­ing their probe in­to a par­tic­u­lar trans­ac­tion in­volv­ing the po­ten­tial sale of a lux­u­ry ve­hi­cle by a Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial, but se­nior in­ves­ti­ga­tors told Guardian Me­dia last night that con­trary to in­for­ma­tion car­ried in an­oth­er news­pa­per, there has been "no search of a gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial’s home."

Two days ago, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith con­firmed to an­oth­er news­pa­per that a Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial was un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion for fa­cil­i­tat­ing a tax ex­emp­tion for one mil­lion for a mem­ber of the pub­lic to buy a lux­u­ry ve­hi­cle.

Con­tact­ed last evening, Grif­fith said he would nei­ther con­firm nor de­ny any­thing at this stage.

Well-placed sources fa­mil­iar with the case, who have been speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia over the last few days, said that in­ves­ti­ga­tors had been ask­ing for par­tic­u­lar guid­ance from the white-col­lar units of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice on the mat­ter. Sources con­firmed that ques­tions were asked about ob­tain­ing a pro­duc­tion or­der re­lat­ed to the Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial's bank ac­counts.

Un­der the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act, a pro­duc­tion or­der is ob­tained to ac­cess ma­te­r­i­al re­lat­ing to a known per­son or busi­ness, such as bank state­ments and any oth­er cor­re­spon­dence. The pro­duc­tion or­der is grant­ed by a judge and it re­quires the per­son in ques­tion to ei­ther hand over the ma­te­r­i­al con­tained in the or­der to a law en­force­ment of­fi­cer, or grant them ac­cess to the ma­te­r­i­al.

Sources say the of­fi­cial in ques­tion al­so has ques­tion­able busi­ness trans­ac­tions that are al­so on their radar.