The far-reaching investigation into the legal fees kickback probe involving former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and United National Congress Senator Gerald Ramdeen took officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) to the men’s homes and law offices in South and North Trinidad yesterday evening.
Plainclothes police officers from the Anti-Corruption Bureau raided the homes of former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and attorney Gerald Ramdeen late yesterday.
The first group of officers went to Ramlogan’s Palmiste, San Fernando home around 5.20 pm.
A woman in blue opened the gate for the attorneys. The officers carried a brown box and walked into the house accompanied by Ramlogan, who appeared to have arrived with the officers. He stood smiling while the police entered his home. He glanced at the media cameras several times but did not give any interviews.
Another group of officers also went to the apartment villas at Block Four, Palmiste, a gated community, where they also executed a raid. It is believed that this condominium was the home of attorney Gerald Ramdeen. Sources told Guardian Media that officers spent close to three hours in Ramdeen’s townhouse. Several electronic devices were seized and taken away by police.
Officers also executed a search warrant at Ramdeen’s south law office where further items were removed. During that raid, ACIB officers were also sent to Ramdeen’s law chambers at Cornelio Street, Woodbrook just after 5 pm. Four officers remained parked outside the chambers in a heavily tinted Almera motorcar for several hours blocking the driveway.
Some lawyers were seen earlier entering the law chambers. One of the lawyers from the chamber, who arrived to move her Mercedes Benz, was briefly spoken to by one of the officers who identified himself.
Officers who had searched Ramdeen’s home and law chambers in south eventually arrived at his Woodbrook chambers around 8.40 pm. They arrived in a convoy of three vehicles with Ramdeen in the back seat of a black SUV with an officer. However, the convoy drove straight into the compound and officers quickly escorted Ramdeen inside. Ramdeen’s lawyers also went inside for the search of the premises.
Both Ramdeen and Ramlogan are being quizzed in connection with the payout of hefty sums of legal fees during the term of the People’s Partnership government when Ramlogan was the attorney general.
Ramlogan was detained at the Piarco International Airport by officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau as he was about to board a flight to Miami.
A warrant was also issued for Ramdeen’s arrest but he subsequently surrendered to police.
Represented by attorney Wayne Sturge, Ramdeen spent several hours being quizzed by detectives of the ACB.
Government has reportedly retained the services of English Queen’s Counsel Edward Jenkins to prosecute the case against Ramlogan and Ramdeen.
For the last few years, investigators have been looking into hefty sums of money paid out by the AG’s office to a “favoured few,” according to senior Government Minister Stuart Young. Under Ramlogan’s tenure, more than $1 billion was paid to a handful of people in the legal profession. That figure ballooned from about $40 million during the previous administration.
Both Ramlogan and Ramdeen have previously denied any wrongdoing. —With reporting by Rishi Ragoonath