Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has confirmed that J Rawlinson Rowley, the man on the receiving end of an email from A&V Drilling, is indeed his cousin.
Rowley confirmed his relative’s identity yesterday after Guardian Media forwarded a picture of the man and told him it was being circulated on social media and being linked to him.
“Yes, he is my cousin. His father and my mother are first cousins. So?” he responded.
Rowley was then told that his cousin’s email address, jrowley.rawlinson@gmail.com, was on the email purportedly sent by A&V Drilling’s Vivian Baksh giving the banking details of one Charlie Diaz.
Pressed further on this, Rowley said, “For those who see or know of a connection between persons and would like to link me to any other person regardless of similarity of our names or blood relations, just remember that I am Keith Rowley and I can only speak for Keith Rowley and will not hesitate to take the requisite appropriate action against any person who seeks to make substitutions involving me on the basis of similarity.”
The email in question, allegedly sent by Baksh but signed off on by Justin Soogrim, begins with the salutation “Good morning Honourable Prime Minister” and was purportedly sent to Rawlinson Rowley.
The contents of the email to Rowley were read out in Parliament on Tuesday as part of Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal’s Budget contribution. During that contribution, Moonilal linked the PM to financial transactions emanating from A&V Drilling to a Florida bank.
Guardian Media attempted to contact Rawlinson Rowley via mobile phone, email and Facebook yesterday. However, his mobile phone was switched off and he did not respond to the other means of communication.
Rawlinson’s name and the same email read out by Moonilal in the House on Tuesday appears on a business card for Transcontinental Ecotourism & Agriculture Consortium (TEAC).
That company registration could not be found locally but searches on Linkedin says it is registered in T&T and is a subsidiary of the ‘People Electrical Appliance Group’, an industrial manufacturing company out of China.
According to online searches, the People Electrical Appliance Group Co Ltd. manufactures industrial electrical appliances.
The company’s profile says the People Electrical Appliance Group also operates shipbuilding, energy resource development, urban construction and modern logistics businesses.
Rawlinson Rowley’s image is also attached to a Facebook profile which says he currently works as a financial advisor and was a former director at JR Construction Group Ltd.