Businesswoman and president of the T&T Bodybuilders Federation (TTBBF) Susanna Hadad has sued the State over a search warrant being executed against her in relation to a Fraud Squad probe into the Ministry of Sport’s controversial LifeSport Programme.
In her court documents, filed last month, Hadad’s lawyer Peter Taylor is claiming that the search warrant was illegal as it was based on the findings of an audit report conducted by the Ministry of Finance’s Central Audit Committee (CAC), which was quashed by a High Court Judge in 2016.
According to the documents, obtained by Guardian Media, Hadad, who is the director of 12 companies, claimed that the warrant was executed on January 22, 2022, while she was staying at his sister Diane’s home in Tobago. Hadad’s sister currently serves as chair of the Tobago Division of the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
During the search, Fraud Squad officers led by Sgt Darren Libert allegedly seized several flash drives and two laptops including one belonging to Hadad’s sister.
In the court filings, Taylor sought to give an outline of the programme, which was conceived and implemented by the ministry in 2012.
He noted that in May 2014, the CAC was directed by the Minister of Finance and the Economy to conduct an audit into alleged financial impropriety with the programme.
The programme was eventually suspended by former prime minister and current Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar after the report was laid in Parliament in July 2014.
Taylor noted that the CAC improperly made adverse findings against several ministry officials without giving them an opportunity to respond before publication.
“The CAC also made several adverse comments with respect to many of the Claimant’s companies, the absence of evidence and/or without any reasonable basis for so doing and with affording the Claimant an opportunity to refute the allegations,” Taylor said.
He noted that in February 2015, the ministry’s former permanent secretary Ashwin Creed and several officials identified in the audit report filed a judicial review lawsuit challenging the findings.
In November 2016, former High Court Judge and current Appellate Judge Mira Dean-Armorer ruled that the CAC breached the rules of natural justice in preparing the report by failing to inform the subjects of the adverse findings made against them and giving them opportunity to respond.
Although Justice Dean-Armorer quashed the report and ordered that it be redone, such has not occurred.
“It is therefore contemptuous of the State to now try to circumvent the ruling of the court by embarking on a course of harassment and intimidation of the Claimant and others as evidenced by the execution of a search warrant which by its very vague and ambiguous wording it is clear that is a fishing expedition and devoid of specifics,” Taylor said.
He also questioned whether the Fraud Squad officers committed a material non-disclosure by failing to inform Justice of the Peace Karran Nancoo, who granted the search warrant, of the effect of Justice Dean-Armorer’s judgment on the CAC audit report.
“The justifiable rationale for issuing a warrant should be pellucid and the relevant and applicable facts have to be evaluated from an objective perspective,” Taylor said.
“The warrant is spectacularly vague, incoherent and rambling and these factors ought to have aroused some disquiet and apprehension in the mind of Justice of the Peace Nancoo,” he added.
Taylor referenced a series of recent newspaper reports made by current Cabinet Ministers over the programme, which he said proves that it remains the subject of highly adverse comment even eight years after it was suspended.
“There are cogent reasons and evidence to surmise therefore that the motivations surrounding the targeting of the Claimant and others named in the offending warrant may be political in nature,” Taylor said.
Through the lawsuit, Hadad is seeking a series of declarations against the search warrant including an order that it was null, void and illegal. She is also seeking a declaration that the seizure of all the items taken from her was unconstitutional as well as damages for breaches of her rights.
Hadad’s case has been assigned to High Court Judge Nadia Kangaloo and a date for a first hearing is yet to be set.
