Occupy This...

The growing Occupy Wall Street movement that is spawning and multiplying around the globe must cause some concern for the current government of Trinidad & Tobago as, at some point, the people of this country are going to start asking serious questions at the level that they need to be asked and are not going to be satisfied with make believe answers. Our own version of a financial meltdown took place at the hands of some devious well dressed buccaneers whose modus operandi is rumored to be the norm not the exception, and still taking place in other Companies that might also qualify as being too big to fail. Systemically we are already deficit financing to absorb the initial blow and there can be no guarantees if another financial institution stumbles that the country will be able to afford propping it up, so why are we still taking stupid chances? Where is the legislation to rein in and control outsized Companies that by their size already present a danger to the economy?

The fraud and recklessness that necessitated the bail outs of both CLICO and the Hindu Credit Union MUST result in criminal charges being laid at the highest level including Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance as well as Executives and Managers of all Companies involved. Where possible the Accounting firm(s) that allowed the theft and cover ups to go unnoticed at the very least need to have their Charters revoked and their management charged with gross negligence and conspiracy to defraud if anything positive is going to come out of all this.

There is no excusing what took place and from the evidence I have seen what has been allowed to be exposed in the Commission of Enquiry is the proverbial tip of the ice berg. Questions need to be asked of then Prime Minister Patrick Manning what he knew and when, and criminal charges have to be brought against his Minister of Finance for using what amounted to insider information to secure her own investment while ignoring her sworn responsibility to the people of Trinidad & Tobago.

While Monteil and Duprey are the two most well known names and faces in what amounts to nothing more than a well established and nefarious gang, there are many others whose names are being protected and whose identities and the crimes are being shielded from the public. Obviously the concept of honor among thieves runs deep in white collar crime circles locally, but we the people must insist that all who were involved, all who knew and all who ought to have known must be at the very least dismissed from any positions of authority and banned from our financial industry for life. There are Bankers at the highest level who had to be fully aware of what was taking place and who were happy to do their part to gain their share. They too need to be exposed and shamed nationally and made to pay for their crimes. Thirty, forty and fifty million dollar payments do not hide well in mattresses, and the deposits and declaration forms for those transactions require scrutinizing by parties other than those who took bribes to look the other way.

It is patently obvious now that this was no small act of opportunity or a pilfering, but a grand conspiracy concocted and agreed to by many, happening over sufficient enough time to be considered racketeering at the highest level. We need the equivalent of a Special Prosecutor assigned to go after the guilty and bring them to justice, and we need this done with purpose so as to bring all into the net regardless of name, wealth and position. It is high time justice in this country focused on all offenders, especially those in positions of public authority and responsibility.

What is taking place in America and other places is discontent with the inequality in which justice is dispensed. As Martin Luther King said - "A riot is the language of the unheard."

The responsibility to the people must not be missed by this government nor the Director of Public Prosecutions; Examples have to be made at the highest level if confidence in any of our systems of leadership is ever going to re-emerge from this, and there must be a following of the money trail for each act of illegal enrichment. Wherever that trail ends the criminals and the criminally negligent together must be brought to justice and all of their ill gotten gains paid back to the people so that justice can finally be done. Anything else is talk, and we've had enough of that now.