The National Energy Company (NEC) yesterday confirmed the Fraud Squad, Financial Intelligence Unit and Ministry of Energy were currently investigating three fraudulent wire transfers to Boston, Antigua and Dubai to the tune of $60 million in September 2011.
In a release, the NEC said an independent internal investigation had found that the wire transfers were “fraudulently prepared outside National Energy’s internal processing system and processed using procedure which was not standard for the confirmation and validation of our wire transfers.
“It was recommended that the matter be referred for criminal investigation, which was already initiated by National Energy,” the release said.
“To date, 58 per cent of the money has been recovered from the recipient banks in Boston and Antigua, and we are assiduously pursuing the recovery of the outstanding 42 per cent which is being held by the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, where the courts have convicted the recipient.”
Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are cities in the United Arab Emirates.
The matter was first raised by People’s National Movement (PNM) leader Dr Keith Rowley during a political meeting in Malabar on Thursday.
Forgoing Parliamentary protection, Rowley revealed the details of an Interpol-led investigation into how some $60 million had been siphoned from the NEC through an account at First Citizens.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Rowley said the money was siphoned in three tranches over a period of days in September 2011, when current Finance Minister Larry Howai sat at the helm of both organisations. At the time of the transfers, Howai sat as chief executive officer at First Citizens and chairman at NEC.
Rowley said the documents from Interpol were emailed to him on May 5 from a whistleblower and he refused to keep it quiet despite being suspended from Parliament for revealing the contents of previous emails.
“This is about the taxpayers’ money,” Rowley said.
He said the three tranches ended up in Boston, Antigua and Dubai and while some of the money had been recovered, there was still a portion of the $60 million in a bank account in Dubai unaccounted for.
“Where was Howai when this happened and why didn’t he raise it when he was praising himself in Parliament, justifying why he deserved that $10 million payment he got when he left?” Rowley asked.
The illegal wire transfers, according to the letters, were made daily between September 19 and 21 back in 2011 and were discovered by the NEC’s Financing and Accounting Department on September 26, 2011.
The letter states that although an investigation was launched then, to date there has been no update on the matter.
The T&T Guardian has since learned that Howai was aware of the wire transfer.
“As soon as it became apparent that the transactions were fraudulent as CEO of First Citizens, apart from taking steps to address the recovery of the funds, he called in the TTPS who in turn contacted Interpol for assistance in their investigations,” Howai stated in an e-mail response through his communications specialist Cheryl Lala.
“He also wishes to note that even as the TTPS and Interpol conducted their investigations, he was able to get the Bank of Abu Dhabi to work with both the NEC and First Citizens towards having the matter resolved.”
The T&T Guardian was also told that because Howai straddled both organisations, he recused himself from the investigation and passed it on to then NEC director Roopchan Chadeesingh and senior bank executive Sharon Christopher, although Howai maintained oversight of the situation.
But Rowley yesterday challenged that account of the four-year old situation. He said the “unauthorised wire transfer” was first picked up by NEC auditors and passed under the radar of management at both organisations.
“The documents say so. The staff was sworn to secrecy. Who they holding responsible for the scam?” Rowley said.
Rowley is also not buying that Howai recused himself from the investigation.
“Stepped aside? Why? He was in charge,” Rowley said.
He said Howai still had several questions to answer, including how much of the money was recovered, who had it, who currently has it and who did they “settle with.”
“He did not mention all this when he praised himself for taking $10 million because the bank performed so well,” Rowley said.
Money transfers
Some US$9,608,904.36 million (TT$60 million) was transferred to three companies.
Steadroy C.O Benjamin & Co in Antigua, received US$4,633,717; Central International Co LLC in Boston received US$1,250,187.36; and Andrew James Thomas Newman Inc in Dubai received US$3,725,000.