Petrotrin refinery shut down

[The_Honourable]

FOLLOW THE MONEY



FOLLOW the money.

This was the advice to government by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, who during his contribution to the budget debate in the House, alleged a “tangled web” involving money wire transfers, clandestine meetings and secret signing of documents all having to do with the sale of the refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre to the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU).

Moonilal said he found a paper trail showing foul play in the acquisition of the Petrotrin refinery by the OWTU’s holding company Patriotic Energies and Technologies Co Ltd. He said he had printouts of banking co-ordinates to be sent, who it was to be sent to and what was to be wired.

Moonilal said he had a copy of an e-mail from one David Goldberg to vidyadeokiesingh@yahoo.com sent on February 23, 2019, at 1.19 pm. Goldberg is an attorney in Maryland, United States. Deokiesingh is a former Petrotrin employee named in an internal audit into the AV Drilling Co Ltd fake oil scandal. He is a former PNM candidate for Siparia and a close friend of Prime Minister Dr Rowley.

Moonilal read from a document: “Dear Mr Deokiesingh, attached please find a copy of a receipt of outgoing wire transfer to Formula 1 Trading in the sum of US550,000. Thank you for your co-operation. If you have additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. It is David Goldberg...dsgoldberg112@gmail.com.”

“The wire transfer speaks to this money being deposited in an account for Formula 1 in Georgetown, Guyana, where they operate and they have all the information concerning that, including additional instructions and beneficiaries. The beneficiaries, if known to you, will blow your top! It is a Wells Fargo account,” Moonilal said to a chorus of “oooohs” and “aaaaahs” from the Opposition bench.

ANOTHER TRANSFER

Moonilal said there was another transfer of US$3.5 million on February 23, 2015. The e-mail for that transaction was copied to edcain 443@gmail.com. “Who is Ed Cain? Who he? Ed Cain is a player, like a lobbyist almost, working with Mr Deokiesingh. Whether the projects are the trading in fuel, whether they are involving different companies, they operate in the US, Guyana and Suriname. “When I was in Holland I learned a little Dutch so they couldn’t escape me. One of the things they do is to use another language. Ed Cain is known to Mr Deokiesingh and they have been involved in trading and so on. They work together. Formula 1 is a real company, there is a wire transfer here. I assure members you cannot hide these things.” Moonilal said the Opposition has a serious duty to conduct their business on behalf of the country without fear or favour and will not keep quiet. He said the refinery belongs to the people of TT. He said the Opposition did not want the OWTU to fail in this venture but wants them to succeed. However, he insisted, the government has questions to answer on how the deal went down.

ENTER SUNSTONE

He then named SunStone Equity as being a major player in the scheme. This company, Moonilal said, operates out of Suriname and was identified early as a private investment firm to help in the bids for the refinery.

“This company is operating out of a building in Suriname that is a lodge, like an inn. The principal is John Van Dyke, a Dutch-Canadian. He is a political economist writer. This person is behind SunStone who we suspect will get US$700 million to purchase a refinery. That is a serious scandal about to happen,” Moonilal told the House.

SunStone was registered on September 17, 2015 and operationalised on January 18, 2018. This, he said, is the company providing financial support for a multi-billion-dollar bid for the refinery.

“Would you believe Mr John Van Dyke visited TT? He was here, but how he came here? Who brought him here? Mr John Van Dyke came to Trinidad to find and be in the company of one Mr Vidya Deokiesingh. Mr Deokiesingh brought him here to have meetings concerning business with stakeholders visiting a contractor in Penal.

SIGNING PHOTOS

“I have in my hand pictures. In an office or somebody’s home, there are three persons signing documents here and two persons are very clear. One is bearing a striking resemblance to David Abdulah, Mr Ancel Roget and the third person has been identified as Mr John Van Dyke.

“I call on the players to indicate to the public when did this meeting take place. Where did this meeting take place? How this meeting take place? Why this meeting took place? What are they signing and could I ask them to confirm indeed (if) Mr Vidya Deokiesingh took the picture. We cannot take light that the Finance Minister said the only company willing to pay cash up front was Patriotic. Were they paid cash from SunStone?” Moonilal said the material he held and quoted from is available on the internet for everyone to see. He questioned whether this was some backhand way for people accused of fake oil and other offences to now claim the refinery, after taxpayers put US$11 billion into said refinery.

Source: https://newsday.co.tt/2019/10/16/follow-the-money/

[Redman]

Coonilal eh read the papers on Oct 17 2018?

[The_Honourable]

Van Dyke slams Moonilal’s ‘fake news’



CEO of Sun­stone Eq­ui­ty John Van Dyke yes­ter­day slammed Op­po­si­tion MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal for spread­ing fake news ‘like US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’ and be­ing a ‘pet­ty politi­cian’ as the coun­try ap­proach­es the De­cem­ber 2 lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion.

Van Dyke was re­spond­ing yes­ter­day to Mooni­lal who in his bud­get con­tri­bu­tion on Tues­day called on the Oil­field Work­ers Trade UNion (OW­TU) pres­i­dent An­cel Ro­get, Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice head David Ab­du­lah and him to an­swer whether for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment can­di­date Vidya De­ok­iesingh was in­volved in set­ting up a meet­ing at the premis­es of A&V Drilling with re­spect to Petrotrin re­fin­ery sale.

But Van Dyke fired back, stat­ing that Mooni­lal was on­ly cre­at­ing mis­chief and his al­le­ga­tions were to­tal non­sense.

“I don’t know where he comes up with these fan­ta­sy sto­ries...grant­ed the fact that it is an elec­tion com­ing up. He is prob­a­bly fol­low­ing Mr Trump’s lead in putting fake news out there. It’s ut­ter non­sense.”

He de­scribed Mooni­lal’s rant as a storm in a teacup and base­less.

Van Dyke said he has no time with “pet­ty politi­cians” when asked if would sue Mooni­lal for slan­der­ing his name and mak­ing false al­le­ga­tions.

“Let him look in the mir­ror and if he can sleep with him­self, then that is fine. I don’t have time for this. We have way too many projects on the go right now.”

At no time, Van Dyke said he met or in­ter­act­ed with De­ok­iesingh.

“I don’t know who he is. Sor­ry! The on­ly peo­ple who I have dealt with while I was in Trinidad were the OW­TU, its mem­bers and my staff that we hired.”

Van Dyke said he does not get in­volved in pol­i­tics or po­lit­i­cal par­ties.

Mooni­lal spoke about pho­tographs that sur­faced on so­cial me­dia with Ro­get, Ab­dul­lah and Van Dyke sign­ing an en­gage­ment con­tract.

He in­sist­ed the pho­tographs were tak­en at OW­TU’s head­quar­ters, San Fer­nan­do, last year by an OW­TU mem­ber and not De­ok­iesingh.

Last Oc­to­ber Sun­Stone was re­tained by the OW­TU as an in­vest­ment bank to find fi­nanc­ing for the re­fin­ery and to put for­ward the sale of the project.

“Oth­er than that I have not been in­volved in the deal. We tried to bring it to a con­clu­sion un­for­tu­nate­ly at the time the OW­TU did not have a writ­ten op­tion from the Gov­ern­ment nor from the cur­rent board of Petrotrin.”

He said Sun­Stone could not pro­ceed any fur­ther.

“The project got stalled in re­spect to the re­la­tion­ship be­tween us and the OW­TU. I ba­si­cal­ly said call me when you get that. And that is where we left it off. Right now we are mov­ing on with all the stuff we are do­ing. If I get a phone call from them I would be very hap­py.”

The last con­ver­sa­tion Van Dyke held with the OW­TU was ten months ago.

Van Dyke said Sun­Stone in their en­gage­ment put for­ward “ three op­tions” (in­ter­na­tion­al clients) who were in­ter­est­ed in the re­fin­ery which he re­fused to name.

Those clients were in­ter­na­tion­al oil com­pa­nies.

He said three coun­tries ex­pressed an in­ter­est­ed in the re­fin­ery’s pur­chase- Suri­nam, Guyana and Bar­ba­dos.

“I just thought if the four sov­er­eign na­tions ( T&T in­clud­ed) were joint ven­ture part­ners with the OW­TU as a mi­nor­i­ty own­er, it would cause a win-win for all par­ties in­volved. It would be sad to see that Petrotrin (re­fin­ery) would be­long to the his­to­ry books. It is a vi­able busi­ness.”

How­ev­er, he said it turned out to be “po­lit­i­cal­ly sen­si­tive. Prob­a­bly it was more of a pipe dream on our side. I will tell you this. I be­lieve Petrotrin is a very valu­able as­set and strate­gi­cal­ly they are in a very good place with the ma­jor oil finds in Guyana which is up­wards of nine mil­lion bar­rels of oil a day.”

Van Dyke said the pro­pos­al put for­ward by Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies and Tech­nolo­gies Com­pa­ny Ltd- a com­pa­ny whol­ly owned by the OW­TU of up­front cash of US$700 mil­lion for the re­fin­ery Sun­Stone was not privy to.

“But I can tell you it would not be a dif­fi­cult deal to put to­geth­er on that ba­sis.”

In his es­ti­ma­tion, Van Dyke said Petrotrin is worth over $2 bil­lion.

As of now, Van Dyke could not say which com­pa­nies were now in­ter­est­ed in the re­fin­ery.

He knew the com­pa­nies that had ex­pressed an in­ter­est last Oc­to­ber.

“But as far as I know none of those par­ties are present­ly in­volved in this lat­est pro­pos­al.”

Van Dyke said OW­TU agreed to pay Sun­Stone ex­pens­es to put the pro­pos­al to­geth­er.

“We charged them US$150,000 on a three-month con­sult­ing con­tract and we were to be re­ward­ed a two per cent if we were suc­cess­ful in rais­ing at that par­tic­u­lar time $1 bil­lion to do the deal.”

He said the OW­TU ac­cept­ed their terms and they worked two months on the project “un­til we came to the re­al­i­ty of them not be­ing able to get a writ­ten op­tion which they had al­ways said they would get.”

Sun­Stone, Van Dyke said was on­ly paid US$50,000 by OW­TU.

“We are still owed US$100,000.”

He hopes the project comes to a con­clu­sion and they be paid even­tu­al­ly.

Source: http://guardian.co.tt/news/van-dyke-sla ... 70175cf24d

[screwbash]

OILFIELD Workers Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget yesterday gave Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar 48 hours to say if she and the United National Congress (UNC) supports the budget debate claims by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal of underhand dealings in government’s sale of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery to the union.

If she does not publicly distance herself from Moonilal’s claims, or if she does not respond at all, Roget is threatening to “mount a major campaign” to expose corrupt practices by the United National Congress (UNC).

the fool going again. cudnt open he pie hole againt the govt when thousands lorse dey wuk cause he had his hidden agenda. he go open he pie hole against the UNC cause they wanna expose he wrong doings. y he aint mount a major campain on av drilling and the pm and the world gas to liquid and all the mismanagement by petrotrin that cause thousand to lorse they wuk and the entire cuntry tuh suffer, but he stand to loose he investment if he do dat i am sure, it easier to try and make the unc look bad so pnm go remain in guavament. like he forget how he screw over all the union members when dey tears fall on he an he chirren yuh tink any govt minister go help he.
my question is if it have no oil field why is there is union ?

[Dizzy28]

So i just have one question John Van Dyke related to Dick Van Dyke ah wha??

[eliteauto]

How Moonilal boil down so quickly? Suddenly averse to repeating his statements outside of parliamentary privilege

[The_Honourable]

Tactic used by both sides in the past to damage another publicly knowing fully well they can't be sued.

Parliamentary Privilege should not be absolute and needs to be amended.

[rspann]

How Moonilal boil down so quickly? Suddenly averse to repeating his statements outside of parliamentary privilege

You want the man lose he extended wheelbase jaguar and start driving ah tiida?

[eliteauto]

How Moonilal boil down so quickly? Suddenly averse to repeating his statements outside of parliamentary privilege

You want the man lose he extended wheelbase jaguar and start driving ah tiida?

is it a XJ-L? the Indian High Commissioner is by us atm and that's his official car, man that thing is gorgeous and loooong

[rspann]

How Moonilal boil down so quickly? Suddenly averse to repeating his statements outside of parliamentary privilege

You want the man lose he extended wheelbase jaguar and start driving ah tiida?

is it a XJ-L? the Indian High Commissioner is by us atm and that's his official car, man that thing is gorgeous and loooong

I can't answer yuh because a man who look like he in love with either you or me,toting feelings.

[eliteauto]

How Moonilal boil down so quickly? Suddenly averse to repeating his statements outside of parliamentary privilege

You want the man lose he extended wheelbase jaguar and start driving ah tiida?

is it a XJ-L? the Indian High Commissioner is by us atm and that's his official car, man that thing is gorgeous and loooong

I can't answer yuh because a man who look like he in love with either you or me,toting feelings.

hadda be you, last I heard I issa sufferer and I quote " yuh company name elite but yuh car isn't"

[rspann]

A lot of people would like to "suffer " like you.

[rspann]

A lot of people would like to "suffer " like you.

[De Dragon]

^^ Ollour get ah room nah man Sheesh!

[De Dragon]

OILFIELD Workers Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget yesterday gave Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar 48 hours to say if she and the United National Congress (UNC) supports the budget debate claims by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal of underhand dealings in government’s sale of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery to the union.

If she does not publicly distance herself from Moonilal’s claims, or if she does not respond at all, Roget is threatening to “mount a major campaign” to expose corrupt practices by the United National Congress (UNC).

the fool going again. cudnt open he pie hole againt the govt when thousands lorse dey wuk cause he had his hidden agenda. he go open he pie hole against the UNC cause they wanna expose he wrong doings. y he aint mount a major campain on av drilling and the pm and the world gas to liquid and all the mismanagement by petrotrin that cause thousand to lorse they wuk and the entire cuntry tuh suffer, but he stand to loose he investment if he do dat i am sure, it easier to try and make the unc look bad so pnm go remain in guavament. like he forget how he screw over all the union members when dey tears fall on he an he chirren yuh tink any govt minister go help he.
my question is if it have no oil field why is there is union ?

Dotish Roget arse did weld shut when all the foolishness and corruption like AV and GTL that crashed PT was going on, but he suddenly get bad to call out Moonilal and Kamla? Trinidad really eh real nah. This dummy doesn't even seem to fathom that the losses tacked on to the price he had to "pay" for PT was a direct result of these things. Then again, Red I EH Know Who Ah Voting For" Bag believes that these imbeciles can run a refinery I guess the mannequin will appear in Woodford Square again soon.........

[sMASH]

roget tnt forex champian 2021

[ek4ever]

Mariano toting badd for some years now...
If it was up to he, they would ah sell de refinery to some white man for a dollar.

Mariano sees through the BS that clouds the view of dumbarse PNMites ... of course PNMites to stupid to understand anything of this complexity.... in 2 to 3 years the refinery will be right back to where it was in 2018

This failure will be epic

[The_Honourable]

Former UNC senator seeks to stop refinery sale



FORMER United National Congress (UNC) senator, attorney Wayne Sturge is seeking to temporarily stop the pending sale of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery – now called Guaracara Refining Co Ltd.

In an injunction application, Sturge asked the court to order the chairman of the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Energy Affairs, Finance Minister Colm Imbert, to convene a meeting of the committee.

The application, which will come up for hearing before Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh, also asks the court to give directions for the purpose of upholding the Constitution and rule of law and holding the Government, the Executive and the Cabinet accountable to the Parliament for decisions made with respect to the sale of the refinery.

On September 20, Imbert announced the sale of the former Petrotrin refinery operations to Patriotic Energies and Technologies Co Ltd, which is wholly owned by the OWTU.

The minister said from the results for the request for proposals for the sale of the refinery, Patriotic was the only bidder that offered an upfront consideration of US$700 million.

Sturge, in his constitutional motion, filed by attorneys Gerald Ramdeen, Umesh Maharaj and Dayadai Harripaul, is seeking declarations that the failure by the JSC chairman to hold a meeting of the committee for the last 19 months was unlawful.

According to his claim, the attorney said he considered it his responsibility to uphold the law and do all he could to prevent the undermining of the rule of law in the public interest.

Sturge said the last meeting of the committee was on February 21, 2018, and no reason has been given as to why one has not since been held.

He said at the last meeting, the committee had as its “singular subject of consideration” the restructuring of Petrotrin.

“Before the Joint Select Committee of Parliament was given an opportunity to complete its task, the Board of directors of Petrotrin, who were before the committee at the time, took a decision to close the refinery operations of Petrotrin.

“This was a decision that was subsequently accepted by the Cabinet and the Government. This decision had the effect of placing on the breadline in excess of 5,000 workers directly and in excess of 4,000 indirectly.

“The macro consequences of the decision to the economy of TT are still being realised and some have not even been experienced as yet,” the attorney said, adding that at no time was the JSC told of a decision to abandon the restructuring exercise.

According to Sturge, the decisions of the Government and the Cabinet were taken “in an atmosphere of secrecy and mystery” and the decision to not convene a meeting of the JSC on Energy for the past 19 months, was “deliberate and intentional” on Imbert’s part, especially since as Finance Minister he would have been “intimately involved” in the decisions taken on the refinery.

“The decision was designed to ensure that the committee would be unable to discharge its functions during this most critical time in the history of the energy sector of our country when irreversible decisions were being made by the government with respect to the patrimony of our country,” he said.

“Had the Joint Select Committee on Energy been allowed to discharge its constitutional function the decisions of the chairman and the Cabinet to which he belongs would have been the subject of examination by the committee.

“The population is forced to accept the information that the Government, the Cabinet and the Executive have placed in the public domain justifying these decisions,” Sturge said.

“While there has been no shortage of public statements by the minister, the said minister by his inactions has deprived the Parliament of the ability to scrutinise those statements and hold the government, the Executive and the Cabinet accountable for the decisions that have been taken,” he added.

His claim pointed out that the Government was moving ahead with decisions that affected the people “in ways that will be irreversible” if implemented.

He also said any reason or justification by the Executive for the failure to convene a meeting of the JSC on Energy for the past 19 months, must be subject and anxious scrutiny of the courts.

“At the heart of the concept of the rule of law is the idea that society is governed by law and everyone is subject to the law and no one is above the law. Parliament exists primarily to make laws for the society in this country,” Sturge said in his claim.

The matter comes up for hearing on Thursday at the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain.

Source: https://newsday.co.tt/2019/10/21/former ... nery-sale/

[sMASH]

tick tock tick tock tick tock.

ent someone say that the annand and ramdeen thing might be thrown out?

[De Dragon]

tick tock tick tock tick tock.

ent someone say that the annand and ramdeen thing might be thrown out?

Probably, given that anyone with any sense could see how compromised the main "witness" is. but not before GE though, so stink Arse Wari and he dotish boss JUHN Scarfy milk it.

[rspann]

Allyuh is assassins.

[Redman]

Actually IMHO this is a great challenge.

While I question the timing-the JSC should have had sight of the deal and the opportunity to interrogate the details.

[sMASH]

Move to cease

[Redman]

Pots and Kettles and things of a darkened hue.

[De Dragon]

Pots and Kettles and things of a darkened hue.

Ollour remember when NAR/PP/UNC sold Petrotrin?
Nah, me neither
EVERY SINGLE major asset that this country has ever had, from PT, to ISCOTT, to TRINGEN, TTMC etc. were sold by the PNM. Mind you, prior to said sales, they made sure to royally fack it up, and run it into the ground through their cronies, and poor appointments, which continue to this day with the appointment of JUHN Scarfy lawyer as head honcho at PT. So please take your ridiculous equivocation argument, find the closest roadway on which people have sex, and proceed to travel in an upward direction.

[zoom rader]

Pots and Kettles and things of a darkened hue.

Ollour remember when NAR/PP/UNC sold Petrotrin?
Nah, me neither
EVERY SINGLE major asset that this country has ever had, from PT, to ISCOTT, to TRINGEN, TTMC etc. were sold by the PNM. Mind you, prior to said sales, they made sure to royally fack it up, and run it into the ground through their cronies, and poor appointments, which continue to this day with the appointment of JUHN Scarfy lawyer as head honcho at PT. So please take your ridiculous equivocation argument, find the closest roadway on which people have sex, and proceed to travel in an upward direction.

Yet still the PNM lazy workers bank remains

WASA

[matix]

Pots and Kettles and things of a darkened hue.

Ollour remember when NAR/PP/UNC sold Petrotrin?
Nah, me neither
EVERY SINGLE major asset that this country has ever had, from PT, to ISCOTT, to TRINGEN, TTMC etc. were sold by the PNM. Mind you, prior to said sales, they made sure to royally fack it up, and run it into the ground through their cronies, and poor appointments, which continue to this day with the appointment of JUHN Scarfy lawyer as head honcho at PT. So please take your ridiculous equivocation argument, find the closest roadway on which people have sex, and proceed to travel in an upward direction.

Stating this makes no difference to a PNM supporter. Once you accept that, you won’t waste any more time behind them.

[De Dragon]

Pots and Kettles and things of a darkened hue.

Ollour remember when NAR/PP/UNC sold Petrotrin?
Nah, me neither
EVERY SINGLE major asset that this country has ever had, from PT, to ISCOTT, to TRINGEN, TTMC etc. were sold by the PNM. Mind you, prior to said sales, they made sure to royally fack it up, and run it into the ground through their cronies, and poor appointments, which continue to this day with the appointment of JUHN Scarfy lawyer as head honcho at PT. So please take your ridiculous equivocation argument, find the closest roadway on which people have sex, and proceed to travel in an upward direction.

Stating this makes no difference to a PNM supporter. Once you accept that, you won’t waste any more time behind them.

Usually I ignore them, but Red Plastic Bag does overdo the PNM dotishness peddling.

[matix]

Pots and Kettles and things of a darkened hue.

Ollour remember when NAR/PP/UNC sold Petrotrin?
Nah, me neither
EVERY SINGLE major asset that this country has ever had, from PT, to ISCOTT, to TRINGEN, TTMC etc. were sold by the PNM. Mind you, prior to said sales, they made sure to royally fack it up, and run it into the ground through their cronies, and poor appointments, which continue to this day with the appointment of JUHN Scarfy lawyer as head honcho at PT. So please take your ridiculous equivocation argument, find the closest roadway on which people have sex, and proceed to travel in an upward direction.

Stating this makes no difference to a PNM supporter. Once you accept that, you won’t waste any more time behind them.

Usually I ignore them, but Red Plastic Bag does overdo the PNM dotishness peddling.

It’s in their blood.

[Redman]

Pots and Kettles and things of a darkened hue.

Ollour remember when NAR/PP/UNC sold Petrotrin?
Nah, me neither
EVERY SINGLE major asset that this country has ever had, from PT, to ISCOTT, to TRINGEN, TTMC etc. were sold by the PNM. Mind you, prior to said sales, they made sure to royally fack it up, and run it into the ground through their cronies, and poor appointments, which continue to this day with the appointment of JUHN Scarfy lawyer as head honcho at PT. So please take your ridiculous equivocation argument, find the closest roadway on which people have sex, and proceed to travel in an upward direction.

So you agree with that Wayne Sturge post ??