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Carl Khan, the mystery witness in the Commission of Enquiry into the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) and the construction sector, has produced copies of a document that identifies Mg Chin Poh, the brother-in-law of UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart, as a director of the company that was awarded a $368 million contract to construct the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower.
Khan also produced copies of a document from the High Court of Justice Sub-Registry (Matrimonial) San Fernando, that identify him as the ex-husband of Hart's wife, Sherrine Lee-Hart (who is also called Soh-Wah Lee). The court states that Khan was married to Hua Lee on December 31, 1997 and the marriage was dissolved on May 1, 2000. A source, however, told the Express last evening that Hart completely denies the allegations.
CH Development & Construction Ltd was awarded the Legal Affairs Tower contract from UDeCOTT in 2005, and has been a main subject of the enquiry. A copy of a CH Development document, dated January 22, 2005, which contains what purports to be Chin Poh's signature and identifies him as the company's director, is one of five statutory documents Khan submitted to the enquiry last Friday. The CH document also bears the same fax number, 624-8239, that Hart acknowledged was his fax number until he changed it on April 28, which was six days after Diego Martin MP Dr Keith Rowley was fired from the Cabinet, according to the former Minister's lawyer Gilbert Peterson, SC. Khan appeared before the enquiry on Thursday and swore them into evidence.
Those documents support an allegation made on May 23 by then-Opposition chief whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, that Chin Poh, who is Hart's wife's sister's husband, and her brother, Lee Hup Ming, were the directors and shareholders of CH Development.
In his written statement to the commission, Khan wrote that he read of Maharaj's allegation in a newspaper article.
"I recognised Lee Hup Ming (also called Allan Lee Hup Ming) and Ng Chin Poh (also called David Ng Chin Poh) as brother and brother-in-law respectively of Mrs Hart. I know this as a fact from my marriage to Mrs Hart," Khan wrote in his statement.
All of Khan's statutory declarations were placed on the enquiry's website last evening after being submitted into evidence, which, therefore, make them public record.
The Express observed yesterday that attorneys for both Hart and UDeCOTT held several meetings with the enquiry's commissioners during the break periods of yesterday's hearing at Winsure Building in Port of Spain. The Express understands that one of the issues addressed during the meetings was the placement of Khan's statutory declarations on the enquiry's website.
Khan attended yesterday's hearing to be cross-examined by the attorneys representing Hart and UDeCOTT, who were the only parties in the proceedings who received copies of the statutory declarations. However, UDeCOTT lead attorney Andrew Goddard, QC, who was delivering his closing submission, said he was not prepared to cross-examine Khan. Hart's lead attorney, Frank Solomon, SC, meanwhile said he would be submitting a written statement in response to Khan's claims. Khan eventually stayed in the enquiry's hearing room for at least an hour observing the proceedings before he left.
During his submission yesterday, Goddard dismissed claims by Peterson and Leslie Fitzpatrick, SC, the lead attorney for the Joint Consultative Council (JCC), that a CH Development document faxed from Hart's fax number was written confirmation to UDeCOTT by CH of its acceptance of UDeCOTT's award in the sum of $368 million.
"The fax number from Sunway was not sent from Mr Hart's personal fax number, it was sent from a Sunway fax number, 632-6825," Goddard said.
