Former Trinidad and Tobago Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has publicly denounced the creation and dissemination of three digitally manipulated videos featuring his image and voice. These videos, which promote a fraudulent ‘government investment platform,’ were reportedly generated using advanced deepfake AI technology. Ramnarine disclosed the issue in a statement on November 11, revealing that he had also encountered a doctored newspaper article falsely using his name and likeness to endorse the platform.
Ramnarine has taken decisive action by filing formal reports with the Police Service and Facebook. He has also issued multiple disclaimers on his Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to alert the public. In some instances, Facebook has removed the manipulated videos. The videos in question were created by altering footage from three public events where Ramnarine spoke: in May 2019, July 2020, and March 2025. The latter two events were campaign meetings for the United National Congress (UNC).
The former minister urged the public to report any sightings of these videos on social media. He emphasized that this is not an isolated incident, as other senior government officials and private sector leaders have also fallen victim to similar deepfake manipulations. Ramnarine described this as a ‘unfortunate abuse of technology’ and called for the development of a robust policy and legislative framework to address such issues.
The fraudulent videos and articles, which falsely attribute authorship to Newsday reporters, have been posted on a counterfeit version of the Newsday website. The videos also feature members of other media houses, further complicating the situation. Newsday has reported the matter to the police, underscoring the growing threat of deepfake technology in spreading misinformation and fraud.