分类： politics

A high-stakes political bombshell has emerged in Trinidad and Tobago, where sitting Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath has publicly revealed details of an alleged $250,000 assassination plot targeting him, orchestrated by a former minister from the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) administration. While the sitting minister says he remains deeply troubled that the alleged mastermind remains at large, he has stressed that he will not step back from his public duties or live in fear, placing his full confidence in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) to see the investigation through to its conclusion.

Padarath shared the full timeline of the revelation in an exclusive interview with the *Sunday Express*, recalling that the first official warning came in December 2025, when the head of the country’s Special Branch police unit requested an urgent meeting. At the time, Padarath was at Parliament, and he attended the meeting accompanied by fellow cabinet minister Saddam Hosein. At that meeting, senior police officials told him that a detained gang leader had submitted a sworn statement to the TTPS, confirming he had been hired by a former PNM government minister to carry out the killing. The police shared key details of the plot with Padarath, including the agreed $250,000 payment for the hit, and implicitly identified the former minister without naming him publicly.

Following the briefing, police recommended an immediate upgrade to Padarath’s personal security, ordering a full risk assessment by Special Branch. The minister was offered additional personal protection, and advised to implement new security measures for both his family members and his residential property. Padarath admitted that the revelation left him completely stunned, noting that the allegation came with a disturbing level of detail that made the threat feel all too real. Adding to his concern is the fact that some of the individuals allegedly linked to the plot live and operate in the parliamentary constituency he represents, putting his family in close proximity to potential danger.

Speaking specifically about his young child, Padarath said the safety of his loved ones is his top priority, and he has already implemented all necessary additional security measures to protect them. He acknowledged that living with the constant shadow of an assassination threat is deeply unsettling, particularly for a public servant with young family members. Even so, he emphasized that the plot will not deter him from upholding the oath he took to serve the country, uphold the constitution and the rule of law, and carry out his work without fear or favor. He stressed that he will not be silenced on the issues that led to the alleged threat.

Padarath also confirmed that the gang leader who provided the sworn statement implicating the former minister remains in police custody. He told reporters that he has received two official briefings from the head of Special Branch since the initial revelation, though he has not gotten a recent update on the progress of the investigation. Police have confirmed that the probe remains active, and Padarath said he is willing to wait for law enforcement to complete their work.

As for why he believes he was targeted, Padarath pointed to his high-profile work leading oversight and audits of three large state-run entities: the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP), the Maintenance Training Services Limited (MTS), and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA). He alleged that close friends, family members, and political financiers of the former PNM administration amassed enormous illicit benefits from state contracts awarded at these entities during their time in power. Padarath, a vocal supporter of the current prime minister’s anti-corruption and anti-crime crackdown, has pushed for transparent audits of these contracts, which have already uncovered serious irregularities that could expose wrongdoing by multiple powerful figures. It is this outspoken, forthright work on corruption that he believes made him a target.

Reaffirming his trust in law enforcement, Padarath said he will continue to follow the lead of the TTPS, noting that the proverb “time is longer than twine” holds true, and the full truth of the plot will eventually come to light.

A high-stakes legal conflict has broken out in Trinidad and Tobago, centered on the funding of the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) new party headquarters, Balisier House, located in Port of Spain’s Tranquillity Street. The clash began after High Court Judge Margaret Mohammed granted a court order on Friday that compels the PNM to disclose the sources of funding behind the multimillion-dollar construction project, a move the ruling political party has decried as a politically motivated attack.

The court order stems from an ongoing investigation by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS). In July 2026, Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro appointed acting Assistant Commissioner Ramdath Phillip to lead the probe, and subsequently authorized Phillip to file an application for a Preliminary Unexplained Wealth Order (PUWO) under the 2019 Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Act, Section 58(1). The application names PNM trustees as the first respondent and the PNM, represented by its general secretary, as the second. The Commissioner of Police is represented by a high-profile legal team including King’s Counsel Anthony Peto and junior counsel Thomas Cleaver of London’s Blackstone Chambers, with local attorney Dayadai Harripaul acting as instructing counsel.

In an affidavit supporting the application, Phillip referenced a report from UK-based international consultants Berkeley Research Group (UK) Ltd, commissioned by the Office of the Attorney General. The report estimates the total completed construction cost of Balisier House will reach roughly TT$118.4 million, with around TT$73.272 million of work already finished. Phillip stated that investigators have not been able to identify any legitimate source of PNM income large enough to fund a project of this scale, prompting the request for the court order.

Responding to the public revelation of the court order, PNM chairman Marvin Gonzales issued a scathing three-page media statement announcing that the party has assembled its own full legal team to challenge the order, and will pursue every available legal remedy to protect the party and its members. As of the statement’s release, Gonzales confirmed the PNM had not received official correspondence or formal service of the High Court order from any state body, in line with court rules that give police seven days from the order’s granting to complete service.

Gonzales rejected the claims laid out in the police application, dismissing the cost estimates as “grossly exaggerated” and denying any wrongdoing in the project’s funding. He explained that the PNM has owned the land and original Balisier House structure for more than 65 years, and the current redevelopment was never conducted or funded in secret. For over 15 years, Gonzales said, the party has raised funds for the project through open, legal means: official party events, public fundraising appeals, and voluntary donations from thousands of party members, supporters, and backers who view the headquarters as a key democratic institution for Trinidad and Tobago.

The PNM chairman framed the entire investigation as the latest step in a coordinated smear campaign orchestrated by the incumbent ruling United National Congress (UNC). He claimed the effort first began with unsubstantiated public attacks, then escalated when UNC lawmakers abused parliamentary privilege to make unproven allegations under legislative immunity. Gonzales accused the TTPS of cooperating with a political witch hunt, noting that it was the PNM that originally introduced campaign finance reform legislation in Trinidad and Tobago – a bill the UNC refused to support.

“Today, the very same political party that rejected campaign finance reform and has been at the centre of well-documented corruption, political kickback and bid-rigging scandals now seeks to cast suspicion on the lawful fundraising activities of the People’s National Movement,” Gonzales said. He accused the UNC government of prioritizing partisan attacks over pressing national issues including economic stagnation, rising crime, unemployment, and gaps in healthcare and education, arguing the administration is weaponizing state institutions to target its main political opposition.

Gonzales warned that the case fits a growing, dangerous pattern of state-sponsored political intimidation over the UNC’s 14 months in office. He claimed the ruling party has increasingly sought to silence political dissent, using state bodies to collect personal information on opposition figures that could be misused for partisan gain. He called the misuse of state power a threat to all Trinidad and Tobago citizens, regardless of political affiliation, and reaffirmed the PNM’s commitment to defending not only its own legacy but the constitutional democratic rights of all citizens.

In closing, Gonzales expressed confidence in the eventual outcome of the legal battle: “We remain confident that truth will prevail over propaganda, justice will prevail over political persecution and democracy will prevail over tyranny.”

More than a decade after being swept up in a high-profile 2011 anti-crime dragnet that he claims was a politically fabricated frame-up, a 60-year-old Trinidadian man is still demanding official compensation for the irreversible damage done to his reputation, livelihood and family bonds.

Ashmeed Mohammed, who now runs a small chicken processing operation and maintains a small farm in the rural community of Rio Claro, is one of approximately 17 Muslim men detained in August 2011 over unsubstantiated claims that they had plotted to assassinate then-Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, her Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, and multiple sitting cabinet ministers. The false plot was the core justification the ruling United National Congress (UNC) government used to impose a nationwide state of emergency that lasted from August 21 to December 5 that year, a move framed as a aggressive response to rising violent crime at a time when the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) was heavily criticizing the administration for failing to address public safety concerns.

Mohammed says the entire assassination plot narrative was invented from thin air to shore up the UNC’s political standing, with local Muslim communities deliberately targeted to create the illusion of decisive action against a major national threat. He points to what he calls a deeply suspicious coincidence: the date the government claimed the plot was scheduled to launch was exactly the day authorities carried out the coordinated arrests. At the time of his arrest, Mohammed was running a successful import business out of La Romaine, supplying cooking oil to local Chinese restaurants along with event rental equipment like tents, tables and chairs. He was arrested immediately after leaving a bank, where he had just processed a wire transfer to China for an incoming shipment. Police surrounded him with drawn weapons, detaining him on initial claims of illegal weapons and drug possession.

Over the course of his two-week detention, Mohammed says authorities never presented a shred of evidence linking him to any criminal activity, nor did any senior official question him about the alleged assassination plot. It was not until three days after his arrest that a police officer at the Santa Rosa detention center privately informed him he was being held on treason charges connected to the purported plot. The officer even acknowledged that many people within law enforcement already suspected the government had manufactured the entire scheme, asking Mohammed to keep their conversation confidential.

He told the *Sunday Express* via WhatsApp that he had no prior connection to 80% of the other men arrested alongside him. Only a handful were familiar acquaintances from his local mosque, including the late Ashmeed Choate, who later died in Syria. Other high-profile detainees named by Mohammed, including David “Buffy” Milliard and Selwyn “Robocop” Alexis, were people he had only heard of before the arrest, never met.

The aftermath of the unfounded allegations destroyed Mohammed’s life piece by piece. Even though he was never charged or convicted of any crime, all of his domestic and international bank accounts were immediately shut down, forcing him to abandon his import business entirely. He describes the experience as both religious targeting of Muslim residents and deliberate economic ruin.

The damage extended far beyond his career, fracturing his entire family. Even some immediate relatives cut off contact with him after his release, many out of fear that police would monitor their homes if they associated with him. Others, he says, were die-hard political loyalists of the UNC who fully accepted the government’s false narrative and believed he genuinely planned to harm party leadership. Mohammed, who even had a personal and business relationship with a sitting UNC cabinet minister at the time of his arrest—their wives were both connected to the local Chinese community, and the pair socialized regularly—says this political blind spot affects hardline supporters of both major Trinidadian parties, acting as a form of brainwashing that stops voters from acknowledging wrongdoing by their preferred group. Ironically, the minister Mohammed was supposedly part of a plot to kill was the same official he had counted as a personal friend. When Mohammed sought an explanation from him days after his release, the minister flew into a rage and dismissed him out of hand; now that the minister is out of office, Mohammed says he greets him with friendly hugs whenever they meet.

Unable to face the constant stigma and public scrutiny in La Romaine, Mohammed retreated to rural Rio Claro, where he has kept a low profile ever since. He has spent hundreds of thousands of Trinidadian dollars on legal efforts to secure compensation from the state, but all attempts have failed. Looking back, he says he and the other exonorated detainees made a mistake by pursuing the case through the courts rather than pushing aggressively for an out-of-court settlement, adding that he believes the government once offered a settlement that the group failed to negotiate properly.

Now that the UNC has returned to national power, Mohammed says the administration has a moral obligation to redress the injustice it committed. For his part, he says he would accept a grant of state land to expand his current farming business as fair compensation, arguing that after more than a decade of harm, the government can even resolve the matter off the official record if it chooses. “The lies told by the government left a lasting stain on my name and my life,” he says. “All I want now is what is fair for me and my family, who have paid this price alongside me.”

A high-profile case centered on the construction of the People’s National Movement (PNM)’s multimillion-dollar Port of Spain headquarters, Balisier House, is poised to become a groundbreaking precedent for Trinidad and Tobago’s relatively new unexplained wealth legislation, marking the first documented application of the law in legal proceedings involving a major political party. This assessment comes from attorney Saira Lakhan, who shared her analysis in a WhatsApp response to inquiries from the Sunday Express, following a recent High Court ruling granting an order compelling the PNM to disclose full details of the funding that supported the building’s development. High Court Justice Margaret Mohammed issued the compulsory disclosure order, opening the door for what legal experts say will be a defining moment for the nation’s anti-illicit wealth framework.

Lakhan emphasized that the case gives domestic courts an unrivaled opportunity to clarify the boundaries and operational mechanics of a law that has only been on Trinidad and Tobago’s books for a few years. “What makes the Balisier House matter unique is that, to the best of my knowledge, this marks the first reported use of the country’s unexplained wealth legislation in proceedings that directly involve a political party,” Lakhan explained.

Beyond its status as a first-of-its-kind political case, Lakhan noted the proceedings will produce much-needed judicial clarity on how the legislation applies to political party-linked assets, resolving lingering uncertainties around core questions including formal ownership structures, de facto control of assets, identification of eligible respondents in such cases, and the scope of financial disclosure required under the law.

Crucially, Lakhan cautioned that the court’s approval of this preliminary order does not equate to a formal finding of illegal activity or proof that the funds used to build Balisier House were obtained through unlawful means. “A Preliminary Unexplained Wealth Order is not a final ruling of criminal misconduct, nor does it constitute a definitive determination that the property in question was acquired with funds from illegal sources,” she clarified.

This case is not the first time Trinidad and Tobago’s courts have examined the country’s unexplained wealth framework. Prior high-stakes proceedings involving multiple individuals — including David and Kendra Neeranjan, and several parties connected to the estate of Sheldon Spring — led to a major review of the legislation by the Court of Appeal in 2023. Those cases ultimately advanced to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which delivered its binding judgment in *Richard Taylor, Assistant Superintendent of Police v Natalie Natasha Spring and another* on April 29, 2026.

In that ruling, the Privy Council addressed key foundational questions for the legislation: the standard of evidence required to establish reasonable suspicion of unlawful wealth, whether law enforcement can rely on investigations conducted before the law came into effect, and whether a Preliminary Unexplained Wealth Order can be issued against the estate of a deceased person. The appellate body dismissed the appeal and upheld the Court of Appeal’s original ruling. Lakhan explained that the judgment confirms reasonable suspicion required under the act can draw on pre-legislation investigations, so long as the suspicion remains active at the time the application is filed.

Lakhan also pointed to lessons from jurisdictions like the United Kingdom, which has more experience with unexplained wealth regimes, that can guide Trinidad and Tobago as authorities expand their use of these anti-corruption tools. “One of the clearest takeaways from international experience is that legislation by itself is not enough. Its effectiveness hinges on the quality of underlying investigations, the specialized expertise of the legal and investigative professionals involved, and the fairness and independence of the judicial process,” she said.

Unexplained wealth probes regularly involve tangled cross-border financial transactions, complex corporate structures, opaque beneficial ownership arrangements, and assets held through shell companies, trusts, nominee holders or third parties, Lakhan noted. As a result, these investigations demand specialized skills from investigators, forensic accountants, legal counsel and other trained professionals.

“For the legislation to work effectively and retain public trust, every application must be backed by thorough investigation and sufficient credible evidence,” she added. As use of the law becomes more common, Lakhan argued that greater transparency will be critical to maintaining public confidence. She proposed that authorities consider publishing regular aggregated statistics on the volume of applications filed, the number of preliminary and final orders granted, the total value of assets recovered through the framework, and the final outcomes of all proceedings.

Lakhan stressed that public trust in the unexplained wealth regime will rise or fall based on consistent, impartial application of the law — particularly in high-stakes cases with political implications. “Public confidence depends on both the reality and the perception that the legislation is applied consistently and independently, regardless of the political affiliation, social standing or influence of any person or entity involved,” she said.

She further clarified that unexplained wealth legislation should be understood as one component of a broader national framework to combat money laundering, organized crime and the illegal accumulation of assets. It is not intended to replace thorough criminal investigations, respect for due process, or formal criminal prosecution in cases where evidence supports criminal charges.

When asked whether the decision to hire a UK King’s Counsel signals the unusual complexity of these cases, Lakhan noted that Trinidad and Tobago’s still-evolving unexplained wealth legal framework often requires specialized outside expertise as the law develops. The use of international counsel should be evaluated based on the specific legal issues at hand, and is not an extraordinary practice: both the state, private clients and other entities regularly retain overseas legal professionals depending on the unique circumstances of a given case.

“The hiring of King’s Counsel or other external legal counsel is not inherently unusual,” Lakhan said. She explained that the selection of counsel is shaped by a range of practical factors, including the nature of the proceedings, the specific experience and expertise required for the novel or complex legal questions at hand, the availability of qualified counsel, the composition of the broader legal team, and cost considerations.

Lakhan concluded that unexplained wealth law remains a developing area of practice in Trinidad and Tobago. The governing legislation, the Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Act No. 8 of 2019, has already been reviewed by both the domestic Court of Appeal and the Privy Council, a fact that underscores the ongoing evolution of legal standards for these proceedings.

A shocking plot to assassinate sitting Trinidad and Tobago Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath has prompted authorities to ramp up his personal protection, after a detained gang member confessed to police that a former government minister offered him $250,000 to carry out the killing. The heightened security detail now includes specialized protection from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) Special Branch, a unit tasked with high-risk security assignments for public officials. The full details of the plot have emerged from a sworn statement given to investigators at the Carenage Police Station, dated December 4, 2025, by the suspect who is currently in police custody on unrelated criminal charges.

According to redacted excerpts of the statement obtained by the Sunday Express, the alleged plot was first set in motion in November 2025. The gang member told investigators he was searching for a high-paying job through a relative, who connected him to a former government minister that owned a local club in McBean. When the suspect approached the ex-minister asking about work, complaining that other connected figures were securing large government contracts, the former official offered him a far more dangerous opportunity: a $250,000 payment to eliminate Padarath, whom the ex-minister criticized as overly outspoken.

In the confession, the suspect quoted the former minister as saying he would provide all the logistical support needed for the attack, including firearms, vehicles, and detailed information on Padarath’s schedule and locations. The former minister also instructed the suspect to recruit additional accomplices and warned him to keep the plot completely secret. To solidify the agreement, the ex-minister reportedly handed the suspect an upfront payment of $3,000, calling it a “sweetener” to secure his cooperation and pressured him to complete the assassination as quickly as possible.

When questioned by investigators, the suspect confirmed he understood the phrase “get rid of” Padarath meant killing him, noting the former minister made a throat-slitting gesture to clarify his intent. The ex-minister also described Padarath to the hitman as a talkative, slim Indo-Trinidadian government minister in the current UNC administration, adding that the minister “talks too much” and “had to go.”

The suspect told police he had never previously accepted a contract killing, though he admitted to carrying out smaller acts of violence for his relative, including assault, intimidation, and needle injection to threaten targets. He added that the relative connected him to the plot because he assumed the suspect had prior experience with violent criminal work. When told of the $250,000 payout, the suspect said he immediately thought the former minister must be insane, calling the offer to kill a sitting sitting government minister shocking even to him.

Beyond the assassination plot, the suspect also made additional allegations against the former minister, claiming the official runs a large criminal network that traffics cocaine from Colombia and smuggles firearms from both the United States and Colombia through the Port of Point Lisas, with ties to multiple gangs across Trinidad and Tobago. He also named another associate of the former minister who he says manages the drug and weapons smuggling operations.

The suspect explained he chose to confess to the plot while in custody because he feared for his life outside of detention. He claimed the criminal network has corrupt police officers on its payroll at multiple stations across the country, describing the operation as a well-organized “big organization” that would target him if he spoke publicly about the plot while free. As a result of the confirmed plot, authorities have moved quickly to expand Padarath’s security to neutralize the threat to the sitting minister’s life.