标签： Trinidad and Tobago

A landmark High Court ruling in Trinidad and Tobago has ordered the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) and its trustees to publicly disclose the source of millions of dollars used to build its new Port of Spain headquarters, Balisier House, following a corruption investigation launched by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).

Justice Margaret Mohammed granted the TTPS’s request for a Preliminary Unexplained Wealth Order (PUWO), a powerful investigative tool under the 2019 Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Act, which allows law enforcement to compel entities to explain the origin of assets when reasonable suspicion of unlawful derivation exists. The application for the order was filed July 10, 2026, after the TTPS launched an ongoing probe into the financing and construction of the Balisier House compound between 2018 and 2025.

The investigation, led by Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Ramdath Phillip—head of the TTPS Legal Department with 23 years of service—names the PNM’s trustees as first respondents and the party, represented by its general secretary, as the second respondent. The case is being handled by a top legal team including King’s Counsel Anthony Peto and junior counsel Thomas Cleaver of London’s Blackstone Chambers, with local instructing attorney Dayadai Harripaul. Both British barristers were called to the local bar immediately before the application was filed.

In a 21-page sworn affidavit filed to support the order, Phillip outlined four core grounds for reasonable suspicion: that the respondents’ total wealth far exceeds the value of assets acquired through lawful means; that their combined wealth exceeds the TT$500,000 threshold set by law; that the Balisier House property is owned or effectively controlled by the respondents; and that the asset was acquired through criminal activity.

The affidavit centers on two structures in the Balisier House compound: a renovated historic “Old Building” and the incomplete, multi-storey “New Building” that became the focus of the probe. A commissioned report from international consultants Berkeley Research Group (UK) Ltd estimates the total completed construction cost of the new headquarters will hit approximately TT$118.4 million, with TT$73.272 million worth of work already finished before works halted.

Phillip emphasized that investigators have uncovered no evidence that the PNM’s declared legitimate funding sources could cover a project of this size. For years, PNM leaders publicly claimed the construction was financed through internal party fundraising, including cruises, a “buy-a-brick” campaign, a ten-car raffle, and sales of branded jewelry from the Balisier Collection. But Phillip noted that even former PNM Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley admitted in a 2024 speech that small donations from members and regular supporters could not cover the project’s costs, and the party has repeatedly refused to disclose the identities of its major financiers.

Investigators found that construction stopped abruptly immediately after the PNM lost the April 28, 2025 general election. Phillip argued in the affidavit that the halt aligns with suspicions of corrupt funding: “I suspect that the demitting of PNM from office brought an end to the corrupt funding of the construction of this building. This is because those who were making corrupt payments then realised it was pointless to pay further bribes to people who were not going to be in office. I believe that is the reason why the building has been left abandoned.” If the project had genuinely relied on independent fundraising, Phillip added, construction would have continued regardless of the election outcome.

The affidavit also lays out detailed allegations of corrupt quid pro quo arrangements between the PNM and private contractors who received favorable treatment on state contracts during the party’s 10-year incumbency from 2015 to 2025. One key case cited is primary contractor Woodgreen Construction Services Ltd, which initially submitted a TT$68.3 million bid for the headquarters contract before cutting the price by TT$9 million to TT$59 million. Phillip alleges the discounted price was a covert bribe to the PNM, and the company was subsequently rewarded with multiple major state housing contracts, including a TT$22 million San Fernando development project in 2019 and the 2023 Citrus Close housing contract. For the Citrus Close project, Phillip notes Woodgreen was not the lowest bidder, yet received a higher cost scoring than a competitor with a far lower bid, with “no obvious legitimate reason” for the decision.

The affidavit also identifies other suspicious payments: a TT$1 million contribution from Amalgamated Security Services Ltd in 2019, a TT$500,000 payment from Kall Co Ltd that same year, and incremental payments from PNM accounts and the party’s Tranquillity Fund between 2018 and 2021. All these combined amount to only a small fraction of the total project cost, investigators found. Phillip further alleges that companies linked to former PNM minister Foster Cummings completed work on the Balisier House project, and those same firms later received more than TT$37.6 million in state contracts and extensions—including a TT$15.6 million extension from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) just weeks before the 2025 general election, and over TT$22 million in payments from the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) between 2010 and 2022. Investigations into these contract awards are ongoing.

The PUWO now compels the PNM and its trustees to submit formal asset declarations and answer detailed questions about the origins of the funding for Balisier House. In his affidavit, Phillip noted that the investigation has proceeded cautiously over months over fears of information leaks, adding that recent public statements from former Prime Minister Rowley confirmed that sensitive investigation details have already been improperly released. Phillip warned that leaks could allow implicated persons to tamper with evidence and undermine the probe, justifying the urgent ex parte application for the court order.

Transparency advocate Wendell Eversley has launched a landmark push to unseal more than four decades of confidential government documents tied to the management of diplomatic and official passports, arguing that full disclosure is critical to determining whether successive national administrations have uniformly applied existing laws governing these special travel credentials.

Eversley formally submitted the sweeping freedom of information request on Tuesday through his legal representative, attorney Renuka Sagramsingh-Sooklal. The request was filed with two top government officials: the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, and the Chief Immigration Officer. The documents being sought cover a broad range of materials, including internal policy guidelines, formal legal opinions, confidential Cabinet records, statistical datasets, and other official documents related to every stage of diplomatic and official passport processing — from initial issuance and ongoing retention to temporary suspension and permanent revocation.

The filing comes at a moment of rising public scrutiny over the current government’s management of diplomatic passports, with growing public conversation centered on whether decisions regarding these credentials for former public office holders have been applied fairly and consistently across political transitions.

In the cover letter accompanying the official request, Sagramsingh-Sooklal emphasized that Eversley’s push for documents is not rooted in partisan political gain, but rather a broader push for greater transparency and accountability in how executive branch power is exercised. “My client neither approaches this matter from a partisan perspective nor seeks to advance any political narrative,” the attorney wrote in the filing. “Rather, he seeks to ascertain whether the powers entrusted to the Executive have been exercised consistently, lawfully, rationally and in accordance with established legal principles over successive administrations.”

Sagramsingh-Sooklal further noted that diplomatic and official passports are far more than standard travel documents. They are formal instruments through which a state extends sovereign privileges and official international recognition to specific designated office holders, giving the public’s right to know about their distribution significant weight. She argued that there is an “overwhelming public interest” in answering core unaddressed questions: who qualifies for these elite passports, what formal criteria are used to approve applications, under what conditions recipients may retain their credentials after leaving public office, what legal framework governs cancellation or revocation, and what safeguards exist to ensure executive power is applied consistently across all administrations.

The FOI request is structured to cover three distinct time frames: January 1, 1981 through April 28, 2025; May 2, 2025 through May 3, 2026; and May 4, 2026 through the date the ministry issues its formal response to the request.

Beyond the core categories of documents already outlined, Eversley is also seeking all internal policy manuals, formal circulars, and executive directives governing passport administration, rosters of eligibility categories for these credentials, documentation outlining which government authorities hold power to approve, renew, cancel, and recover passports, full Cabinet notes and formal decisions related to eligibility standards, all legal opinions prepared by the foreign ministry, the Chief State Solicitor, or the Attorney General, and complete statistical records tracking how many diplomatic and official passports have been issued, cancelled, and remain in active circulation. The request also specifically asks for records detailing whether spouses, children, and other dependents of current and former office holders qualify for diplomatic or official passports, as well as all documentation related to policies requiring the surrender or recovery of passports following resignation, retirement, dismissal, loss of elected office, or a change in governing administration.

A high-stakes political and legal controversy is unfolding in Trinidad and Tobago after the national Cabinet revoked controversial land lease approvals for private company Blue Waters Products Ltd, with Attorney General John Jeremie, SC, referring the entire matter to national police for criminal investigation. A senior government official confirmed the developments to local outlet the Express this week, shedding light on years of questionable political maneuvering surrounding the 450-acre prime property at Orange Grove Estate.

Blue Waters Products Ltd, a local water company, is owned by businessman Dominic Hadeed and his wife Genevieve. The couple was arrested at their Westmoorings residence on June 24, 2026, during an ongoing police probe into allegations of a conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Attorney General Jeremie, and other senior government officials, alongside alleged breaches of the country’s Emergency Powers Regulations.

The land dispute traces back to 1995, when the property was first leased to global French spirits conglomerate Pernod Ricard. Blue Waters acquired Pernod Ricard’s local assets in 2007, and has held ongoing negotiations with every consecutive national government over formal renewal of the expiring leases ever since. Questions about irregularities in the approval process were first raised publicly by current Minister of Lands and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein during the 2025 national budget debate in October 2025.

Hosein told Parliament that the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) administration rushed through approval of the Blue Waters leases during its final Cabinet meeting on April 17, 2025, just 11 days before the April 28 general election. He detailed that on April 27, 2025—the night before election day—a former PNM general election candidate who worked in the then Office of the Attorney General sent a WhatsApp voice note instructing civil servants to move forward with processing the lease, even before official paperwork could be routed through the proper approval channels. Hosein noted the instruction came directly from then-Attorney General Camille Robinson-Regis.

According to Hosein’s parliamentary testimony, internal irregularities plagued the lease approval process for years before the rushed final approval. Two separate commercial parcels, labeled C1 and C2, were up for lease: in 2019, the PNM Cabinet cut the lease price for C1 in half, while for C2, the approved premium of $50 million was reduced to an offered price of just $22.1 million. Public servants raised red flags over these discrepancies, and no formal lease documents were drafted between 2019 and 2022. Most notably, Hosein said the 2025 final approval relied on a property valuation conducted back in 2010, a decade and a half prior, which drastically undervalued the prime land in 2025 market conditions.

“Why rush the approval the night before a general election?” Hosein asked Parliament. “They knew they were likely to lose power, and they pushed this through before leaving office.” At the time, Hosein publicly called on Attorney General Jeremie to launch a formal review, warning that irregular dealings over public land could not be hidden from public scrutiny.

In June 2026, during a parliamentary debate on extending the national state of emergency, Jeremie confirmed the matter had been escalated to the Commissioner of Police, framing the irregular approvals as part of a broader pattern of unchecked corrupt activity under the previous administration. “This is not simply white-collar crime,” Jeremie told Parliament. “The previous government turned a blind eye to blue-collar crime and the expanding grip of special interest groups on our public institutions.”

In a sworn affidavit filed on July 3, 2026, Hadeed has pushed back against the government’s actions, arguing the land lease dispute is politically motivated retaliation. Hadeed claims that after acquiring the property in 2007, Blue Waters remained in occupation and invested millions of dollars in developing the land based on repeated assurances from successive governments that formal leases would be granted. He notes that three separate previous Cabinets—including prior administrations led by the current ruling party—already approved offers and amendments to the leases between 2019 and 2022. Hadeed maintains that binding legal agreements already exist between Blue Waters and the State, supported by written offer letters from the Commissioner of State Lands, formal acceptance of the terms, and full payment of all required premiums and processing fees.

Most notably, Hadeed argues the government’s decision to revoke the leases came just weeks after he publicly criticized the administration over tax policy and delayed VAT refunds at a public Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association event on March 25, 2026. Hadeed told attendees that the government takes a large share of business earnings without contributing proportional investment, and called on ministers to improve engagement with the private sector—comments that received widespread media coverage across the country. Less than two months later, on May 5, 2026, Minister Hosein formally notified Hadeed that Cabinet had voted to rescind all previous lease approvals for Blue Waters and its associated holding companies, OG C1 Property Ltd and OG C2 Property Ltd. That same day, Attorney General Jeremie notified Hadeed that all matters related to the lease approvals had been referred to police for criminal investigation.

Hadeed moved quickly to mount a legal defense, retaining four senior Trinidadian attorneys including Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to challenge the government’s actions. His legal team sent a formal pre-action protocol letter to the Attorney General on June 22, 2026—just two days before Hadeed and his wife were arrested in connection with the alleged assassination conspiracy. The letter asserts that Blue Waters and its owners acted in good faith at all times, in full compliance with national law, and hold binding, enforceable lease agreements with the State.