(Trinidad Express) CL Financial’s former corporate secretary Gita Sakal, has had to pay back US$5 million (TT$31.5 million) which had been paid into her personal account from the disputed proceeds of the sale of CL’s 51 per cent interest in Clico Energy Co Ltd.

The February 3 sale of the asset to Proman AG had provoked a firestorm of criticism, court action and a government-issued demand for a reversal of the transaction which, according to state regulators, was in breach of the January 30 Memorandum of Understanding between CL Financial and the Govern-ment.

The US$5 million payment to Sakal was initiated on March 3 this year; one week after the Central Bank challenged the sale of the asset in the High Court. In correspondence sent to Sakal on May 4, CL Financial’s executive chairman Lawrence Duprey’s attorney Lionel Luckhoo, issued a noon deadline of May 5 for the return of the US$5 million, which he described as an “extraordinary self-made transfer for your personal benefit.”