(Trinidad Express) Cabinet is close to deciding on a way out of CL Financial’s debts by bringing back former chairman Lawrence Duprey to the collapsed insurance and energy conglomerate.
A specialist team of finance experts presented a proposal to Cabinet almost two weeks ago which will allow Government to execute an “exit strategy” from the “debts and financial mess” that is the CL Financial collapse, sources close the proposal told the Express.
One option is to return Duprey and a team which will include members appointed by Government to run CL Financial and help repay more than 10,000 policyholders who invested several billion dollars in Executive Flexible Annuity Policy (EFPA) financial instruments offered by CL subsidiaries CLICO and British American.
Duprey resigned as chairman of CL Financial, CLICO and other subsidiaries in 2009, months after the insurance empire he built collapsed around him when thousands of policyholders demanded their money back in 2008 at the height of the global economic meltdown.
Duprey currently resides in Florida, USA.
The meltdown affected a number of CL Financial businesses which owned more than 70 companies spread across 32 countries.
Sources close to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s Cabinet told the Express the proposal suggests that government will continue to pay back policyholders who invested up to TT$75,000 in CLICO EFPA short term deposit instruments.
But Duprey and a team will be asked to run at least a part of the operations of CL Financial, it was suggested in the proposal.
He will have to assume responsibility for repaying thousands of policyholders, many of whom invested their life savings in the CLICO EFPAs which offered returns around nine per cent a year (and sometimes as high as 12 per cent) while commercial banks and investment houses and wealth management companies could only muster around two or three per cent.
The proposal is one of a few options offered for consideration by the government, sources said.
It could also involve Duprey taking charge of repaying the Government the TT$10 billion to TT$13 billion it has invested in CL Financial to keep companies like CLICO (the country’s largest insurer) afloat and to pay back policyholders and depositors, sources said.
