(Barbados Nation) Law firm Thompson & Associates has distanced itself from a January 2009 multimillion-dollar transaction involving the beleaguered CLICO International Life (CIL).
In a paid statement appearing in today’s edition of the WEEKEND NATION, the firm, which now consists of five attorneys at law, clarified its position relating to the findings of last year’s Deloitte Canada-led forensic audit into CIL.
The report, details of which were published in the last SUNDAY SUN on February 26, revealed that BDS$3.3 million had been funnelled through Thompson & Associates – the law firm of late Prime Minister David Thompson – to Leroy Parris, former chairman of CIL and its parent company CLICO Holdings (Barbados) Limited.
However, in the statement released on behalf of its attorneys Darrin Downes, Gale Prescod, Amiri Dear, Jessica Ashby and Stephna Greenidge, Thompson & Associates said count them out of any such transaction.
“The present complement of attorneys at law comprising Thompson & Associates was constituted on the 11th day of May, 2010, mere months prior to the death of the late Prime Minister, the Honourable David Thompson, QC, MP.
“We therefore wish to make it clear to the public that the firm of Thompson & Associates which existed during the period prior to May 2010, is not that which exists today,” the firm said.
“The financial activities attributed to the firm Thompson and Associates prior to May 2010, and to which these recent articles refer, are therefore not to be ascribed to the operations of Thompson & Associates as the firm currently exists,” the statement added.
A check with the Registry Department shows that the firm, registered on January 1, 2005, was owned by David Thompson until May 22, 2008, four months after he became Prime Minister. On the same day that Thompson ceased to be owner, associate Onika Stewart also left the company.
WEEKEND NATION investigations further indicate that of the five attorneys currently attached to Thompson & Associates, at least two of them – Prescod and Dear – had a previous working relationship with the firm and were in fact working there in January 2009.
But the statement from Thompson & Associates said “as is customary practice in the legal profession the firm has continued to trade under the same business name, but have also been engaged in a structured and systematic rebranding exercise geared at moving towards their own “presence in the legal services market in Barbados.
“This has been an ongoing process which we have started and have communicated to our present clients.
We wish to thank our valued clients, colleagues and friends who have expressed their confidence in us, and have pledged their continued support during our current restructuring initiatives,” the firm said.
The Bds$3.3 million transaction was among shocking revelations contained in the 39-page forensic audit report by Deloitte Canada, which pointed to a need for identification and analysis of all fees paid to law firms in the period up to March last year, and inclusive of the nature and payment of all legal transactions.
