(Trinidad Express) Attorney General Anand Ramlogan has initiated legal action against former Miss Universe Wendy Fitzwilliam.
Fitzwilliam, former vice president/general manager Business Development at Evolving Technologies and Enterprise Development Company Ltd (e TecK) has been joined as a defendant in a lawsuit filed against the company’s former board of directors by Ramlogan. Also named as a defendant in the amended lawsuit is the company’s former manager, Business Development John Soo Ping Chow.
Fitzwilliam is being accused of failing to properly advise the directors on whether to enter into a TT$30 million investment in 2005 with China-based Bamboo Network Ltd (BNL).
Soo Ping Chow is being accused of failing in his accounting duties related to BNL, and failing to properly advise the company’s board on the prudence of the investment, given the alleged absence of audited accounts for BNL.
The amended lawsuit was filed January 17, which means the State is now going after eight former e TecK officials, including its chairman Prof Kenneth Julien and directors Ulric McNicol, Prof Brian Copeland, Dr Rene Monteil, Eugene Tiah and Sonia Noel.
Contacted by telephone last Thursday, Fitzwilliam said: “I think it’s before the courts now and has been for quite some time. I think the matter has been thrown out at the Appeal Court level. I’m not sure. I’m just getting on top of it. So it’s before the courts. I will have lots to say when this is done, but not now. It’s before the courts”.
The initial lawsuit was initiated by Ramlogan in June 2011 arising out of an investment in China-based BNL, in 2005, to develop e TecK’s information technology business venture as part of the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration’s diversification of the downstream industries.
The claim alleged that the six board members failed to ascertain whether the investment with BNL was prudent and in the interest of the company or the country and that BNL failed to perform any of its obligations under the agreement arrived at by the board led by Julien. It is also being alleged that BNL failed to return the invested sum of US$5 million (TT$30 million) despite several requests by e TecK.
