There’s an ongoing battle for ownership of the mega-million dollar newspaper, Newsday. The company launched by Daniel Chookolingo in 1993, is getting no media publicity because two years after its launch, the daily immediately became the fastest selling newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago outstripping the then 30-year old Trinidad Express and the mighty Guardian which was then over 75 years old. Both newspaper and their vast billion dollar media outfits have remained silent since the case was filed in the High Court in 2014.While Newsday’s up-to-date value remains shrouded, there was a valuation done a decade ago which put its worth at over $200 million dollars. Sources close to Mr Chookolingo says this is a bogus value which was given by the Steve Castagne controlled board to buy out minority shareholders to gain full control of his company.
WHO IS STEVE CASTAGNE?
A Shady Character
Steve Castagne, who is in late 70’s is best known as the owner of M&M Insurance Company of Boissiere, Maraval. He is a multi-millionaire several times over by any standard with a broad portfolio of assets. His considerable investments include M&M Insurance, shares in a Point Lisas based manufacturing company in the business of melamine production. This company was acquired by Castagne and his then best pal, Larry Romany, former President of the T&T Olympic Committee, under what was described as a sweetheart deal during the Patrick Manning PNM administration, allegedly for his support of the party.
Also included in his arsenal of assets are his private housing developments and not to be outdone, his dubious claim to ownership of most of Newsday which he claims to have acquired via a loan for $300,000., which Court documents show was fully repaid with interest and because of this arrangement he was debarred by law from owing shares in Newsday …that is unless he made a separate arrangement to buy the said shares…which was not done according to documents. Justice James Aboud said otherwise and threw out the case which every Judge refused to look at with the exception of Court of Appeal Justice Andre des Vignes who mysteriously resigned after that brave stand. Castagne receives millions of dollars in benefits from Newsday every year so it is one of his prize “investments.” Court documents show the Castagne Company, issued threats to Suzanne Mills (daughter of the late Therese Mills) and inveigled directors of the company to acquire most of the Newsday shares by highly illicit and unlawful / criminal means. When all these illegalities came up before then High Court judge James Aboud, Aboud called the founder, Daniel Chookolingo an imposter amongst other unpalatable names and dismissed the case without a hearing. Chookolingo has been fighting that case for almost 8 years now but has so far been locked out by the real ‘imposters’ in the judiciary pretending to dispense justice. The most notable Justices of Appeal that denied Chookolingo a ‘fair’ hearing to remove Justice Aboud’s atrocious and faulty ruling are Madam Justices Pemberton and Jones, both fiercely loyal to their C.J. and Justice Mendonca, a known friend of the One Percent.
Lately, he got Dawn Ford, the Chookolingo family representative on Newsday board, to sell him the 40% shares they held for a meagre $8 million dollars which is being challenged by other Chookolingo shareholders and pre action protocol letters have been issue. She admits breaking the laws governing the company that include the non-production of annual financial reports (for more than 4 years running) and subsequently selling the unvalued shares to Castagne for a measly $8 million when she promised shareholders to get $80 million dollars before that illegal sale… 10 % of what she promised. She proudly states she broke the law because she did not want ‘unwanted elements’ running the company and concluded in an AGM the desperate shareholders wanted the small money she offered, a small change like a 10 days in local parlance. Some shareholders are saying that a few of her ‘dumb ass’ and greedy family members just wanted their hands on a little of the $8 million dollar loot she offered because they felt she bankrupted the once thriving company. She never showed anybody the accounts for the company for the 10 years she’d been in charge except to make verbal reports that the company was doing terrific. Some family members are saying she was the unwanted element since marrying Ashton Ford so she could have avoided a proper education her late father, Patrick, wanted for her.
So, now she is unskilled and uneducated and knew Castagne had her crooked back so she could sell him the shares for the measly $8 Million. But they say at least she has a fat bank account and has migrated to Canada where she thinks the law cannot reach her after pitting shareholders against each and set herself up as the only person who talked to many for their voting support. Her childish plot worked like a charm and the brighter shareholders are crediting Steve Castagne with the usual PNM plan to divide and rule. They say every other statement coming out of her mouth was a fabrication and she hostilely behaves in a legal letter that the only way to prove a case is to take her to court …banking that no one the money to do that anyway. She maligned staff and former directors but could never bring a shred of evidence to prove her slanderous claims, everything was hush-hush Castagne style. One staff member, Ms Khan, who sued her for termination and won $200,000., Ford dismissed as a ‘victory’ for the company since when the case came up in court, Ford could not prove all the corrupt things she said behind Ms Khan’s back. But shame on the Dawn Ford sycophants who could not see the bullshit fabrications from the fact that she was basically an incompetent and had nada to contribute. She managed to bring corruption to the family business and sold it for peanuts. The really sad thing is that she never presented a shred of evidence to show her false, slanderous claims she used to stay in charge in order to sell to Castagne, all was word of mouth. Yet, she said she didn’t want the job. The aggrieved staff members, including Ms Khan, who dedicated their lives to help some of those same Chookolingo clan, will go down in infamy as ungrateful and spineless imbeciles who will surely pay for their idiocy. One dissenting family members states he hopes they can explain to their father, Old Choko, when they meet him in the afterlife.
But, just maybe, when it’s Ford’s turn to answer the criminal charges, another Aboud type judge will be mysteriously assigned the case to cement Castagne’s crooked hold on the company…and the country through fake news he is accustomed to. Justice Aboud has since been elevated to the Court of Appeal when just about any attorney will tell you that he never made a sound or truly reasoned judgment. But the sensible minority in the family know that Ford (some of them call her ‘Fraud’) could never answer any of the corruption charges levelled against her publicly as she could take libel action to clear her name, she knew the charges are true and that she really sold $80 million dollar shares for $8 million, in her own words. But that’s another story. This web site will keep you informed as we have inside information on this breaking story.
Castagne also founded TTARP (T&T Association of Retired Persons) which has conveniently made an arrangement with M&M Insurance to route all insurance business from TTARPs clients to Casatgne’s firm. He has been accused by competing insurance firms of capturing a more than a fair share of the Government’s insurance portfolio once the PNM is in office, so this is a major source of his income and therefore his navel strings are inextricably tied to the PNM and friends. Fact is that most of the people he associated with end up on the wrong side of the law, people like Lawrence Duprey and Andre Monteil who was recently ordered to pay $78 million plus interest in a case he lost. Lately, it’s been alleged in high circles that he also brought down Duprey for a personal disagreement.
But he benefitted handsomely from Duprey through his M&M Insurance business which was an agency of Clico. When he served on the HCL board in the absence Duprey, he secured 7 apartments in One Woodbrook Place said to be at substantially cheaper pre-construction prices. When asked by the Express newspaper to comment that he used his membership on the board to improperly buy these units, he refused to comment saying that he already resigned from the board. The government controlled HCL board never pursued any action against him. People very close to him say he has been ‘cultivating’ the people at CCN since that expose.
Castagne is a man who, people say that goes after what he wants with gusto and describes himself as aggressive, and usually get what he wants. His opponents contend that he gets his way by treating people as expendable pawns. His successes leave a trail of broken people who did combat with him. His mantra is that every person has a price otherwise if he can’t gain your support he goes after what he describes as their “secret button.” Every person he alleges has a “button” or weakness which can be used to quiet them into submission or exploit them to their demise. He says that with the right information against someone you can pit brother against brother and says, as a matter-of-fact, that ‘one’ can use such information to blackmail even parliamentarians, so cunning is the man. Despite this, or because of this, he is considered as a key man in the PNM cabal, even though he is not a member of the PNM executive per se. He often boasts that he put Colm Imbert into the PNM as Imbert’s campaign manager for over 20 years in the days when Imbert didn’t have ”two cents to rub together”.
His list of (known) casualties include people like his neighbour, his business partners and his political enemies on both sides of the political divide. Family means everything to him and he boasts about his jewellery collection while his other hobbies are fast cars and boats, when he was very close friends with his Syrian bosom buddy Carlos, also alleged to be using his speedboat from transporting white stuff.
Castagne is no doubt a smooth-talking powerhouse who cultivates people who he deems to be “useful” with clout, position and connections; otherwise he has no interest in plebs or lowly citizens. One former associate says that he befriends people who can assist him to achieve his goals in return for a pay check or under threat and duress. We cannot confirm that. His associates admit that his two notable stumbling blocks that he encountered are Newsday’s founder, Daniel Chookolingo and the late Therese Mills. Mills and Chookolingo both of who were the key executives in Newsday, stood by their convictions in running a professional newspaper and refused to allow Castagne to dictate the pace of a national media company. His onslaught against them was open, brutal and concentrated in the beginning. Chookolingo was the first target since, as founder Castagne surmised that if he remained actively engaged in Newsday he (Castagne) would always play second fiddle with no hope of ever achieving a takeover bid. Chookolingo said he faced blatant and naked pressure and claims that he was being stalked which caused his resignation from the board. Back then he said he learnt that a ‘hit’ was put out on him.
One of his main tactics is to put financial pressure on his opponents and this was what Chookolingo faced from this battle-hardened and skilled adversary. Court documents show that Chookolingo was challenged in the board room by Castagne who sought his own legal advice (from Russel Martineau) which the board dismissed out of hand as a “bogus” challenge from Castagne. That made Castagne furious and more determined to get rid of Chookolingo. Mills was his next target for removal. When she cooperated with Chookolingo to boot Castagne from the position of Chairman of the board, a number of trumped-up charges were levelled against her and she was soon after reported to the fraud squad for alleged financial irregularities which he could not substantiate when called upon to do so by the fraud squad who Castagne called in. He is the consummate bluffer, something his foes describe as a disgusting trait.
Castagne – Man of Connections: His friends are a who’s who in Trinidad and Tobago. His close friends are people like Media man Peter Pena, the Gerald Montano family, Stollmeyers, Inglefields, DeFreitas, Ferreiras (Furness), Anthony Sabga and the Syrian clan and the list goes on.
Chookolingo remembers Castagne picking up his phone and calling Monteil (then chairman of T&TEC) to get around the Commission’s procedures. This is Castagne’s strong suit, a man with connections anywhere which is an invaluable asset to the PNM and why he can virtually exercise a level of control in the party by remote control, a man more powerful than the legendary Calder Hart in his heyday.
His Maraval office is seen as a local PNM party group which is frequented by the likes of party zealots like Ferdi Ferreira. As for Monteil, a former Clico jefe, his record is just as tainted as that of his enduring friend, Steve Castagne. Monteil managed to lend himself $100 million dollars from State owned Home Mortgage Bank while he was the chairman, to buy shares in the very same organisation.
Monteil, Lawrence Duprey and Castagne must have gone to the same school, since Duprey managed to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to himself from Clico that just about bankrupted T&T’s biggest company as we learnt from the Commission of Inquiry. After fleeing to Florida, Duprey nominated Castagne to look after his interest on Clico’s board. One of their common modus operandi (MO) is to offer to buy out a company, say for $20 million and on the eve of closing tell the seller that the bank would only approve $15 million, so that offer is hereby revised to $15 million. Like with the owner of Stetchers who already planned his retirement and made a down payments on his retirement home abroad, they accept the “lower rip-off” price. Another strategy is to cause strife between shareholders and cause them to sell at fire sale prices. To this end they have no compunction or scruples to make a few million dollars.
Corruption, Friendships and the Parasitic Oligarchy
But long before all these shenanigans, Castagne’s name was called in scandals throughout the length and breadth of T&T. One of his first public encounters with corruption allegations was when he landed a multi-million dollar deal from Patrick Manning to outfit a gym at the PM’s official residence around 1991. He later revealed that he figured out how to handle these situations and his best defense was to cultivate journalist. He felt that his image could use a boost from a paper that was seen as defender of the “small Man” and decided to call the Mirror newspaper for help. He went directly to former coup-maker, Raffique Shah, Mirror’s then managing editor. Shah was a willing pawn in the game and later would become a key media contact for the Clico Group, back then M&M was an agent for Clico. Clico would send him hampers and offer him the first crack at certain stories amongst other things. One of Castagne’s former friends insists that he confided that he always respected the media because in the 1980’s, many years before his “gym” troubles, he had started a company that featured negatively in the Bomb newspaper, and he was forced to close down the company because of that “damaging” article. He said he learnt a valuable lesson then about the influence and reach of the media and vowed to own a piece of it one day. But in 1991, Shah was his ticket to cleaning up his “gym” image and was a willingly participant as he maybe saw grand things for himself. Castagne was offered full support of the Mirror’s newsroom. Later on Shah would suggest to Daniel Chookolingo that Castagne would be a valuable addition to the Newsday board, a fateful invitation which Chookolingo accepted without knowing the full facts about Castagne’s colourful past. Chookolingo would later fall out with Shah’s over his “connections” and his selling out to Castagne. This would lead to Shah hightailing it to the Express to continue his “PR journalism and hatchet jobs”. Incidentally, Shah fell out with his “forever” friend and former comrade (a term he enjoys with his labour friends) Basdeo Panday and amusingly later criticised Panday for his friendship of the parasitic oligarchy, a term that Panday himself popularised. As it turned out, Shah’s “forever” friend (Panday) became his worst enemy because he said Panday was a tool of the parasitic oligarchy. That was then, later on Shah would accept ‘offers’ from the parasitic oligarchy who then became his new best friends. We guess that politics and now trade unionism and journalism have a morality of their own. And as for Steve Castagne who likes to refer to himself as aggressive in a familiar way, a misplaced and false term when what he really is is a ‘bad john’ law breaker as we have seen time and time again.
One of Steve Castagne’s notable ‘achievements’ was the Piarco Pegasus / PRIDE project when he was a director. Because of huge question marks over the tendering process, P.M. Patrick Manning scrapped the entire project and appointed Justice George Collymore to do an investigation. This Collymore investigation, not surprisingly like many, went silent.
Another major scandal involved an investigation launched by then Finance Minister, Wendell Mottley, based on questions raised by the opposition when they discovered that bogus insurance certificates were being issued to M&M Insurance Brokers. The certificates carried the signature of Castagne himself. The certificates were being used to qualify for lucrative state insurance contracts causing Bertrand Doyle to resign his two posts over the disgraceful issue. Doyle fizzled from the scene under the scandal.
If Castagne’s history is anything to go by, his determination to take over Newsday and the details and facts that are coming out is indeed a frightening and ominous situation for the country in general and the media in particular. And while he was positioned to grab Newsday it is known that he has deep connections with almost all senior journalist in the other media houses. In fact Castagne is so farce and buffoonery with himself that on exiting his political appointment as Chairman of the Diego Martin Regional Corp. in 2010, he told incoming members of the Corporation that must leave politics out of their mind…such a great pretender he is. Even if half of what is said about him here is factual, this makes him the biggest crook ever to live in T&T and walk the corridors of power and supposedly elicits the support of spineless bureaucrats. His notorious M.O., make the allegations against Calder Hart and known crook Johnny O’Halloran look like kindergarten stuff. Yet he thrives in the face of all the scandals.
With the disgraceful behavior exhibited, many feel that we might just abandon the words of our National Anthem, written by Patrick Castagne, “with boundless faith in or destiny …and may God bless our nation” and replace it with the watchword adopted by his son which goes something like “with boundless faith and devotion to our almighty dollar and greed forever more.
CASTAGNE’S FAMILY PAST
Speaking about his father, Patrick, here’s a juicy tidbit.
There’s a long history behind the name Castagne that Steve’s father got handed down from his forefathers.
Their history is really of Spanish origin not Portuguese like most of his ilk in T&T. In 1502 the grouping known as the Moriso Families who were Muslims were given the ultimatum by the Spanish State to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. Some of the Moriso group stayed and changed their names so as not to attract attention but still practice Islam. The Morisos took up arms and declared a homeland somewhere between 1560 and 1600 while some hid from authorities like modern day immigrants do.
By 1609 the balance of the Moriso grouping faced complete expulsion from Spain and were not given the option to ‘hide’ their Muslim background even though they changed their names.
The Moriso families eventually mixed with the Christian elites as a way to distance themselves from their Muslim heritage.
Later on in the 1700’s many of the Muslim families were deported from Spain. It is here where the Castagne ancestors were evicted from Spain after expulsion from their ‘homeland’
This is essentially what happened with the Lebanese / Syrian, who Castagne discovered he had a lot in common with during the past couple of decades. They are now commonly called the One Percenters, which was embraced by Mario Sabga- Aboud in a CNN program. These ‘Trini’ Lebanese community who are now Christians and who have abandoned their Islamic roots although a couple hundred years after their Spanish Muslim compatriots. Their primary reason as history tells us: Christians were the victors and the Muslims did not want to be marginalized and slaughtered by the superior powers.
Strange thing is that these neo-Christians (Lebanese / Syrians, Castagne and many others) of the 21st century Trinidad ended up fully embracing Christianity and the psychology of Massa and abandoning their true roots and their humanity.
But, it’s not known exactly when the Castagne clan came to the Americas but they ended up in Guyana for decades. Guyana was the proverbial backwater unlike the thriving Spain that was at the top of their power when the Castagne clan was forced into exile. Life was hard in Guyana, harder than most places.
The pull of the homeland kept tugging at Patrick Castagne.
As a little boy Steve and the entire family were uprooted as Patrick sought to reintegrate into the Spanish homeland of his ancestors. Life was hard there too and Patrick, the man who composed the national anthem who by some accounts was a decent man, did not get the welcome mat rolled out like he expected.
Shortly after, he surmised that life in the Caribbean, though hard, was better than Spain and the coloured were often at each other’s throats anyway, caused by the ‘divide and rule’ tactics of the various colonial powers. The main ruses were to pit Muslim against Hindus, Indians against Africans and vice versa. Patrick thought he could fit himself in a fractured society. In T&T, the situation soon arose that saw T&T gaining independence from Britain. It’s now history that he joined forces with the PNM, that party that attracted most of the whites because they saw a way to remain relevant since the British had all the fight taken away from them with so many of the former ‘dependencies’ becoming independent. Many of the remnants of Colonial sought refuge in Eric Williams’ party who welcomed them with open arms thinking that Massa was now subservient to him. Eric could not misjudge the situation more wrong. The rest is history as the likes of Johnny O’Halloran became exposed. Most remained obscured with the knowledge that the outdated T&T laws could do them nothing especially with a bright attorney at your side, even if you get caught.
But, back to the modern day T&T, the remnants of the colonial days had now ensconced themselves safely in the party that ruled the country with impunity with over thirty unbroken years, the PNM. The petro dollars shared freely with no real or meaningful development. Corruption was endemic. The colonial ‘inheritors’ (now called the One Percenters) knew that one sure way to keep the State resources freely accessible was to wine and dine the party leaders as Johnny O’Halloran had done to the PNM top brass. They encouraged the locals to party their lives away.
Castagne knew all this and positioned himself to cash in on it and was soon seen as a facilitator of the Government crooks, or as he would often say “I’m a businessman”. He was an oligarch like none that came before him, not even the colonials he first set-out to emulate. Basically, Steve is known as a man of little moral and spiritual values and spent a large part of his life hiding from his true Islamic identity. Money is his God and one wonders if his ancestors would approve of his methods. It would be interesting to know what his daughter, Isabel Castagne-Hay, who he is training to take over his questionable empire, would feel about her father’s activities as she must know the truth. But, truth be told, he is really no different from the slaves and indentured laborers that found themselves in the Caribbean.
Castagne is now being dubbed the ‘Trinidad Putin’ by those who know of his antics. His bad dog, bullying ways are based on his incessant pursuit of all those he perceives don’t like him or intend to do him wrong and sometimes to cover his tracks. Even though we’d like to call him Kingpin #1 after the name PM Manning is said to have dubbed him and lost the battle to his ugly way of getting rid of people.
The OWTU for all intents and purposes have been dealt a death blow with the closure of Petrotrin and they have all but gone silent except for the on and off media conferences. Even their political leader, David Abdullah, seems to be at odds with his one time media man Raffique Shah, who now spends all his time defending Dr Rowley. Not too long ago, Abdullah had to state that Shah was not properly acquainted with the Petrotrin closure which is why Shah recommended closure of that oil facility.
People who know Castagne say he has signalled his intention to spread his illicit ways to the land of his birth, Guyana. His first course of action is to set up his connections with the telephone companies that everybody know is how you compromise people and get them to do whatever you dictate.
The One Percent playbook which seems to have been used by Castagne successfully in T&T, which is to strikes at the media and police and lastly the courts and the political leaders. And voila, all areas of control of the country are sealed off.
Talk in his support groups is that the next big money spinner is organ transplanting, which has billions of dollars in it. Set to be more lucrative than drugs, legal and illegal. The TT Putin misguided and illicit view of the world where everyone has a price so they can do his bidding. These are the quintessential oligarchs.
Isabel Castagne-Hay,
Must know the truth.
