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.
PNM Elaborate Plot Steals Billions
Call To Disbar Mrs Peake SC
Peake Is Now 2nd Senior Counsel Involved In Fraudulent Affidavits
First published: 1st Jan. 2024
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Rehearsed, Choreographed And Staged Plot to Steal $1 Billion Company With Fake Affidavit Involving Mrs Peake SC
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Common Thread In Many Cases Involving Theft Of Billions
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Just Like Emailgate And Recent Fraud by Vincent Nelson KC, The PNM & Ford Caught Manufacturing Lies To Steal Newsday
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Tens of Millions From Stolen Slush Fund Used By Dawn Ford to Finance Public Criminality With Support Of 1%
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Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice Has Now Been Established
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Peake Plays Key Role As The Attorney In Many Massive Rip Offs
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None of Those Named Incl. Justice Aboud, Peake SC and Steve Castagne Have Been Able to Launch a Counter-offensive Against Chookolingo’s Statements which Are Extremely Damaging
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Many Professional Bodies Have Remained Mute Since The State Is The Largest Employers Of All Bodies
Call To Disbar Mrs Peake SC
Peake Is Now 2nd Senior Counsel Involved In Fraudulent Affidavits
First published: 1st Jan. 2024
-
Rehearsed, Choreographed And Staged Plot to Steal $1 Billion Company With Fake Affidavit Involving Mrs Peake SC
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Common Thread In Many Cases Involving Theft Of Billions
-
Just Like Emailgate And Recent Fraud by Vincent Nelson KC, The PNM & Ford Caught Manufacturing Lies To Steal Newsday
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Tens of Millions From Stolen Slush Fund Used By Dawn Ford to Finance Public Criminality With Support Of 1%
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Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice Has Now Been Established
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Peake Plays Key Role As The Attorney In Many Massive Rip Offs
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None of Those Named Incl. Justice Aboud, Peake SC and Steve Castagne Have Been Able to Launch a Counter-offensive Against Chookolingo’s Statements which Are Extremely Damaging
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Many Professional Bodies Have Remained Mute Since The State Is The Largest Employers Of All Bodies
TTJF has learnt that the founder of Newsday, Daniel Chookolingo, who has initiated action against Steve Castagne and his bunch of pretenders to ownership of the company, has received legal advice that his court matter has been carefully staged managed and manipulated by Deborah Peake SC, an officer of the court and a very high ranking member of the elites in T&T.
This was revealed in admissions of Dawn Ford, a director of Choko Holdings Ltd (CHL), the company that held the majority shares in Newsday, whose shares were gifted by Daniel Chookolingo. Dawn Ford became a director of CHL when her brother, Wayne, died suddenly in strange circumstances causing her to be placed in charge by the slimmest majority. She then set about manufacturing stories about the operations, but could never produce proof of her allegations which was enough to keep her in office to start paying off shareholders illegally from a slush fund. The slush only became known when she responded to a pre-action protocol letter showing massive fraud and conspiracies and the fact that in the decade she was at the helm of the company she repeatedly tried to sell the Newsday shares to Steve Castagne for $8 million dollars when it was worth at least $100 million. In that decade Ford was at the helm, the company paid minimal dividends causing the share value of the $100 million dollar value to rise exponentially.
The shocking revelation was disclosed to TTJF and now shows more than 20 persons who have been identified in a conspiracy to defraud the genuine owners of the company, which may involve about $1 billion dollars when the missing dividends are factored in since inception. The biggest loser by far is the Chookolingo family company, CHL, which was illegitimately sold to Steve Castagne for TT $8 million dollars through a series of fraud which we can now say Mrs Peake SC was a part of, based on these new facts.
This statement of the involvement by Peake SC, comes at a time when UK Kings Counsel, Vincent Nelson, has admitted to lying in another T&T matter involving former AG, Anand Ramlogan.
In the Ramlogan case, the Government has signed a deal with Nelson KC to pay him $100 million dollars if he admitted to criminal activity in order to destroy former AG, Anand Ramlogan. The DPP has distanced himself from that scandalous state of affairs and Mr Nelson KC is currently suing the T&T Government for the $100 million promised to him, even though he has been disbarred from practicing law and his actions have compromised the UK bar itself. It is trite law that the unlawful breach admitted to by Vincent Nelson nullifies his claim.
The new advice to Daniel Chookolingo showing Mrs Peake SC involving a patently false affidavit that she used in the legal matter brought against the Castagne / Ford bunch which was signed by admitted fraudster Dawn Ford, a Castagne lackey. Mrs Ford admitted to paying shareholders from the company’s unaudited bank account for ten years (the infamous slush fund) so she could be illegally re-installed at each AGM even though the minutes themselves show financials were not presented, and therefore these payments to shareholders were a gross violation and illegality. With the allegiance of those she paid from the slush fund and her PNM backings, Ford taunted the minority shareholders to take her to court and relied on her false affidavit that was approved by Deborak Peake SC, to validate her reappointment in the eyes of those she conned from day-one. Most of the objecting shareholders have now passed away, the last one being Francesca who was the shareholder that sent the pre-action letter and passed away claiming she was poisoned by one of the CHL directors for her role if exposing Ford. Francesca methodically produced undisputed facts and documents which showed a sum in excess of $250 million which she directly accused her sister Dawn Ford of embezzling through her illegal and unchecked scheming and fraud. This was reported to the police commissioner and was forwarded to the Anti-Crime Bureau and is being investigated by Inspector Byron Daniel.
Regarding the false affidavit which Mrs Ford has sworn to, it is trite law that attorneys must make sure that very special care is taken to ensure that all documents filed in court must be verified for truthfulness, accuracy and relevance. Mrs Peake as an officer of the court is sworn to uphold the law without fear or favor.
The Dawn Ford fraudulent affidavit was none of these things which Mrs Peake SC, approved as the lead attorney in the lawsuit filed by Daniel Chookolingo. The Ford affidavit accused him of making untold money from personally supplying newsprint to the Newsday to garner support to remain on the CHL board. This was just part of the insane allegations she persisted with to illegally remain on the board. Indeed, if Chookolingo did illegal activities this could have been introduced to disqualify his lawsuit but this was never done save for the fraudulent affidavit introduced by Peake SC meant to crookedly state that Mr Chookolingo made profits which Ford repeatedly used as a springboard to strip of all assets valued falsely claiming she was cleaning up the ‘mess’ her brother Wayne left upon his death. This was part of a diabolical plot to use Ford’s false affidavit and other untruths to taint the founder of Newsday, to illegally keep herself on the board and to sell it with the loss of at least the $250 million. During her reign she bluntly refused to produce the proof to the former manager / shareholder of the company, Mr Mohammed, before he passed away. This kind of false information before the court is universally despised in a democracy and is rather used in totalitarian states like Russia to destroy people.
Chookolingo’s new lawyers advised him that this is exactly what happened in the US case against Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, when he made untruthful remarks against 2 persons in that matter. These two litigants in the Giuliani case, successful argued that the falsities by Giuliani’s were part of a scheme which was used to “exposed them to a life-altering torrent of abuse and trauma as a result of the false claims …”
Besides the ‘abuse and trauma’ which was fraudulent by design, Mr Chookolingo has always claimed that several attempts were made to assassinate him probably by some of those who cooked up the plot. Chookolingo said he was informed by a pilot Richard Eckles, who claimed he knew personnel at Newsday, that he should be careful since the people he was up against are ruthless and have been known to use poisonous contaminants in air conditioning. The crimes to cover up the fraud were also exposed by former Newsday editor Suzanne Mills who informed Chookolingo about the manipulation involving the Ford / Castagne lawyers and the threats against her life when she would not agree to what was before the court. Mills died mysteriously soon after. She is one of about 5 suspicious deaths involved in this massive Newsday theft. But, did Mrs Peake SC even consider that a false affidavit could lead to murder? The information Mills supplied shows the nexus with the Newsday attorneys and their clients’ fraud which will be used to prosecute the offenders.
In the Giuliani case he was charged $148 million US ($1 billion dollars TT), also for fraudulent misrepresentations, which incidentally is about the amount of assets and money that is involved in the Newsday case, an amount that continues to increase yearly because of the initial fraud. Therefore, we now see why various co-conspirators were falling over each other to join / help the Castagne / Ford case since so much was at stake.
Mrs Peake SC has joined the growing list of ‘conspirators’ including auditors, other lawyers, directors, shareholders and even the judge, Justice Aboud, who admitted “entering into the arena”. Justice Aboud, has since been elevated to the court of appeal, T&T’s highest court. Chookolingo has always said that these conspirators are about optics of which Peake SC seems to have mastered with the art of legal flam and trickery. If not for the illegally approved fraudulent affidavit by Peake’s client, Mr Castagne and Ford would have had to repay untold millions in dividends they have already collected. Yet, Mrs Peake SC has not faced sanctions like her unethical colleague Mr Vincent. Why? It is expected she will continue her wild rampage with her friends in the PNM who will continue to give her the multi-million dollar briefs until she is probably stripped of her attorney status.
The last Newsday financial information that Chookolingo had access to, states the company made well over $20 million dollars profit annually since 2005 but only managed to distribute 50% of profits and therefore Newsday had a very healthy cash reserves before Steve Castagne was able to wrest control for a mere $8 million, despite calls for transparency and valuations. Given that small dividend payment which was unnecessary, given that Newsday had already built up a sizeable reserve, the theft by Dawn Ford literally showed that Castagne was paid to take Newsday off the hands of the shareholders in a first known case of its kind. One shareholder asked if Mrs Peake worked on commission and wondered if commissions were legal in T&T.
Deborah Peake SC, like Vincent Nelson KC, has a duty imposed by the Code of Ethics, to vet all evidence being presented to ensure no bogus information was presented before the court. She failed in that the newsprint fabrication was extraneous to the case anyway and was merely a distraction to steal Newsday and, as it turned out, the Mirror and Punch newspapers, which crooked Ford also controlled since the suspicious death of her brother, Wayne. All these assets have now gone to Steve Castagne, his friends and PNM associates. While all this was proceeding Dawn Ford continued to pay off others shareholders to keep the pretense of a majority vote. The fraud was so glaring that she unashamedly sold the multi-million dollar Mirror printing press for $20 thousand dollars and refused to say who the buyer was.
Ford’s continuing travesty is now directly attributed to the manufactured evidence introduced in the court by Mrs Peake to help Ford with the manipulation of CHL shareholders.
The latest advice is that the fraud perpetrated by Ford means her re-appointment to the board for a decade may be null and void and made her ineligible to sign an affidavit and only serves to compound her criminality.
And defrauded family members have said this scheme was masterminded by attorneys and accountants since Ford only had basic ‘O’ level schooling and was a PNM sycophant since she got married to Ashton Ford, former PNM Secretary. Did Peake SC know all this or even cared? In fact a valid question is if her “delivery” of this case was how she became the number one attorney for the PNM controlled government and State Enterprises where she is receiving countless millions more in fees?
We can now surmise that persons involved in several matters where other companies have been systematically ripped off, are oligarch and operatives of the PNM Government and we must now ask, are all arms of the State now officially compromised? It must also be noted that most State run companies are controlled by the said 1% oligarchs through their board appointments. Most of these companies are multi-billion dollar entities which hand out contracts in their own right with little or no oversight especially with regards to legal briefs which are exempted from the procurement legislation.
At as today we can now confirm based on solid information available, the following matters are included in massive rip-offs besides the $100 million dollar promise to pay Mr Nelson to taint former AG, Anand Ramlogan. They are Petrotrin, Clico and Newsday. It is clear that Anand Ramlogan was targeted since he had exposed the billion dollar Petrotrin debacle involving top PNM deadbeat, Malcolm Jones, where the Privy Council already indicated the case was improperly withdrawn by the PNM government.
The PM response to all these facts and the loss of hundreds of millions so far in all these misadventures was to transfer former PNM AG, Faris Al-Wari to another ministry instead of investigating same.
While police and other reports have been made with respect to the Newsday fraud, police action at Petrotrin, A&V Oil and Clico were non-existent, primarily because the various boards of these companies who are empowered to call in the police were appointed by the PNM government and must report to their line minister before police reports. Of course any police report will implicate big PNM people. In any event, even if reports are made, they are invariably sent to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and not the Fraud Squad. It has been reported in the public domain the ACB was formed as a PNM ‘sanitisation’ unit. Therefore, the outcomes of the police reports are predetermined.
As for the disgusting and contrived Emailgate scandal, the final outcome of that matter fell on Police Commissioner, Gary Griffith, who dismissed the fake and transparent emails which falsely implicated former PM, Persad-Bissessar and Anand Ramlogan. The perpetrators patted themselves on the back for this ultimate fraud and misbehavior that achieved their objective of replacing the UNC. Even the UNC was unable to defend themselves because proof of the conspiracies was vague and nebulous at best. This link with various ‘PNM’ attorneys was unknown until now.
The Newsday links providing that proof provided by Newsday’s founder, Daniel Chookolingo has kept the fraud alive and has identified the major culprits, conspirators and fraudsters now amounting to over 20 persons many of who are professionals in their fields. The various professional bodies in accounting and law are expected to be informed soon. In the past, several requests by shareholders opposed to Ford to produce proof for all her false accusations in the open have failed since she and her other co-conspirators will likely be jailed for their massive fraud and con job.
As for the broader picture, a common thread of the manufacture and propagation of malicious fraud has emerged and it is noted that many of these cases involve the same PNM operatives and many of them were represented by Deborah Peake SC, who we can say with confidence has shown her potential complicity and part of a mass conspiracy where grossly defamatory statements were used. And this is being said because of her track record in the Newsday rip off.
It appears from what happened with Justice Aboud and his own admission of wrongdoing (bias) in the Newsday matter, involves the wider judiciary and high ranking judges may also be involved and we say this since the word is that Justice Des Vignes, who supported the Chookolingo appeal was said to suddenly resign soon after agreeing with Chookolingo to hear the Aboud bias and his descending into the arena’ instead of impartially doing his job.
The recent plead on 2nd December 2023, by Russell Martineau SC, “to fix the issues plaguing the ‘injustice’ system” cannot be solved without dealing with the likes of Mr. Archie the CJ, the PM who refuses to entertain several complaints against the CJ, the JLSC who job it is to promote judges or remove them for cause but instead is said to use their power to threaten all and sundry and is led by the CJ, and not the least of the offenders, Mrs Peake SC, who knows very well how to manipulate the legal system. That is the obvious starting point for Mr Martineau if his calls were not some empty rhetoric. We suggest the only fix is for the Law Association to call on all its members to cease acting on behalf of the clueless and complicit Government or some variation of that. That will surely fix the issues plaguing the rotten system but maybe Mr Martineau is part of the problem since a lot of his work comes from the said clueless Government which is responsible for the state of the legal system. The question on everybody’s mind is if this is a private, depraved joke between Martineau SC and the hands that feed him? Almost all the country knows that lawyers, commonly called liars, deal with pretense (bull) which is a lawyer’s real stock in trade.
In all these cases the key players’ fraudulent statements cannot be made openly except under the cover of anonymity or parliamentary privilege where people can be openly maligned. This is what happened in Emailgate where people were accused of conspiracy to murder. New facts in the Newsday matter show that it is the PNM culprits who are the guilty parties setting up others for the kill.
Of course securing ownership of Newsday by illegal means also helps with the plot to cover up the plots where Newsday itself will be expected to carry the narrative with the rest of the mass media. The concept is that people will likely believe the mass media if all them are apparently acting in unison about the evils of the ‘enemy’ and must therefore be true. All the media cannot be wrong! The truth is that the mass media are all prepared to carry all government press releases in a quid pro quo exercise for advertising dollars.
Oddly, Mr Chookolingo said in an interview that he is happy that these illegal events went the way it did since otherwise the seedy underbelly of the One Percent, the evils inside the judiciary and wider legal system, the PNM solid connection would not have been exposed but only spoken about in vague and opaque terms. He said the level of criminality, propaganda and conspiracy is truly astounding and is on par with the grievous events surrounding Vincent Nelson, the disbarred UK King’s Counsel. The Peake SC representation in the Newsday matter looks likely to rival that of Mr Nelson. Indeed, in many instances there is no need to interrogate anyone of the conspirators since the damning evidence are in signed letters, minutes and other documents.
Chookolingo said getting back the stolen company may never happen because of their hold on the legal system and the national security apparatus including the Pegasus phone tapping equipment, but insists evil that currently pervades T&T must ultimately end since many of the players are untouchable and now acting with impunity.
All the checks and balances which are a hallmark of an independent democracy have been compromised especially regarding the Police, judiciary, government ministries and the President who is a known failed PNM election candidate.
There must surely be a lesson in the Peake SC fiasco since she has also been successful in the recent ‘election petition’ and strangely some UNC members have questioned their own lawyers incompetence for failures in that election petition. In the Newsday case, Chookolingo has even reported his own lawyers to the court with no action. He even reported his senior counsel who was a member of the JLSC itself. So, compromising a lawyer seems to be a simple thing and it is why the UNC must check the fickle integrity of some of their own lawyers.
The DPP is perhaps the only independent institution left and it is the only hope to expose what is contained this article. The DPP is well advised to do what he can to ‘infiltrate’ the Pegasus spyware program before embarking on any exercise. The DPP is a constitutionally protected office and he can expect the international community to rally around him. Daniel Chookolingo claims t
hat all the State resources were used to keep tabs on him in order to eliminate him so there would be no questions asked about this billion dollar scandal. He is quite sure that former commissioner of police, Griffith, is very aware of this based on his comments since his unfortunate removal as COP.
We now present a partial list of people who are involved at some level in the abovementioned – other than the chief protagonist and defendant Steve Castagne:
Deborah Peake SC, did she fail to Vincent Nelson KC, admitted his transgressions
uphold the law?
At the top of the heap we can now say that the major player is attorney Deborah Peake SC. It is not strange that Mrs Peake is the PNM Government’s attorney for several major matters where it is reported that the government and their oligarch friends are guilty of fraud and / or manipulation. We refer to Petrotrin / Heritage, A&V Oil, Clico and Newsday.
In the A & V Oil vs Petrotrin, the ruling was so obviously flawed that Mrs Peake had to leave her crease and disclose publicly that it was her opinion regarding the $88 million dollars award in favor of A&V Oil, exclusive of legal fees, that the case should be immediately appealed. This matter is the strangest one of all since Mrs Peake, who represented the State owned corporation, Petrotrin, was going up against Mr Baksh, who the PM said was his personal friend. Her very publicly announced the decision to advise Petrotrin to appeal the A&V ruling was very strange, since it was already debated heavily that no appeal was likely … as this was the outcome Petrotrin desired. The Chairman of Petrotrin is Michael Quamina, the PM’s private attorney. Just as predicted by many, an appeal was never filed.
Besides the false and or fraudulent documents in the A&V case, Mrs Peake was again the lead attorney for Newsday when the founder of that company, Daniel Chookolingo, sued Steve Castagne for manipulation and fraudulent allocation of shares. In the Newsday case, Mrs Peake allowed a major faux pas when a fraudulent affidavit was approved and filed by her. According to law, Mrs Peake has a legal obligation to ensure that all documents filed for her client, Newsday, are true and properly vetted for authenticity. The law imposed a very strict onus on attorneys where they must ensure that documents filed in court are audited and inspected and could stand up to examination before the court. By allowing this false affidavit devoid of credibility and facts, Mrs Peake SC clearly put her legal status at risk. Worse than that, such fraud which appears to give truth to lies could get people killed. Editor Suzanne Mills, who is now dead, is one such person. She became a casualty after she made public statements that Newsday attorneys were involved in fraud against Daniel Chookolingo and she would expose it. It is not strange that the judge, James Aboud, choose not to sanction Peake SC for allowing perjury and or conspiracy to commit perjury which are jailable offences. Mr Chookolingo who the fake affidavit targeted asks if this is this how Mrs Peake wins cases? This is a very serious accusation to make against an attorney and it should now be the duty of all Government and State owned companies to evaluate attorneys who present fraudulent documents to court … just to win their cases. In the Newsday case, it is reported that this fake affidavit was designed to allow the rip off at least $250 million from just one shareholder in share value and dividends over a period of ten years. So, what we have is serious negligence when a senior attorney, Mrs Peake SC has presented fraudulent documents, Justice James Aboud, had illicit meetings regarding the Claimant, Daniel Chookolingo, and we now understand both Peake SC and James Aboud practiced together in the same law chambers of Frank Solomon. Is this a coincidence?
In fact, Ms Peake ought to have known that the sworn statement was being made by a known fraudster, Dawn Ford, since the former attorney for Ford, Michael Quamina, advised previous claimants that he agreed with them and the Newsday shares could not be legally sold since this was not possible without the financials of the company which Ford never had. What is even worse is that Mrs Peake ought to know better since in 1993 she attended a launch of Newsday on the personal invitation of the founder, Daniel Chookolingo. What would cause her to subsequently state Chookolingo does not own any part of Newsday?
Ultimately several cases have exposed the entire PNM hierarchy from cook to bottle washer, which is why certain persons involved have expressed fears for their safety including Daniel Chookolingo who complained that his drinks were spiked and his air condition tampered with to give off noxious fumes.
Did Mrs Peake know that Ford’s false affidavit was totally inadmissible also on the grounds that she was unlawfully appointed on the board for many other fraudulent representations? All these facts recently became known to all shareholders and will serve to nullify the findings of Justice Aboud since fraud is at the very foundation of the Newsday case and fraud serves to nullify the case presented by Peake SC.
All these activities seem to strike at our very democracy and are what the Anti-Gang law was passed to stop whereby the players knowingly involve themselves with others whose activities are criminal in design, scheme and purpose. Chookolingo’s current attorney said he is looking into that Anti-Gang aspect, which he thinks will equate to the Enterprise Corruption laws in other jurisdictions which will encompass complicit lawyers.
Anand Ramlogan former AG Faris Al-Wari Former AG who made
and PNM target deals with the devil
This of course raises the question about how the title of senior counsel, SC, is conferred. This award of SC to Mrs Peake ought to be withdrawn in light of these revelations. So the pivotal question for the Law Association and the legal fraternity is what are they supposed to do with members like Mrs Peake? She still collects millions of dollars from the State after representing some admittedly crooked clients. Will she go down in the history books by defending the crooked people and say like Gregory Aboud of DOMA fame, brother of Justice Aboud, that these One Percenters are all good and decent people?
Will Mrs Peake seek to take legal action against Mr Chookolingo for disparaging her “good name?” We wait to see her response. Is it that she thinks everything is about optics of which she has mastered the art of legal flam and trickery with the help of the mass media that she helped to secure? If not for the Peake SC approved fraudulent affidavits, her client, Mr Castagne, would have had to repay untold millions in dividends he collected. Yet, Mrs Peake SC has not faced sanctions like her unethical colleague Mr Vincent. Why? It is expected she will continue her wild rampage with her friends in the PNM, who will continue to give her the million dollar briefs when she should probably be stripped of her attorney status? In the US, attorney for Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, was charged $148 million US dollars ($1 Billion TT) for pushing false narratives against 2 persons who claim that the untrue assertions “exposed them to a life-altering torrent of abuse and trauma as a result of the false claims …” Was it the deliberate intention to make false claims against Mr Chookolingo? He claims he was stalked and he believes this was by the same people responsible for the fake affidavit.
While Peake parades around town as a demi-God, her bar ID is “GOD1982015”, pretending she could bend light but it may be that the only thing that she could bend is the truth. It is noted here that Mr Chookolingo is in full praise of Justice of Appeal Des Vignes for his outstanding contribution in this case. Indeed, are these cases of lawyers who con others to live off the proceeds of the chaos they helped create? While lawyers argue that all accused deserve to be defended but here there is more in the mortar than the pestle and lawyers for Chookolingo are looking for the attorney connection and nexus that will seal the case. It’s now fair game on everyone as these people now act with impunity.
Meanwhile, TTJF will keep a close eye on other cases Mrs Peake SC was involved in to see where that leads.
Justice James Aboud:
Justice James Aboud is the highest ranking member of the judiciary that has willingly admitted to his complicity in the Newsday case which was before his court involving bias and descending into the arena with the litigants. He is infinitely more culpable than, say, former magistrate Patrick Jagessar who was found guilty of taking bribes and was sent to jail. Now that Jagessar has served his time, he is a changed man who has dedicated himself to serving God and helping people, unlike Justice Aboud who continues to carry on as if nothing has happened. He stood his ground in the court refusing to recuse himself when his breaches of the law were raised. Subsequently, the other members of the bench rallied around him with the exception of Justice of Appeal Des Vignes. After the shock but quiet resignation of Justice Des Vignes based on his principled stand, we have the situation where the judge who admitted his impropriety, Justice Aboud, was promoted to the Court of Appeal to fill the vacancy. The Court of Appeal is the highest court in T&T. Are most other senior judges so willing to toe the line for their prestigious
jobs that this rogue member of the judiciary is allowed to go unnoticed? Has the rot now spread from the narrow breaches of one judge with mal-intentions to the entire system, which banded together to protect the status quo and all those who have benefitted from his admitted judicial errors? These facts were before the court and only Justice Des Vignes could see that. Justice Aboud best option may still be to resign his position as a Judge and implore Mrs Peake to join him by resigning from the bar in order to stop further public degeneration of the entire legal system.
In fact the Russel Martineau SC statement of ‘fixing the issues plaguing the legal system’ is an admission that it is nationally accepted that the judiciary itself is very corrupt and cannot be fixed from within. Is this not proof that a judge who is a ranking member of an elite family in T&T, arguably one of the top five richest in the country, is seen to be more important than the entire legal system? Indeed, the obvious question is who else did Justice Aboud have outside discussions with in regard to the Newsday case? Judges have the highest responsibility since it is well known that in 99% of appealed cases, the appellant is not allowed to appeal on the finding of fact. As a result small countries like T&T where there is so much interlocking interests, choosing judges must be very discriminating since we now see that even non-elite judges are afraid of what may happen to them. Many documents before the Justice Aboud court are now proved to be fraudulent and therefore fraud makes all the defendants arguments a nullity and stands to be thrown out even after-the -fact.
Michael Quamina:
Quamina is chairman of Heritage Petroleum, formerly Petrotrin, a company valued at some 20-odd billion dollars. He is another piece of the Newsday puzzle since he is a political appointee and prior to that was the attorney for Dawn Ford and Choko Holdinsg Ltd (CHL) which was the majority owner of Newsday. He is / was the lawyer for PM Rowley.
Quamina was notably one of the lawyers who ought to have known that Ford was not a fit and proper person since he admitted Ford’s complicity in the unlawful sale of Newsday assets. In another letter signed by her other attorney, Michael Coppin, she also admitted paying shareholders from an unaudited slush fund. She has also admitted to many other unlawful activities during an AGM, including that she must pay shareholders regardless since she is not concerned with legal trivialities.
Therefore she plainly stated what CHL members suspected all along but could not prove, which is that Ford was paying out illegal funds to seize control of the Newsday assets and dividends to illegally sell to Peake’s other client, Steve Castagne. The buyout with illegal money from the slush fund followed the web of lies promoted by Peake SC and was all premeditated to steal the last remaining independent media house. Mr Quamina is also the attorney for Dawn Ford’s husband, Ashton Ford, a serial PNM politician. But the big question for what passes for rules governing directors of State owned companies is intriguing in itself, since Mr Quamina could take time off from his valuable multi-billion dollar State company to represent his political clients. Quamina is also attached to another law firm that received mega business from the State. There must be something amiss with such arrangements when all the people who usually call for transparency and fair play have been silent. Is that because most business organizations also get mega contracts from the Government and State institutions and if they speak out would be detrimental to their companies and themselves? Is singing for our supper what we have become?
What is even more intriguing is that in some of these cases, like the Ashton Ford case involving his dismissal from a civil service job, the PNM Government and AG have failed to file court documents to prosecute him once the PNM was back in office, reversing the UNC inspired removal of politically appointed persons in civil service jobs. A sound ruling would have set the standard for future appointments to such civil service jobs.
Mr Quamina must have known that the other side, the Attorney General, who should be vigorously representing the State, refused to defend themselves which resulted in Ashton Ford receiving 84,600 pounds sterling? Something is very wrong when there is a seemingly incestuous relationship with attorneys on both sides of a case when the ultimate payees is the taxpayers of T&T. This is also what happened with the Malcolm Jones and Petrotrin matter when the AG withdrew the matter against PNM Malcolm Jones with the fraudulent intervention of Vincent Nelson, English King’s Counsel. Almost all these matter are very improper and illegal as the Privy Council has already commented that the withdrawal of the case against Malcolm Jones was wrong but stopped short of recommending action against persons directing that matter.
It is now obvious that the PNM is systematically raping the Government and State Enterprises by appointment of their known friends and attorneys. Further, many of these State companies can offer multi-million dollar contracts to their compatriots without oversight since the procurement laws were stripped by the same PNM. A&V Oil may be a prime example but with the PNM crowd in charges, nothing happens. Additionally, In the case of Heritage, billions of US dollars are now going to import petroleum products instead of making forex available for T&T. In more irony, the nation continues to hear how the PNM saved Petrotrin, when the truth is that the past decade saw refineries make the biggest profits ever made… such shortsightedness!
Yet, the PM is known for making statements that his Government is not involved in corruption and nepotism especially when party hacks are appointed.
Dawn Ford:
The person chosen to sign off on many illegal activities and therefore putting Justice Aboud in jeopardy is Mrs Ford. Her stated position as a person with the authority at CHL was tenuous as best but she was a willing accomplice since she broke the company laws in the very first year. She followed unlawful instructions at her peril since she had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Her rise to the board of the company was based on a web of lies spread secretly, some of which were included in the fake affidavit presented by Mrs Peake SC.
Her various breaches of the laws were reported to the police and other authorities, none of whom have yet charged her. She is allowed to travel almost every month from her new domicile in Canada where she set herself up with a large portion of the slush fund. She and her various co-conspirators including the company’s auditors, attorneys, and shareholders are culpable for the concocted stories which were obscenely played out in the AGMs, only because she used the same slush fund to buy out objecting shareholders in a staged, rehearsed pappy show, she simply followed what her handlers wanted her to do, and presented doctored minutes to bamboozle the couple shareholders who couldn’t care less once she continued giving them money. The AGM minutes show where certain members would congratulate Ford for a job well done even though she was banking most of the money for illegal purposes. That’s the optics that lawyers would have directed her to do. Yet, in a decade of operation as head of the company none of the shareholders have ever seen a company financial but yet she still produced proxies from certain members she had brainwashed courtesy her auditors, attorneys and likely by Mr Castagne himself. This is supported by the AGM minutes which she ‘mistakenly’ supplied in 2022 to continue to bamboozle the one of two who previously fell for orchestrated schemes. She deprived all her opponents who have now passed away but promised to pay their beneficiaries if they ‘behaved’ themselves. She was finally exposed by one of her sisters, Francesca, who refused to believe any of her fraudulent shenanigans. She paid shareholders a few thousand dollars annually and took millions for herself. To top it off, in a few Freudian slips, Ford made up stories that the newspapers were being run illegally without a trademark, so sure she was about her ability to con them after her infamous fraudulent affidavit which has now landed Mrs Peake and Justice Aboud in jeopardy. Shareholder Francesca told her the truth that Newsday was a very well-run organization and became the number one circulated paper in its first 3 years and was gifted to the members by the same person she was demonizing for her own gain, Daniel Chookolingo. The level of falsities propagated by Ford is stupendous which was continually repeated to get shareholders involvement. Ford was so bold that she peddled Daniel Chookolingo didn’t have any input in Newsday, even after he transferred 40% of the shares to the family and all members of the family knew loyalty to facts was never her forte. They were just drooling over the prospect of each getting several million on the sale of the same 40% shares Daniel gifted. In the joke of the century she claims she ran the family business for no salary.
Her many crimes included handing over the full reigns of the Mirror newspaper to PNM activist and MP Maxie Cuffie without a cent being paid by him, while he benefitted from a full stock of newsprint and production supplies and the company’s debtors which was not related to what she said was a sale of the Mirror newspaper. After just over a year of turning the Mirror like an organ of the PNM and abusing all the assets, he returned the company to Ford without any accounting. She refused to supply a list of the assets involved to Mr Mohammed, the former manager who could easily decipher the fraud.
She has recently gone totally silent on the instructions from her handlers and lawyers but not before running the Newsday bus over the auditors, attorneys and other conspirators.
She has not said a word in defense to the damning series of events. The last statement she made at the 2021 / 2022 AGM was that she didn’t do financials because such would have affected the distribution of dividends. Her lawyer, Michael Coppin a former PNM senator, was visibly shaken but didn’t say a word. He is also surely guilty of more breaches of the Code of Ethics which were evident in several falsehoods he wrote to CHL shareholders which were done to support the illegal acts of Ford. He is as guilty as Deborah Peake SC and her bogus affidavit in this mega rip-off. And while Ford initially promised each shareholder several millions from the $100 million she promised to get, she eventually paid each shareholder $400 thousand. Of course there were those who accepted funds from the illegal slush fund once they ‘disappeared’ with no questions asked while she raped the slush fund dry. Her latest explanation is that she bought houses and cars from the money her husband, Ashton, won in his dismissal when the PNM government refused to pursue it. Dawn Ford tells her CHL supporters that Ashton got millions from the State which is why they could live in Canada and buy fancy houses and cars and this is not illegal money but money from Ashton’s UK High Commission dismissal matter.
In fact, the truth is that Ashton only got $736,000 TT (84,600 pounds) which is only enough to pay down on one house.
Ashton Ford
Questions were raised by several shareholders over the past decade about the beneficiaries of the slush fund but they were never answered by Dawn Ford. Many family members felt her husband Ashton was one such beneficiary. His dismissal as a career employee of the government was easily challenged since it could be shown that he was always a political animal as former PNM Mayor of Arima, PNM MP and former PNM Party Secretary and his attorney was Mr Quamina who previously represented Dawn Ford for her illegal decision to transfer the Newsday shares to Castagne for $8 million.
Donna Prowell-Raphael / Jason Mootoo:
Donna Prowell-Raphael, Jason Mootoo
got her retirement package Blatant disregard
Prowell-Raphael and Mootoo were both junior attorney in the Newsday case for defendant Steve Castagne. She was subsequently appointed as the chairman of Equal Opportunity Commission, allegedly a retirement job.
Chookolingo lodged a complaint to the Master of the Court against Mr Mootoo for his blatant disregard of the rules and laws by presenting out-of-time / time barred bills in the Newsday matter. He has failed to respond to those complaints but the Master said she would proceed anyway. Chookolingo said he would proceed to the Privy Council with this further breach of the laws. This was 4 years ago and Mr Mootoo has not pursued his illicit bills. He understands the Master of the Court was subsequently hired by the AG Al-Wari’s private law firm.
Mootoo continues to get lucrative PNM related jobs and was recently awarded silk which was roundly condemned by many attorneys including long standing senior counsel Avory Sinanan, calling it a pappy show.
Ernest Koylass, SC:
Ernest Koylass SC who made improper advice as JLSC member
Mr Koylass SC briefly represented Mr Chookolingo and gave him advice not to pursue his matter against Justice Aboud. At the time Chookolingo was unaware he was a member of the JLSC, the body that appoints and disciplines judges. In his capacity he ought not to have given any such advice. Chookolingo’s complaints against Koylass SC, fell on deaf ears except for the recommendations by Justice Des Vignes who said he could file an appeal to hear the Aboud bias which Chookolingo thought was a quid pro quo in exchange for not pursuing his case against Mr Koylass SC.
Raj Joseph:
Raj Joseph, also got his ‘retirement’ package
Raj Joseph was the most recent lawyer to represent Daniel Chookolingo in his case against Newsday. He was a former judge with the Equal Opportunity Commission which meant he was barred from representing anyone in court but was ‘allowed’ to make an appearance by the CJ himself…which is very similar to the Koylass situation. Joseph was reported to the Disciplinary Committee for gross negligence and deliberately throwing the Newsday case away since all the ingredients were contained in the narrative but not presented in his final submissions. The Disciplinary Committee refused to even call Mr Chookolingo for an interview before dismissing his complaint. Mr Joseph was subsequently appointed as the Ombudsman where he now serves. That position is also widely seen as a ‘retirement jobs for the boys’.
Dinesh Rambally / Elizabeth Darwish:
Dinesh Rambally who Elizabeth Darwish instructing
refused to pass on documents attorney who defended her senior
This duo represented the Newsday appeal in the final local court leading to a Privy Council (PC) appeal. The local court predictably dismissed the appeal. However, Mr Rambally who is now a UNC MP, told Chookolingo after the court of appeal dismissal, that his representation was now over and therefore Chookolingo expected prompt delivery of the files so he could forward them to the Privy Council attorney. He never got those files despite several demands made to Rambally who kept insisting they were sent directly to the Privy council attorney. It was only the night before the PC deadline that Chookolingo received what were in effect the final submissions to the PC. In other words he had absolutely no input and he was also forced to terminate that attorney for negligence. Ms Darwish, who was Chookolingo’s instructing attorney, whose only job seemed to be in defending her senior, Mr Rambally for his failures instead of her client. Ms Darwish now has a consultancy job with the DFC financial institution.
Navindra Ramnanan / Henry Chase:
Navindra Ramnanan who said he made millions
Navindra Ramnanan and Henry Chase were both junior attorney attached to the case before circumstances propelled both Ramnanan and Chase to assume control of the case in appealing the Justice Aboud ruling, this was the very first appeal. After that failure, Mr Chase said he needed to be paid additional fees since Ramnanan insisted he made millions in this case, which allowed him to purchase a San Fernando property for several million dollars and Mr Chase said he was upset at learning that his fees were minimal in comparison. Chookolingo told Chase that he never paid Ramnanan any multi-million dollar fees and he is unaware of what Mr Chase meant. Mr Chase was subsequently put in charge and promptly went to the offices of the defendants’ attorneys “for clarification”. He could not answer what clarification he needed since he was sent all documents in the case. The court was not interested in the complaint about Mr Chase.
Rajiv Chaitoo:
Rajiv Chaitoo collected fees but refused to submit advice
Mr Chaitoo is indeed the latest lawyer who got fees in the Newsday matter. He was retained to give written advice and even though he never gave the advice he also never returned the retainer. Soon after dumping the case he took up a post as a lecturer at UWI law school. One wonders if ethics is not part of his lectures.
Justice Andre Dec Vignes – Judge of Integrity:
Justice Des Vignes did his job without fear or favor
Justice Des Vignes is the hero of the show since he saw the injustice and called it for what it was. It is strange the only dissenting judge went into exile which was probably not voluntary. The only other judge who may have given a fair hearing was Justice Mark Mohammed but Madam Justice Pemberton intervened at the hearing and falsely stated Mr Chookolingo had declared he had issues with Justice Mohammed. She misdirected Chookolingo’s attorney to return to the High Court. Cases before the Court of Appeal are not returned to the High Court.
In a first case of its kind where a judge was replaced by the very same judge, Justice Aboud, after he directed the complainant to file his bias case his colleague.
Others:
Other key players known as of today are Keystone Auditors, attorney Michael Coppin, Cindi Da Costa, Joyce Sinanan and Jerry Chin Lee.
In the first few years that Daniel Chookolingo started the company, it became the most profitable media company ever in T&T, bar none. Its success slipped thereafter and now no longer has this ranking.
TTJF vows to continue its investigation to unveil other players and it is expected that a new round of conspiracies, cover-ups and distractions start before the next general election once these revelations become public. Meanwhile Daniel Chookolingo says he will not remain silent like many others in society and will not succumb to threats and intimidation. One of his close friends stated he will not be subdued by crooked lawyers or kangaroo courts whose main aim is to protect themselves and the rotten status quo as recently spoken about by Martineau SC. Chookolingo insists he will emulate his father by standing alone against all comers despite several attempts made against his life including the spiking of his drinks and interference of his air conditioning.
Daniel Chookolingo said he is ready to make a comprehensive statement to the ACB / police and he takes Inspector Byron Daniel and WPC Harewood at their word who told him they have the power to slap on handcuffs and jail lawbreakers.
Meanwhile, nepotism is now the order of the day which is why every aspect of the State has literally collapsed.
