An ongoing fraud investigation into the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board led police officers to the facility on Thursday morning where they spent several hours seizing material.
00:00Several police officers from the fraud squad arrived at the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Boards office shortly before 10 a.m. today after almost 18 months of investigation into half a million dollars in missing funds at the TTCB, which had been reported by the Sunday Express in December 2023.
00:17Sources told TV6 News that officers obtained a high court warrant about two weeks ago and executed the warrant this morning. Police spent several hours at the TTCB's headquarters and was still there up to 4 p.m. this afternoon.
00:30TV6 News understands that several documents, including accounting books, copies of checks and other material in question, were seized as part of the ongoing investigation.
00:39A former female employee, TV6 News was informed, was also detained at a Laramene home simultaneously and taken in for questioning as part of the ongoing investigation.
00:49Acting Commissioner of Police Junior Benjamin said he was aware of the operation but did not have any further details at the time.
00:55In December 2023, fraud squad police received a report made by TTCB Treasurer Kishwa Chaitu that checks totaling 548,000 were written to a former employee of the TTCB and could not be accounted for in the TTCB's audited accounts.
01:10However, senior police sources say while the former employee had already resigned from the TTCB over the latest saga, authorities are still trying to ascertain if that person acted alone,
01:21even though the employee admitted in a letter addressed to TTCB president Azim Basarath to being the sole culprit.
01:27According to the detailed documents obtained by the Sunday Express at that time, the fraud squad was probing 63 checks written for the sum of $302,582 in 2020,
01:4015 in 2021 for the sum of $79,820, 58 checks for $115,918 in 2022, and 17 checks in 2023 for $44,925.
01:55During the time in question, checks ranging from $1,000 to $8,900 were written.
02:01Some checks had only one signature while others had two or three, including that of the President Basarath.
02:07Arjun Ramnal, who was the General Secretary in 2021 and is now the VP of TTCB,
02:13and Altaf Baksh, the General Secretary, who could only sign in the absence of Treasurer Chaitu.
02:19Sources say President of the TTCB Azim Basarath and other executive members are also expected to be questioned
02:26in relation to the missing funds as part of the investigation.
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