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  • 5 hours ago


A tale of gangster kickbacks and false companies set up to milk the Lifesport Programme of 400 and 40 million dollars.

It's part 3 and the conclusion of Life Sport Secrets Revealed with Senior Multimedia Investigative Journalist and Producer- Mark Bassant.

Sharla Kistow has the details.
Transcript
00:00The clandestine siphoning of the $8 million quietly divided among LiveSport insiders
00:25and a senior government official was merely the first visible fracture in a far deeper web of corruption and greed.
00:32Behind that single payout lay a pattern of orchestrated manipulation, contracts padded and reassigned in back rooms,
00:39false invoices, oversight systems strategically dismantled and critical financial documents altered to disguise the true flow of money.
00:47Then acting director of physical education and sport, Ruth Marchand, told investigators that six companies were deliberately created to funnel hundreds of millions out of the LiveSport program.
00:59Structures, she said, were designed to bleed the initiative dry.
01:03She also claimed that additional millions were quietly channeled to gang leaders through backdoor arrangements, far from any official oversight.
01:10Marchand told investigators that when she was shown a series of invoices from the companies spanning a two-year period, non-reflected real work.
01:19She said the services bills were never performed and the invoices themselves were not even genuine.
01:25Open quote.
01:25There were different programs initiated by the Ministry of Sport and, in essence, I, together with other persons, created various avenues for taking money out of these programs
01:35without providing the goods and services specified by creating false invoices and other documents as well as backdated other documents.
01:44A lot of the money was siphoned out of the system through LiveSport.
01:48Close quote.
01:48Marchand, in a 65-page notarized statement given in 2021, named at least nine LiveSport officials, one senior government official, and at least five gang leaders
01:59who profited handsomely for at least two and a half years from this illicit arrangement.
02:04Marchand recalled, during the embryonic stages of the LiveSport program, a senior government official made certain demands.
02:10Open quote.
02:11Name called, interrupted the meeting and instructed that salaries of coordinators be changed from a cabinet-agreed position of $7,000 to $30,000 per month.
02:20Name called, protested, and senior government official named called, responded by saying,
02:26I don't want to hear anything. What I want is a CPEP model.
02:29Contract based.
02:30Move them from a salary to a $30,000 contracted figure.
02:33Close quote.
02:34Marchand said that a cabinet minute note 789 of March 29, 2012,
02:38to pay $7,000 to community coordinators, was disregarded, and instead, they were ordered to pay $30,000.
02:45Open quote.
02:46For a while, name called, refused to do anything, as she no longer wanted to be part of the cabinet note and its additional expenses to the LiveSport initiative.
02:55She remained that way until name of senior LiveSport official called, spoke to her.
03:00Marchand revealed, from the start of LiveSport, she was instructed to prepare all LiveSport budgets.
03:04She said, this became necessary, open quote,
03:06as a means of extracting money from the program for name of senior government official called, name of senior LiveSport official called, name of LiveSport official called, and others who they directed should get the money.
03:18Close quote.
03:19Marchand then revealed to investigators how the gangs fit into the multi-million dollar scheme.
03:24Open quote.
03:25It is important for me to state here that name called was fronting for name of senior government official called, name of LiveSport official called, and the gang's, in particular, the Karapo gang, meaning that he was the person who came to me on behalf of name of senior government official called,
03:39and name of LiveSport official called, and the Karapo gang members requested money from the program, which are referred to as kickbacks, favors for the award of contracts, insertion of persons to work within the administrative structure, and ghost recruitment, participant list padding, name of LiveSport official called,
03:57and I, fronted the same way for, name of Senior LiveSport official called, whose requests were for his benefit, and that of his close friends and family.
04:06Name of LiveSport official called, also ensured that he kept a big sum of the cash for himself, his family, and friends, which included former members of the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force, name of LiveSport official called, fronted for himself, and at the same time, name of Senior government official called.
04:23Astonishingly, March and Future referenced the Karapo gang, stating, open quote, names of two LiveSport officials called, introduced the tent rental service at Karapo for $90,000 a month under the sport company.
04:36I was then instructed by, name of LiveSport official called, to adopt the $90,000 payment on behalf of, name of Senior government official called.
04:44The launch of the LiveSport program was budgeted at $1 million. The budget also catered for uniforms, shirts, and the polos of our participants, close quote.
04:52This March on LiveSport was only a front for something way more sinister, open quote.
04:59This turned out to be attacked to block and disguise certain high-profile criminals' direct involvement as contractors slash coordinators.
05:06Example, Jamaat al-Muslimin member, name called, gang leaders, gang leader, name called, and Bombay, whose real name is Anton Boney, a head of the Rasta City gang, name called, and name called, who was from the Karapo Mosque.
05:20Bombay was shot dead in 2021.
05:22Making reference to the gang member from the Karapo Mosque, she said, in regards to payment, open quote, even name called, through the back door, was submitting a lot of bills directly to her, where she was uploading and quietly at different intervals encouraging or influencing the list of items for payment from that.
05:38The timeframe is one that needs to be highlighted and compared to the normal procedure to that of the breaches that took place to facilitate the check for all six companies that were given approximately $1 million, and in some cases, one got over $2 million.
05:52She further explained, open quote, therefore, each person fronted their own million, that is, one, and that was just two weeks before the check was actually printed.
06:02And the reason why I wanted to make the emphasis on the timeframe compared to if it was done in the correct manner, there was no way and no time for attendance committee or letters that I have seen in each file to be produced.
06:14That was a lie, close quote.
06:17Marchand said that in a bit to shield themselves as Central Audit began closing in, LifeSport officials brought in an individual on contract whose role, she claimed, was essentially to help cover their tracks.
06:28Open quote.
06:28Name called came in very late and his role was similar to name called to lie to the auditors on goods received.
06:35It is important to note that nothing was delivered.
06:37All these documents are a paper trail that was intended to mislead the Central Audit.
06:41However, the Central Audit went in person and did not rely on hearsay like they normally do.
06:47The auditors, after doing checks, confirmed there was nothing.
06:50I recall name called was also a soldier and served with name of LifeSport official called and name of LifeSport senior official called in the army.
06:59They came together and produced companies deliberate to help name of LifeSport official called and themselves get money out of the system, close quote.
07:08Marchand recalled the greed of a particular senior LifeSport official who not only set up a company in his name but also paid himself and rigged bids at times.
07:16Open quote.
07:16He procured the sporting equipment when, at the time, as physician called, he prepared quotations and submitted invoices himself to himself till he received a payment in excess of $2.3 million.
07:29Name of company called was not in the business of supplying computers and printers.
07:34This was all a hoax.
07:35But, name of senior LifeSport official called using this company name called and got a lot of money out of the system, close quote.
07:42Marchand said this same individual when he first came to work at LifeSport also conspired to take a million dollars with another LifeSport official in preparing a fake quotation dated July 5, 2023 for printers and computers for use at the Atto Bolden Stadium.
07:58But that senior LifeSport's greed was not going unnoticed by the gangs, open quote.
08:03I heard that name of senior LifeSport official called was building a house in Point Forten and, well, the gangs went up Point Forten and they shoot up some house that he was building around February 2014.
08:14The next day he resigned right after the incident.
08:17They did this because he got greedy and was building things behind their back and not sharing the money with the gangs.
08:23He got very greedy and it angered the gangs, close quote.
08:26Marchand gives a deep, dark insight into how hundreds of millions of dollars were facilitated through the LifeSport program over a two-and-a-half-year period, open quote.
08:35The payment procedure was guided by invoices, which instructed the position called.
08:40Invoices were batched, for example, coordinators, coaches, participants, caterers, and so on, and each was batched separately and aligned to the budget.
08:48The position called would forward each component of the program as a batch to, name of senior LifeSport official called, with a covering memo that simply spelt out the name of the respective component, the total amount of expenses incurred, and the month in relation to which expenses were incurred.
09:03Name of LifeSport official called then sends each batch with a covering letter to the CEO's Sport TT, instructing payment to providers, close quote.
09:12Marchand said that during LifeSport's first year, the program operated without any formal directorship, a vacuum that opened the door to unchecked financial abuse.
09:21Invoices, she explained, went straight to the accountant without a single authorized signature, meaning there was no verification that the work claimed had ever been done.
09:31Marchand added that officials also deliberately sidestepped the tender's committee, creating a system where contracts could be manipulated, inflated, or handed out to preferred insiders, fueling what she described as a growing monster of conspiracy and kickbacks.
09:47Eleven and a half years later, taxpayers have seen no meaningful movement from the police.
09:51Despite repeated assurances that the matter is still under investigation, the file has yet to be forwarded to the DPP, the only office that can ultimately determine whether those accused of siphoning an estimated $440 million from LifeSport have a case to answer.
10:08And so the question remains, one the public has been forced to ask far too many times in this country, will the wealthy and well-connected individuals implicated in wrongdoing once again walk away untouched, shielded by power, while justice stalls indefinitely?
10:24Mark Bessant, TV6 News.
10:38Mark Bessant, TV6 News.
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