The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has been given more time by the High Court to review the long-awaited Commission of Enquiry report into the collapse of CL Financial, as civil proceedings against former executives move forward.
00:00The Central Bank of Trinidad-Antitobago has been granted additional time to reassess its decades-long civil case
00:07against former executives of the CL Financial Group following the tabling of the Commission of Inquiry report in Parliament on Friday.
00:16When the matter was called before Justice Robin Mohamed today, the court approved the central bank's application for an adjournment until January 26, 2026.
00:28The bank says it will review the 676-page report to determine whether the findings have any bearing on the ongoing High Court proceedings against former CL Financial officers.
00:41The civil action formally commenced earlier this month and is expected to span more than a month with dozens of witnesses slated to testify.
00:49The central bank, largely through the Trinidad-Antitobago Deposit Insurance Corporation, has pursued extensive legal action against executives and entities within the failed CL Financial Group since its collapse in 2009.
01:05Those actions seek to recover billions of dollars and have centered on allegations of mismanagement, breaches of fiduciary duty, and fraudulent asset transfers.
01:15Key figures, including former CL Financial Chairman Lawrence Dupree, remain the subject of ongoing litigation.
01:23On Friday, Attorney General John Jeremy, Senior Counsel, revealed that the state spent approximately $28 billion to rescue the group,
01:32with billions more incurred in legal, accounting, and administrative costs.
01:37Jeremy also confirmed that the state has discontinued its investigation into the matter,
01:42noting that any decision to continue criminal investigations now rests solely with the Director of Public Prosecution's Senior Counsel, Roger Gaspard,
01:52who has not yet commented publicly.
01:55The Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Sir Anthony Coleman, concluded that state intervention following the collapse of CL Financial was unavoidable in order to prevent a wider financial and economic crisis.
02:07The 2009 collapse of CLECO, a major subsidiary of CL Financial, sent shockwaves across Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.
02:18The failure was linked to high-risk investments, excessive leverage, and regulatory weaknesses compounded by the global financial crisis.
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