Calls to keep SEC/NCBJ documents secret

CARLA BRIDGLAL

LAWYERS for the respondents in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) hearing to examine the circumstances of the takeover bid by NCBJ Global Holdings Ltd for Guardian Holdings Ltd, are seeking a gag order to prevent documents related to the proceedings from being made public.

They also want to limit comments about the hearing in the press, claiming sensitive information and the possible effect on the reputation of their clients.

Attorneys Jonathan Walker, representing NCBJ; Chris Sieu Chan, representing GHL; and Stephen Singh, representing the Lok Jack and Ahamad families, who are majority shareholders of GHL, are adamant that Peter Permell, a co-applicant with the SEC against the respondents, should be disallowed from making comments in public on the case. Permell is a noted commentator and minority shareholder rights activist who rose to prominence in the public during the Clico Commission of Enquiry.

Permell’s lawyer Ronnie Bissessar argued however, that the hearings and attendant documents are in the public interest. He conceded that his client would refrain from commenting on the proceedings as they were ongoing. He should not, however, be constrained from commenting on other matters in the public domain.

Hearing chairman Douglas Mendes, SC, however was adamant that Permell has a right to free speech and so could say whatever he wanted, but he hopes Permell would be “disciplined” in his exercise of that right. Permell “reserves his right to make comments in the public domain but…will not comment specifically on this matter,” Bissessar said.

This was not enough for Walker, who demanded that if Permell in any way broke this rule he should be removed as a co-applicant and as part of the hearing. Bissessar pointed out that if Permell was removed, nothing would then bar him from speaking his mind, so it was in the respondent’s best interest to keeap Permell subject to the rules of the hearing.

Mendes did acknowledge that the panel would have to consider the regulations as they relate to public interest and making documents public. As it stood, the documents would remain private for the time being. Mendes was clear, though that there would be “no attempt to put a gag order on anyone.

“If the hearing is public, how is the public going to understand if the documents we are considering are kept secret,” Mendes asked. The hearing on Monday, at the Leon Agostini Auditorium in the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Westmoorings was supposed to be the start of the hearing.

Instead, the parties involved spent the better part of two and a half hours working out logistics, ultimately deciding to regroup on May 15-16 at 10 am to resolve the matter.

Last month, the SEC had a preliminary hearing to determine whether the transactions that would have facilitated NCBJ’s billionaire chairman, Jamaican Michael Lee Chin, to acquire the controlling shares in the TT insurance giant GHL, owned by the Lok Jack and Ahamad families, were above board.