AG: Granny’s house is safe under Wealth Bill 2019

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi assured that the typical “granny” is in no danger of losing her home under a bill to seize criminal assets debated in the House of Representatives today, unless of course she is involved in human trafficking or drug-smuggling, he added.

At the tea break, he told reporters a new amendment will say the bill will not apply to anyone whose assets are beneath $500,000.

Debate on the Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Bill 2019 saw the AG seek to reassure Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar that the bill respected civil rights and was good law.

By the tea break, the Government had rejected most Opposition amendments. The AG’s acceptance of the first of two or three proposals moved Persad-Bissessar to laugh and say they had finally acquiesced after her 19 proposals.

The sitting was a legal joust between the two, although the latter many times conceded aloud, “The Government will have its way.”

She got him to agree the bill should apply to “a specified offence” as listed in the Proceeds of Crime Act, so as not to seize anyone’s property for a mere “cuss case.” Persad-Bissessar feared that if the bill included crimes done overseas, a suspect could be punished both here and abroad under double jeopardy. However the AG said anti-terrorism, dangerous drugs and POCA legislation all have extraterritoriality, and so should this bill.

Debate was set to continue late into the evening.

In the tea-break, Al-Rawi expressed confidence to reporters.

“I’m very comfortable. We were very, very careful to provide important protection for people. I think the Opposition is starting to understand the protection in the legislation for the old aunty and old uncle.”

The AG said the seizure of someone’s property has safeguards, and only occurs after a process, and is not done on merely the basis of reasonable suspicion.

He emphasised that the bill will not make anyone have to dig up for their income tax data for more than beyond six years.

“If there’s a deeper issue of taxation, that’s to be dealt with under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) not under forfeiture. What was being peddled out there was very different to what’s in the legislation at committee stage."

Al-Rawi said the bill’s measures are not alien to TT’s laws, but was "nothing more than codifying a lot of what already exists in law and court practice.”