Moonilal denies UNC/CA data-mining plot again

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has once again denied government claims that the United National Congress (UNC) was involved with data-mining British company Cambridge Analytica (CA).

He was speaking on a local government election platform in Soledad, Claxton Bay, in support of three candidates for the December 2 local government elections Shazeed Nadia Khan-Mohammed, Gangaram Gopaul and Allan “Taxi” Seepersad – on Thursday night.

Moonilal denied any involvement by his party with CA,when the UNC was in government between 2010 and 2015.

“Tonight I state categorically that the UNC and the PP government had absolutely no contract, no business, no documentation, no invoice and no relationship with CA or any of its companies.

“That is the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard,” Moonilal told his audience at the meeting, which included MPs for Couva North and South, Ramona Ramdial andRudy Indarsingh and Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee.

Moonilal said allegations of accessing citizens’ personal information to influence voting came at a time when he was UNC's deputy leader and privy to the party's business.

“No time did we enter any arrangement with CA.”

He said government has no evidence to support the allegations it continues to make, apart from a Netflix documentary and excerpts from a book by whistleblower Christopher Wylie, “and is getting the prime minister and his National Security Minister, Stuart Young, to endorse and advertise so he can sell copies."

He said the book is what Young has presented to Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith to launch criminal investigations. Griffith said the book is not substantial evidence to pursue a criminal case, and his officers are willing to head to England to speak to Wylie, who made the damning statements.

Wylie appeared in the British Parliament under protection to say CA did business in Trinidad.

"But he can’t say with who. He cannot produce evidence, and the PNM jump on that.”

Moonilal welcomed the police investigation. While he is not a betting man, he said, he would wager a small bet the police will never find Wylie, nor will he come to the Parliament to give testimony, as he has been invited to do.

He said for two years, while he was the Joint Select Committee for National Security, enquiries had been made into the CA allegations, yet to date, no report, evidence, receipt, documentation or any human being had come forward to give any evidence..

“You heard nothing, we heard nothing. But lo and behold, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi went to England and met this gentleman. The TT Parliament invited the fella to come down here.”

Moonilal said after all this speculation of corruption, Wylie’s arrival was welcome for him to bare all and say how the previous government violated the law.

However, he charged, Wylie turned down the offer to pay his airfare and hotel bill, because he wanted a television crew to accompany him at a cost to taxpayers of $500,000, so he could make a movie.

Describing Wylie as a “modern-day snake-oil salesman,” Moonilal heaped scorn on the government for relying such a character to give evidence against the UNC.