AG: Finance Bill to protect vulnerable from illicit get-rich-quick schemes

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has said the proposed amendments to the Finance Bill 2021 seeks to prevent prohibited schemes such as the Drug Sou Sou (DSS) scandal from taking advantage of the most vulnerable, saying it was similar to the Life Sport scandal in 2012.

Al-Rawi was speaking during debate on the bill in Senate on Wednesday.

“It is imperative that we separate illegitimate arrangements from legitimate arrangement,’ said Al-Rawi. “The government cannot sit down and watch thousands abused by fast-cash devices. That would be as insane as taking $34 million and paying individuals under the direction of a cabinet minister and watching nothing come back to you.

“Can you imagine the betrayal to this country? A repeat of the Life Sport structure?”

The Life Sport programme was created by former sports minister Anil Roberts under the People’s Partnership administration.

The programme was shut down by then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in July 2014, after an audit by the Ministry of Finance.

Persad-Bissessar said in 2014 that the findings of the audit included procurement breaches; a deviation from the mandates of Cabinet; involvement in criminal activity; fraud by suppliers; and poor control and monitoring by the Sport Ministry.

On Wednesday, Al-Rawi said the definitions of a Ponzi scheme – an investment fraud that pays existing investors with funds collected from new investors – and a pyramid scheme – a system based on recruiting increasing numbers of investors – are very similar.

“This is not unfamiliar to Trinidad and Tobago. We’ve seen it in Life Sport…We’ve seen it in many places.”

He said the bill treats with the definition of prohibited schemes.

“Prohibited schemes as set up and brought into clause 13 (of the bill) and are constructed to ensure the most vulnerable are protected from the abuse of money laundering, terrorist financing, and criminality.

“For instance, the country knew about in Life Sport, where monies came through into systems such as these. Experts such as financial intelligence unit, TT Securities Exchange Commission, the central Bank, national Anti-Money Laundering Unit, these entities…tell us to protect our most vulnerable. The most vulnerable are exposed to fast-cash devices, which (Opposition) Senator Roberts will know well.”

Al-Rawi differentiated these systems from that of the traditional sou sou concept.

“The sou sou is an African cultural dynamic for micro-financing. (It is) specifically excluded from the bill.”

He said the bill seeks to ensure that quick rewards that have been the subject of advertisements and allegations of criminality, and where people are exposed to exploitation, are addressed.