Rambharat state witness in 50 cases, probed land fraud in agriculture ministry

Former agriculture minister Clarence Rambharat is now the star witness in at least 50 criminal investigations relating to land fraud after he had to personally investigate and compile evidence to root out corruption involving government employees.

Rambharat, an attorney, who resigned as a senator on March 16, citing his inability to balance work and family life, even had to go so far as to identify a person accused of fraud during an identification parade recently.

Last Sunday, he revealed bombshell claims of land fraud during an i95FM talk show claiming he was being lobbied to approve a fake deed for a  doctor who was seeking a $6 million mortgage from a commercial bank, and had generated over 50 files which were now under investigation by the police.

During an interview on March 17, the day after he resigned, Rambharat said he was in the process of finalising his statement with investigators assigned to the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau to support allegations of fraud and misbehaviour in office against a senior public servant who once worked at the ministry.

The officer, who has since retired, is accused of colluding with others to grant five relatives seven lots of land with an estimated value of $5 million.

"On that particular matter we are at the stage of finalising my formal statement to the TTPS based on the documentary evidence previously submitted," he said.

Rambharat has agreed to help new Agriculture Minister Kazim Hosein and Nigel de Freitas, Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture with responsibility for land, to be brought up to speed on the work at the ministry. He is expected to brief them on Tuesday at the formal handing-over in Chaguanas.

Contacted for comment, Hosein said on Friday he had not yet been briefed by Rambharat and was unable to give a view.

Rambharat said while the police had recently charged two people with criminal offences relating to the sale and distribution of fake documents allowing people to occupy state land, there was much more under probe.

"There are many files that have to be addressed and they (ACIB) have shown significant interest in going through those files and doing the investigation and the prosecution."

In every case, he said, he was the witness making the complaint to initiate the investigation.

"That is something troubling. No public officer has made a complaint to the police in my time," he said. Rambharat served seven years as a minister.

"I have been the one in many cases to detect, investigate, compile, present the police service and eventually, when they finish with their work, sign a statement. It means that I have some time in court coming up."

He said he had to personally take action "because there is really a lack of interest in dealing with that part of it, in terms of dealing with fraud. It has become pervasive."

Rambharat said in one of the cases, a person with access to the vault holding leases for state land was making fake documents and selling them on the premises of the government building.

He questioned how "a business like that going on and the leadership doesn't know. They must know something is wrong."

But after the suspect was arrested, he said, people at the office told him they were aware of the criminal enterprise, which had been going on for a long time.

"And that is the troubling part, for it to be going on for so long, and people talking about corruption. I blame the public, because they are happy to benefit from it. It is only when something goes sideways that they may make a complaint. If it worked out, I would not hear from them," he said.

On Thursday, acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob said police investigators were moving ahead on complaints made by Rambharat and two people had already been charged.

A police statement earlier this month said Jimboy Bruno, 38, a checker, from Bon Air Gardens, Arouca, and Devon Richardson, 38, a contractor from Panco Lane, San Fernando were charged with criminal offences relating to land fraud.

Bruno, who works in the Office of the Commissioner of State Lands, is accused of forging a letter dated February 3, 2020, granting permission to a man to occupy state lands in South Oropouche in exchange for a payment of $700.

Richardson is accused of using a forged document in an attempt to get permission to use land at Hindustan Junction, New Grant, Princes Town.

The two were arrested and charged by the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau after a report was made on November 23.

Bruno was charged on March 13 and Richardson on March 10.