Through his conglomerate, CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey gave the daughters of Basdeo Panday a "scholarship" worth ?119,183 ($1.2 million) in 1997. And this is what, he contended, accounted for most of the "new money" entering the London bank account.
By Hayden MillsSo said Panday, 72, of Bryan's Gate, Phillipine, San Fernando, in the witness box yesterday.
He added he knew nothing of the "scholarship" until after his case began which was when his wife, Oma, told him.
Panday is on summary trial before Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls at the Port of Spain Eighth Court charged with making false declarations to the Integrity Commission for 1997, 1998 and 1999 when he knowingly omitted the account held with Oma at the NatWest Bank, 16 Wimbledon Hill Road, London.
Panday couldn't tell Cassel the details of the scholarship although he told his lead defence attorney Allan Newman QC that there were "no corrupt understandings" or "advantage" given to Duprey by him as Prime Minister for it.
He said he knew Duprey from the 1970s from his days as a trade unionist and Duprey was always politically concerned and he visited their home from time to time.
Cassel pressed still: "These are your daughters. Are you not interested in the terms of their education. Are you saying you had no indication your daughters had been provided this large scholarship?"
He went on, "Didn't your wife tell you: 'My God, Mr Panday, isn't it wonderful that our daughters got this vast scholarship?'"
Panday replied, causing an eruption of laughter in court:
"No, she doesn't speak to me like that."
Cassel asked if Duprey was going to testify and Panday said that was a decision for his attorneys.
When asked if he was "seriously suggesting" that an account held in both his name and that of his wife, controlled by his wife and for the benefit of their children, should not be declared to the Integrity Commission, Panday said yes.
Cassel went on: "Let's look at the situation here-a husband and wife, a loving marriage, three treasured children, the wife has control of the account, although it is for the benefit of the children, and you are trusting your wife to look after the account properly...?"
Panday maintained that he knew nothing.
Cassel asked if he considered the sum small, to which Panday said, "It depends on who you are, whether you are rich or poor. Compared to the fee you collected on my part, it may be small."
Panday testified for four hours in the packed court room.
Through Newman, Panday explained the existence and operations of the Wimbledon account, after giving a history of his political career.
He said he was very bad at dealing with "domestic financial affairs" because he was engrossed with his political life.
"Oma dealt with the personal finances," Panday said, "Oma held the purse strings."
And he insisted to Cassel that is was quite normal for the women in "Hindu families" to control the finances.
Using bank statements, Panday said he understood from Oma that she had a Crown Reserve account at Hammersmith, London, in her maiden name Oma Devi Ramkissoon.
That Crown Reserve account was subsequently transferred to a Diamond Reserve account at NatWest Bank in Wimbledon, again in Oma's maiden name, Panday said, as he referred to another statement.
He knew nothing of those accounts Panday said, but it did not surprise him that they existed because he gave her money and she must have kept it somewhere and not under a mattress.
He said the money would have come from various sources, adding there was an arrangement where Oma's sister and Panday's brother would come to Trinidad. Oma would fund the expenses, Panday said, and when they returned to England the money would be reimbursed because there was an exchange problem in England.
In December 1989, he said he went to London for heart surgery, and was given a cheque from his union's insurance company which, he told Cassel, was valued $85,000.
A joint account in the name of Oma and Panday was subsequently opened at the NatWest Bank at Walton on Thames to deal with his medical expenses, Panday said.
This was around Christmas. He spent two weeks there before returning home, leaving a balance of ?2,300 ($23,000).
That account was opened at Walton on Thames because the daughter of Oma's friend Merle Mohammed, in Surrey, worked at that branch, Panday said.
He said Oma learned that the daughter no longer worked at the Walton on Thames branch and the balance was transferred to a new account in 1993 at the NatWest bank's Wimbledon branch-the account that is the subject of the trial.
That was a joint account, Panday said, and although he told Newman he could not remember if he was in London to open it, he accepted from Cassel it was procedural for him to be.
He said in the 13 years since its existence, except for one occasion, he had nothing to do with the account, which he subsequently had his name removed from when he learnt from the leaks in the media that the Commission was probing it and his "political enemies" were using it against him.
He told Cassel he did not consider the money part of his assets because it was given to Oma for the education of his children and that his name was added to the account in the event something happened to Oma.
Newman got from Panday that from 1996 to 1999 ?163,000 ($1.7 million) "new money" was paid into account, of which the "scholarship" accounted for the better part.
He said the $10 million that was bandied about in the media was "totally irresponsible" and "total foolishness" since it dealt with transfers to and from Oma's Diamond reserve account.
Panday suggested Oma made the transfers as a way of re-investing.
To explain the ?500 cheque he signed on March 31, 2001, Panday said he was in England with Oma who told him money was due to their family doctor, RS Jenkins.
She did not know how much, Panday said, and tore out a cheque from the book and when they went to the doctor's office his secretary filled in the amount and Panday signed it.
Even after this, Panday told Cassel, he did not regard it as his assets. He said the payment was not for his personal use but for that of his wife and children.
Panday agreed that the new money in Panday's account spent on shopping sprees by Oma, on standing orders for their children's educations and cheques for the accommodation, took up most of his personal income.
But when Cassel asked him if the increase in the bank's balance through 1997, 1998 and 1999 from ?11,810 ($120,000) to ?37,033 ($370,000) to ?110,752 ($1.1 million), figures that surpassed his income of about $200,000 as prime minister, would have caused the Commission to raise questions, he said he could not say what the Commission would do.
