Prime Minister Rowley yesterday defended the decision by Government to discontinue a lawsuit brought by the previous administration against former Petrotrin chairman Malcolm Jones for the ill-fated Gas-to-Liquids project.
Speaking in Tobago, Rowley said Petrotrin authorised the Attorney General to begin legal action against Jones (in 2011), based on legal advice that the former chairman of the state-owned oil company had committed some infraction of the law that exposed him to liability for $2 billion.
The Prime Minister said as part of his defence, Jones demanded that evidence from the arbitration hearings that preceded the lawsuit should be tendered into evidence in the court case.
He said the previous administration suppressed information from the arbitration hearing, which meant that Petrotrin’s lawyers did not have certain information when they advised the company to begin the lawsuit against Jones.
Rowley said: “Eventually in getting the evidence from the arbitration, it was seen for the first time that evidence in the arbitration makes the case against Malcolm Jones virtually a nullity.
“When that evidence came forward, Petrotrin’s lawyers advising Petrotrin that you no longer have a case that has a good chance in court.
He said that was a case of Petrotrin’s lawyers receiving evidence that caused them to advise their client that the case against Jones was weakened to the point of not having a good case to proceed.
The Prime Minister argued that the current board of Petrotrin could be held liable if it proceeded with the case against Jones after receiving advice from the company’s lawyers about the weakness of that case.
“What would the current board face if their lawyers tell them you have no case and they proceed to run up another $50 million in legal fees, who is going to hold them accountable?” the Prime Minister asked, pointing out that Petrotrin had spent $41 million on the case before the matter was argued in court. (AW) — See Page A11