UPDATED | The key players in the Barita/Cornerstone controversy

A bitter fight has emerged between the principals of investment firm Cornerstone Group and a relative of revered Jamaican retired stockbroker Rita Humphries-Lewin.

Attorney Deborah Mordecai Edwards has alleged that Cornerstone and two of its top executives – CEO and founder Paul Simpson and Chief Investment Officer Jason Chambers – used “some level of deception, coercion and/or fraud” to get her aunt to sell shares in Barita Investments Limited to pay for the acquisition of 1.4 million shares in Cornerstone in 2021.

Cornerstone has rejected the allegations and instead alleged that Mordecai Edwards has made monetary demands they view as “extortionate”.

The Financial Investigations Division is investigating the matter.

Here are some key factors in the ongoing saga:

HOW PAUL SAID HE MET RITA

In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Cornerstone boss Paul Simpson said he first met the Lewins (Rita and husband Karl) around December 2016. He said he was introduced to them by Carl Domville and Robert Drummond.

“They were introduced to me, as at that time I was pursuing the deal that would result in Cornerstone Barbados acquiring the majority of Rita’s shareholding in Barita,” Simpson said in the document filed on May 22, 2023.

“I spent about one year and eight months negotiating with Rita and Karl, trying to convince them to sell her majority shareholding in Barita, with many of those discussions taking place at their home with Messrs Domville and Drummond present.”

BARITA INVESTMENTS LIMITED

• Founded by Rita Humphries-Lewin in 1977

• Listed on Jamaica Stock Exchange in 2010

• Sold to Cornerstone Investment Holdings in August 2018 in a $3 billion deal

• Chairman: Mark Myers (managing director of Restaurants of Jamaica Ltd, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut brands locally)

• Deputy chairman: Paul Simpson

• Carl Domville and Robert Drummond are among current directors. Domville is chairman of The Gleaner Company (Media) Limited.

CORNERSTONE GROUP

• A private investment company launched seven years ago by founder and CEO Paul Simpson. Chairman Mark Myers is among a dozen or so core investors.

• Acquired 80 per cent of MF&G Merchant Bank, then owned by the law partnership Myers, Fletcher & Gordon, in 2016. The remaining 20 per cent was acquired in 2019.

• Bought Barita in 2018.

• The majority of the group’s assets are held by Cornerstone Barbados. The group includes Cornerstone United Holdings Jamaica.

• Cornerstone Group valued itself at US$920 million (J$152 billion); net assets at approximately US$566 million; and Barita’s market capitalisation at US$604 million, according to the financial statement up to September 2022.

• The group has undergone restructuring to satisfy Jamaican regulators.

RITA HUMPHRIES-LEWIN

• She was one of the first women in the Western Hemisphere to become a stockbroker, when the Jamaica Stock Exchange was officially launched in 1969.

• She is the first female chairman of a stock exchange in the Caribbean; leading the JSE in that capacity in 1984 and again in 1995 to 2000.

• She spearheaded the establishment of the Jamaica Central Securities Depository in 1998 and the development of electronic trading on the JSE in 2000.

• She sold majority stake in Barita to Cornerstone Investments Holdings in August 2018 (the broker was Sagicor Investments Jamaica Ltd).

• She retired from the financial sector in January 2021.

• She sold $2 billion worth of Barita shares to acquire 1.4 million of Cornerstone stocks in September 2021.

• Rita married Karl Lewin, a retired financial management consultant, in April 1992.

• She is 87 years old; and her husband is 86.

DEBORAH MORDECAI EDWARDS

• She is an attorney-at-law in Jamaica since 1977; and Florida, USA since 1991.

• She is chairman of BPM Financial Ltd.

• She is a former senior director in the International Department at the Bank of Jamaica.

• She is a former executive director of the Government of Jamaica’s Debt for Equity Conversion Programme.

• She designed the legal framework for a US$100 million revolving short term trade financing facility between the United States Export-Import Bank and Jamaica.

• Mordecai Edwards is alleging that aunt Rita Humphries-Lewin was coerced into selling $2 billion worth of Barita shares to acquire Cornerstone stocks.

PAUL SIMPSON

• He is an investment banker with over 13 years’ experience, having worked in the Caribbean, the United States and Europe.

• He is founder, president and CEO of Cornerstone United Holdings Limited.

• He is founder and director of Cornerstone Barbados.

• He instructed Jason Chambers (chief investment officer at Cornerstone) to prepare and pursue a transaction with Rita Humphries-Lewin in 2021. He said it was in fulfilment of a promise he made for Humphries-Lewin to become a Cornerstone shareholder.

• Simpson holds a Bachelor of Science degree (double major) in Computer Science and Geology and an MBA in General Management from the University of the West Indies.

• He is 40 years old.

JASON CHAMBERS

• He is the chief investment officer at Cornerstone.

• He is a former Vice President of Investment Management at the GraceKennedy Group.

• He headed the Corporate Banking Unit within First Global Bank.

• He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies (Bachelor of Science degree in Economics).

• He obtained a Master of Science degree from the University of London.

• He is a director of Barita Investments Limited.

• Chambers led the 2021 negotiations between Rita Humphries-Lewin and Cornerstone.

SONIA OWENS

• She joined Barita Investments Limited in 1984.

• She is the vice president of the Treasury and Financial Institutions at Barita.

• She is financial/investment advisor to Rita Humphries-Lewin.

• Owens recommended the now controversial 2021 transaction with Cornerstone to Karl and Rita Humphries-Lewin after meeting with chief investment officer Jason Chambers.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story said the FSC was investigating the Barita-Cornerstone matter. However, the FSC, in fact, said: "our internal processes to treat with this matter have been engaged and policy dictates that we cannot provide further comment at this time". The FSC was responding to questions asked by The Gleaner.