Finsac commission of enquiry: Chen-Young, Crawford being wooed to testify
Published:Friday | March 18, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Dionne Rose, Business Writer
Dr Paul Chen-Young, former chairman of the failed Eagle Group of Companies, has been confirmed as a witness to appear before the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) enquiry later this month.
Fernando Deperalto, secretary of the commission told the Financial Gleaner that Chen-Young had tentatively agreed to a video-conferencing session for March 30, but stressed the date has not been confirmed.
He is similarly trying to persuade Don Crawford, who ran Century National Bank, to appear before the enquiry, but said the discussions have not yet concluded.
Deperalto said Chen-Young would give his perspective on the financial meltdown of the 1990s.
Chen-Young's perspective is already captured in his book, The Entrepreneurial Journey in Jamaica: When Policies Derail, as well as a voluminous submission to the enquiry, which he also compiled into a book.
Chen-Young, who has been living in the United States (US) since the failure of the financial group, has expressed fears in the past that if he returned to Jamaica he would be arrested.
But, apparently, he wants to testify in person, albeit through a video link, to tell his side of the story.
Chen-Young sold the failed bank and insurance company to the government-owned FINSAC in March 1997 for J$1.
A year later, the Government sued Chen-Young and his companies Ajax Investments Limited and Domville Limited to recover J$1 billion. Chen-Young was also sued for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and negligence. His assets were also frozen, pending the outcome of the suit against him.
Crawford is also residing in the US. His banking group was taken over by the Government in 1996 and a suit filed that same year against him and his companies, and Balmain Brown and Valton Caple Williams, executive officers of the Century financial entities.
Crawford's efforts to have the Supreme Court decision against him reversed have been unsuccessful. The UK Privy Council, his last chance at appeal, ruled in October 2005 in agreement with then Solicitor General Michael Hylton, QC, that "it was a breach of fiduciary duty for a director of a bank to authorise substantial unsecured loans to companies in which he had an interest, and he should be ordered to repay those loans even though he did not guarantee them personally."