Dutch investigators say satisfied with Trafigura result

Some things are “more clearer” for authorities in the Netherlands who are investigating the controversial $31-million payment by Trafigura Beheer to the People’s National Party (PNP) in 2006, a Dutch prosecutor has revealed.

Ronald Steen, a district attorney in Rotterdam, made the disclosure Thursday after the last of four PNP functionaries answered questions drafted by Dutch investigators about the payment in the Jamaican Supreme Court.

“We are satisfied about the result,” Steen told The Gleaner.

But for the four PNP functionaries, the entire Trafigura saga was “acutely frustrating“ because of the public perception that they were “complicit in corruption”, their attorneys complained.

According to one of the attorneys, Deborah Martin, “a lot of damage” was done because the process played out in the public domain at the investigatory stage.

“These persons are not accused of any crime, are not suspected of any crime, and there is nothing to happen to them,” said Martin, conceding that it will be “very difficult” to set aside the view that is settled in the minds of the public.

“It’s a good thing that this was in public because the public will now understand that what was said in 2006 was outrageous,” said lead attorney for the PNP quartet, K.D. Knight, referring to claims made by then Opposition Leader Bruce Golding, who first raised the Trafigura saga in Parliament.

“I think Mr Golding was unkind to himself when he dealt with this matter in the way he did, and history is likely to deal with him in an unkind way.”

Trafigura Beheer, an oil-trading firm, is currently on trial in the Netherlands on corruption-related charges for allegedly bribing public officials there as well as in Jamaica, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Steen disclosed.

Under Dutch laws, a company can face criminal prosecution.

The trial commenced last September, and if convicted, Tafigura could face significant penalties.

The results of investigations conducted in Jamaica and the evidence of the PNP four will form part of the trial, according to Steen.

“Everything is evidence for us,” he said.

Kingston Eastern and Port Royal Member of Parliament Phillip Paulwell; former PNP Chairman Robert Pickersgill; former PNP General Secretary Colin Campbell; and businessman Norton Hinds are the four PNP functionaries who answered questions from Dutch investigators through prosecutors in Jamaica.

There were also questions for former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, but she was excused from the hearings by High Court judge Stephanie Jackson Haisley on medical grounds.

At the end of the question-and-answer session, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) disclosed that the Jamaican Supreme Court would certify the transcripts before they are handed over to authorities in the Netherlands.

This could take up to six weeks, said the ODPP, Jamaica’s Central Authority in cases like this that fall under the Mutual Assistance (Criminal Matters) Act.

Steen and Gerard Borhols, a financial crimes investigator with the national police in the Netherlands, confirmed, too, that after 15 years, authorities there have wrapped up the Trafigura probe.

Borhols, who started the investigation, is retiring tomorrow.

In 2006, Golding ignited a political firestorm that would become known as the Trafigura scandal when he disclosed the $31-million payment in the Lower House and raised questions about its propriety.

According to bank records cited by prosecutors, on September 6 and 12, 2006, Trafigura wired three payments, each for just over $10 million, to the account of CCOC Association, an acronym for Colin Campbell Our Candidate.

Campbell gave evidence that this was a political campaign account opened by a group of friends for his 1993 election campaign.

Days later, approximately $30 million was transferred to an account operated by SW Services, described by Campbell as the PNP’s campaign financing account.

The former general secretary admitted that he gave CCOC Association’s banking details to Trafigura but only after the firm’s then chief executive, Claude Dauphin indicated, during a five-minute, one-on-one meeting on August 23, 2006, that he wanted to make a donation to the PNP.

He said CCOC Association’s account was merely a “bearer” to ensure that the money reached the PNP.

At the time of the “donation”, Trafigura had an oil-lifting contract with the Jamaican Government, formed by the Simpson Miller-led PNP, which expired in 2005.

But the firm continued to lift oil for Jamaica in 2006 under an interim arrangement that was in place although the then National Contracts Commission had recommended that the new contract be awarded to Glencore Energy UK Limited, the company that emerged as the winning bidder.

Pickersgill, who gave testimony by video link on Thursday, said the money was paid back to Trafigura “by a sympathetic donor”.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com