PNM Tobago Council leader Ancil Dennis has slammed Chief Secretary Farley Augustine for being "disingenuous" after the latter accused him of being "friends" with the owners of the zipline company, OCT ENTERPRISES LTD., responsible for the failed $2.5 million project in the Main Ridge.
At a press conference on Friday, Augustine and John Jeremie, SC, the THA's lead attorney in the lawsuit against the zipline company, said a meticulous initial search using a reputable British Virgin Islands firm, where the company was said to be based, was conducted.
Last week Augustine told the media that the zipline company does not exist. However, Dennis on Wednesday provided proof that this was not true.
Augustine condemned the previous PNM-led THA for getting into business with a company without its certificate of incorporation being recorded by the THA, or ID records for the principals of the company.
He said this left his administration a difficult task as it continues the lawsuit initiated by Dennis last November.
Augustine said that on May 11 the assembly began searching in the BVI for the company and the lawyers were unable to get in touch with either the company or the principals at the company.
“We looked for OCT Canopy Tour, we looked for OCT Enterprises Ltd, OCT Enterprises Ltd – a BVI Corporation, we looked for The Original Canopy Tours, we looked for OCT Enterprises Corporation, we looked for OCT Enterprises Corporation BVI. The only similarity was the name Original Virgin Canopy Tour Ltd – that is what we were getting in May and we continued to search. Notice how long we took to go to court.”
The THA has received two freezing orders against the directors of the ziplien company – one in Trinidad and Tobago and another in the British Virgin Islands.
“A court both in Trinidad and Tobago and in the British Virgin Islands would not agree to put freezes on bank accounts associated with these names and principals associated with these names, if the court was not satisfied that the company could not be reached and that the company was in fact trying to ghost us.”
He said he is in possession of e-mails from the THA Division of Tourism which shows that for more than one year, the principals involved with this company stopped responding to the Division of Tourism.
“They responded to the Division of Tourism up to February last year and they gave some flimsy excuse that they were somewhere in the bush in Costa Rica and cannot be reached. And since then, they stopped responding to the Division of Tourism.”
He said what he finds peculiar is that while the attorneys in the BVI couldn’t find the company and the company’s registration, “after accounts were frozen by the court, all of a sudden, we see that the company has surfaced and more than that, we see that their friends in Tobago have surfaced with their company documents – seemingly trying to defend them.”
He said the issue is much larger for him than finding the company.
“You know what’s the issue for me, somebody took close to $3 million dollars, gav
