Lee-Chin drops defamation action against Trinidadian lawmaker

Thursday, January 22, 2004

TORONTO, Canada: Canadian billionaire Michael Lee-Chin has dropped defamation lawsuits against a member of Trinidad's Parliament after the legislator stated he never intended to suggest Lee-Chin had bribed a cabinet minister. 

According to the Canadian Press, Lee-Chin and the AIC Ltd. mutual-fund company he controls said Wednesday that they "have considered and have accepted" Gerald Yetming's statement to Parliament on Friday. 

Lee-Chin, ranked by Forbes magazine as the 303rd-richest person in the world with a net worth of $1.4 billion US, had sued Yetming, an opposition member of Trinidad's Parliament, in actions filed last week in Canada and Jamaica. 

That came after Yetming said in a parliamentary speech that the government planned to sell 20 per cent of state-owned First Citizens Bank to the Jamaican-born Lee-Chin's company and there was speculation a "certain sum of money" had been paid as a bribe to a government minister. 

AIC quoted him as stating Friday that "I never said that Mr. Lee-Chin or the AIC Group paid a bribe or committed any other illegal or improper act. There was no intention to cast any aspersions on their reputations. I do not know Mr. Lee-Chin and I wish to make it clear that I have no objections to Mr. Lee-Chin, the AIC Group or any fit and proper group or entity doing business in Trinidad and Tobago." 

That statement followed what AIC characterized as "a very fruitful and frank discussion" between AIC executive vice-president Kris Astaphan and Yetming, a former finance minister and bank executive. 

"Mr. Lee-Chin, AIC Ltd. and Mr. Yetming are satisfied that this matter is now behind them," AIC said in a release. 

"Each party extends to the other sincere thanks for the open and responsible manner in which they came together to resolve this matter." 

The chairman of Trinidad's Opposition, Wade Mark, had called Lee-Chin's lawsuits "a waste of time"' and an "assault on our parliamentary democracy," because legislators in Trinidad, as in Canada, are immune to lawsuits over statements made in the legislature. 

AIC bought a small privately owned bank in Trinidad this month and a company spokesman said this week it plans further investment in the Caribbean country of 1.3 million people. 

In 2002 AIC bought National Commercial Bank in Jamaica.  

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