‘Upon reading those affidavits, I realised that my involvement in Mr Kuei Tung’s defence was more than I had recalled and that I needed to clarify this so as to correct my affidavit urgently- AG Reginal Armour
By Prior Beharry
ATTORNEY GENERAL Reginald Armour says his involvement in the case in which he was a defence attorney for former minister Brian Kuei Tung was much more than what he put in an affidavit to a Miami court.
He said he was not afforded the opportunity to file another affidavit in the matter to correct the record.
Armour broke his silence on the matter in a statement on Sunday. He has been called upon to resign or be fired after it was revealed that he was a defence attorney for Kuei Tung and his partner Renee Pierre in a criminal matter arising out of the construction of the Piarco International Airport more than a decade ago.
The State of Trinidad and Tobago had filed civil proceedings to recover monies from the alleged fraud during the construction of the airport. This case is based on similar facts to that of the criminal case. When Armour became AG two of the defendants in the Miami case Kuei Tung and Steve Ferguson filed an application to have him disqualified since all civil litigation of the State must be brought in the name of the attorney general and he was once an attorney representing Kuei Tung.
In his statement dated June 20, 2022, Armour noted that his involvement in the matter with Kuei Tung ended more than 14 years ago.
He said when he was on a family vacation he was asked by the state’s US attorney to sign an affidavit in the disqualification matter.
Armour said he did not have any papers relating to the case since they were disposed of years ago.
He said, “I therefore had to rely entirely on my memory. As I said in the affidavit which I signed, I did not recollect any details of my representation of Mr Kuei Tung. To the best of my recollection at the time, I had acted as junior counsel to Mr Allan Alexander, SC, and had primarily done research and taken notes in Mr Kuei Tung’s defence and that is what I said.”
Armour said there was nothing to be gained by downplaying his involvement in the defence.
He said, “I had not received any advice from the US lawyers, for example, that the lesser degree of my involvement in his defence the better.
The AG said, “I had already recused myself from the case and had delegated the role of giving instructions to the US lawyers to the Hon. Faris Al-Rawi, the former attorney general who was the acting Attorney General during my period of my absence from the country.”
Armour said he signed and email his affidavit on April 24, 2022 to Al-Rawi for transmission to the US lawyers.
He said, “I represented in my affidavit accurately what I had remembered being my involvement in the case.”
Armour said his affidavit was submitted in the case on April 26, two days after he emailed it.
He said, “I was still abroad on holiday. This was the night before the disqualification application was due to be heard by the Miami judge.
“Upon reading those affidavits, I realised that my involvement in Mr Kuei Tung’s defence was more than I had recalled and that I needed to clarify this so as to correct my affidavit urgently.
“I therefore immediately told the acting Attorney General that I wanted to correct the record by confirming that my involvement had been more extensive than I had previously recalled and stated.”
Armour said given the fact that the affidavits in response were filed the day before the US hearing he was confident that he would have been given the opportunity to file a clarifying affidavit.
He said he was told by Al-Rawi that the US lawyers asked that he remained available on April 27 while the court was sitting in order to answer any questions.
Armour said, “This I did as requested by suspending my holiday for that day and remaining in my hotel room with my phone.”
He said, “The opportunity to file an affidavit correcting the record was never afforded to me. I was surprised to learn that the judge had made an order disqualifying me and the Republic’s US lawyers on 27th April 2002 (sic), which meant that there was no opportunity for me to put my clarifying evidence on the record.
“He made his order on the basis of a rule which, in his view, but this is on appeal, required automatic qualification irrespective of the level of my involvement in the Mr Kuei Tung’s defence.”
Armour said the end result was that he signed his affidavit based upon his best recollection but was attempting to recall events some 14 years before.
He said there was no attempt on his part to mislead the court in anyway.
Armour said, “The matter is currently still before the courts, including my March 30th 2022 recusal and we await the outcome of the appeal as Trinidad and Tobago diligently continues to pursue the Piarco Airport fraud matter in the courts abroad.”
