John H O’Halloran was known as the “Mr Ten Percent Man” of Trinidad and Tobago.
Johnny O, as he was commonly called, made himself an extremely rich man being hand picked by none other than Dr Eric Williams.
Johnny O, was born in Trinidad and he grew up here and became a member of the People’s National Movement (PNM).
He came out of the bowels of the PNM where they now have the legacy from his escapades.
Johnny O’s influence in T&T was in his power of persuasion that he seemed to hold over the father of our nation, Dr Eric Williams, who handpicked O’Halloran as a cabinet minister in 1956.
Dr Williams is known as T&T’s father of independence and the founder and first head of the People’s National Movement. The political party that Dr Williams founded, came to power in 1956 and remained in power for an unbroken 30 years.
John O’Halloran
Williams appointed his man Johnny O to a series of powerful state positions including the minister of petroleum and mines at that time. From his insider standpoint, Johnny O took his piece of the pie, his ten percent, which he creamed off the top, in construction, sales of airplanes, in oil and in horse racing.
At the time of his reign, everybody in T&T knew about his underhand dealings but nobody could do anything about it as it was believed that he was totally protected by the prime minister himself.
The PNM party was defeated in the 1986 General Elections, losing 33 to three to the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR).
Selwyn Richardson was appointed the attorney general under the ruling NAR party in 1988. He was determined to go after corruption and bribery and went after Johnny O to recover for T&T the stolen funds from the state coffers.
Some of the events unearthed from history were more than 20 years old. However, many accusations could not be unearthed.
Bill Horton as counsel together with Lindquist forensic investigations (Lindquist Avey Macdonald Baskerville & Co) in two years after the start of the case were able recover US$7 million for the client – the twin-island republic of T&T under the NAR.
This was the first time in history that a small island like this fought foreign countries, large superpowers like the United States and Canada and had successfully sued a US company (Tesoro Petroleum) for bribery and was able to recover funds.
This was something to be considered great for justice and for the people of T&T, however, the success of it was short-lived.
It is alleged that a local newspaper was about to publish copies of incriminating documents and letters from Sir Ellis Clarke himself, written in the 1970s, when he was Governor General to Tesoro Petroleum on July 29 1990, including names of top ranking PNM officials who were allegedly involved in corruption and bribery, but a coup was instigated just at that time.
The coup began on Friday July 27, 1990 thereby overshadowing the short-lived success of the NAR Government in recovering stolen state funds from foreign companies and countries.
The headlines that weekend were all about the coup and what transpired after the coup overshadowing anything on the success by the NAR Government and the triumph for morality.
So when our current Government and administration is berating the Opposition for corruption, bribery and fraud, let us not forget our history.
At a time when we should have been able to raise our heads high, accomplishing the impossible, something which the country had never accomplished before, in particular, showing the cover-up by a former government.
The triumph for morality and the success of our perseverance was short-lived and ended very badly as well. It was overshadowed by the attempted coup.
Then further tragedy followed by the loss of one of our heroes of the time, as on June 20, 1995, Richardson was murdered in his driveway at his home in Trinidad.
How many of our true heroes are murdered in cold blood and their murders are never solved or justice never comes?
This is why the current administration and its members should never be so proud and point fingers or get on their high horse to accuse any other parties of being the most corrupt party in T&T, a position reserved for themselves alone.
They must remember their history and what happened in their pass.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of NP. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.
Commentary: Johnny O – The 10% Man
John H O’Halloran was known as the “Mr Ten Percent Man” of Trinidad and Tobago.
Johnny O, as he was commonly called, made himself an extremely rich man being hand picked by none other than Dr Eric Williams.
Johnny O, was born in Trinidad and he grew up here and became a member of the People’s National Movement (PNM).
He came out of the bowels of the PNM where they now have the legacy from his escapades.
Johnny O’s influence in T&T was in his power of persuasion that he seemed to hold over the father of our nation, Dr Eric Williams, who handpicked O’Halloran as a cabinet minister in 1956.
Dr Williams is known as T&T’s father of independence and the founder and first head of the People’s National Movement. The political party that Dr Williams founded, came to power in 1956 and remained in power for an unbroken 30 years.
Williams appointed his man Johnny O to a series of powerful state positions including the minister of petroleum and mines at that time. From his insider standpoint, Johnny O took his piece of the pie, his ten percent, which he creamed off the top, in construction, sales of airplanes, in oil and in horse racing.
At the time of his reign, everybody in T&T knew about his underhand dealings but nobody could do anything about it as it was believed that he was totally protected by the prime minister himself.
The PNM party was defeated in the 1986 General Elections, losing 33 to three to the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR).
Selwyn Richardson was appointed the attorney general under the ruling NAR party in 1988. He was determined to go after corruption and bribery and went after Johnny O to recover for T&T the stolen funds from the state coffers.
Some of the events unearthed from history were more than 20 years old. However, many accusations could not be unearthed.
Bill Horton as counsel together with Lindquist forensic investigations (Lindquist Avey Macdonald Baskerville & Co) in two years after the start of the case were able recover US$7 million for the client – the twin-island republic of T&T under the NAR.
This was the first time in history that a small island like this fought foreign countries, large superpowers like the United States and Canada and had successfully sued a US company (Tesoro Petroleum) for bribery and was able to recover funds.
This was something to be considered great for justice and for the people of T&T, however, the success of it was short-lived.
It is alleged that a local newspaper was about to publish copies of incriminating documents and letters from Sir Ellis Clarke himself, written in the 1970s, when he was Governor General to Tesoro Petroleum on July 29 1990, including names of top ranking PNM officials who were allegedly involved in corruption and bribery, but a coup was instigated just at that time.
The coup began on Friday July 27, 1990 thereby overshadowing the short-lived success of the NAR Government in recovering stolen state funds from foreign companies and countries.
The headlines that weekend were all about the coup and what transpired after the coup overshadowing anything on the success by the NAR Government and the triumph for morality.
So when our current Government and administration is berating the Opposition for corruption, bribery and fraud, let us not forget our history.
At a time when we should have been able to raise our heads high, accomplishing the impossible, something which the country had never accomplished before, in particular, showing the cover-up by a former government.
The triumph for morality and the success of our perseverance was short-lived and ended very badly as well. It was overshadowed by the attempted coup.
Then further tragedy followed by the loss of one of our heroes of the time, as on June 20, 1995, Richardson was murdered in his driveway at his home in Trinidad.
How many of our true heroes are murdered in cold blood and their murders are never solved or justice never comes?
This is why the current administration and its members should never be so proud and point fingers or get on their high horse to accuse any other parties of being the most corrupt party in T&T, a position reserved for themselves alone.
They must remember their history and what happened in their pass.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of NP. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.