‘I will be referring this matter to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and all other relevant authorities’ – Dr Keith Rowley
By Prior Beharry
IT’S a scam.
After announcing that Trinidad and Tobago was to benefit from a substantial grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley now says it was a scam.
He said he even spoke to the scammer on WhatsApp on a number on his phone that bears the face of the Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres.
In a release on Monday evening, Dr Rowley said while he was in Guyana on Saturday the Chairman of Caricom Prime Minister of Belize John Briceño communicated with him that the Secretary General of Caricom wanted to reach him and couple other Caricom heads about receiving a “substantial grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to be distributed among us in its ongoing poverty alleviation programme.”
Dr Rowley said, “I returned a call to the Secretary General on Sunday (whose number and profile picture I have on my phone).
“I thought nothing unusual of this up to this point since the Gates Foundation had made grants to Trinidad and Tobago at least twice before.
“This being so I mentioned at the press conference on Sunday that I was advised that we are to be allocated another grant as described. Today, I attempted to speak to the SG on the number I was carrying on my phone but was only able to communicate by WhatsApp and not voice.
“A person purporting to be the SG attempted to encourage me to use a foreign bank to receive this grant but there would be a significant processing fee.”
He said his suspicion was further aroused when the person on the WhatsApp call attempted to guide him in making a substantial deposit in a Chinese bank as a prerequisite to receiving the grant.
Dr Rowley said, “Having requested and not receiving any documentation and being contacted in a familiarity not normally associated with the Office of the SG I was now convinced that this was a most brazen scam being run in the shocking manner as described.”
He said, “I subsequently checked with the Chairman of Caricom to see what was happening at his end. He forwarded a stream of WhatsApp messages purporting to be coming from the Secretary General attempting to reinforce the confidence trick, through the involvement of this other high office.”
Dr Rowley said there is no grant.
He said, “Please be advised that I am satisfied that there is no grant but that there is a brazen attempt to scam countries through the use of impersonation and identity theft.
“I will be referring this matter to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and all other relevant authorities.”
