The Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL) had lost some of its Government contracts in the face of stiff competition from its competitors in 2015.
That was the evidence of now chief underwriting officer Golbourn Alleyne, when he took to the stand yesterday on the opening day of the US Government’s case against Donville Inniss.
Inniss is charged with two counts of money laundering in 2015 and 2016 and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Under examination from prosecutor David Gopstein, Alleyne, the former deputy chief executive officer, revealed that during his time in the position the majority of the Barbados Government’s business was done by ICBL.
However, Alleyne who was appointed deputy chief executive officer in 2012, said in 2015 ICBL lost the contract for the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to Trident Insurance.
He named Sagicor General, Consumers Guarantee Insurance and Massy United Insurance as some of ICBL’s biggest competitors.
He said BIDC was also one of ICBL’s largest customers in 2015.
Alleyne disclosed that he had met Inniss in 2012 and 2013, where he had helped to prepare Inniss’ personal insurance contract with ICBL.
He revealed that Inniss had house and automobile insurance with ICBL and that he oversaw the terms of the contract and the pricing.
Alleyne said he was also aware of a relationship between Inniss and ICBL’s former chief executive officer Ingrid Innes.
He said it was brought to his attention that Innes was meeting with Inniss in relation to the BIDC contract.
He said however, ICBL had no business relations with a Crystal Dental Labs.
When cross examined by defense attorney Anthony Ricco, Alleyne said ICBL had a donation budget which was used to assist in various community projects.
He said Government officials at times proposed programmes and that Innes had direct oversight of that budget as well as the final say on how the money was spent.
The vice-president and financial controller of BF&M Gloria Legere, also took to the stand yesterday and testified that after she discovered the US$20 000 payout in the second quarter of 2016, she conducted her own investigation and realized a similar payment had been made in 2015.
She said she had trouble identifying the reason for the payment.
Legere said the first payment was honoured by BF&M Life insurance while the latter was paid by BF&M General insurance.
However, she said this was not the norm as payments to the same business were usually paid by the same BF&M company.
She said she could not initially locate the payment or who authorized it, but eventually discovered there were consulting fees charged to ICBL by Crystal Dental Labs.
She said when she called the company’s branch in Virginia, US, she was told no such consultations had been done.
Under cross examination by Ricco, Legere said she had tried repeatedly to get information from Innes, former chief financial officer Kamante Millar and BF&M’s former chief information officer Paul Matthews, to no avail.
She admitted that while the money had been paid to Crystal Dental Labs’ New York branch, repeated efforts to contact them proved unsuccessful, leading her to enquire with the Virginia branch. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb
