A POWERFUL man in the Ministry of Finance, more precisely Central Bank, has put James Michel in another quandary that Michel does not know where to turn to again. You would not believe this stupid man has arranged for another loan of Euro 50 million with Lehman Brothers. Apparently Lehman Brothers was told that the loan was for SEPEC, but instead the loan was to pay Cable & Wireless and Seychelles Breweries to repatriate their blocked funds in Seychelles.
This arrangement was secretly done without informing the Finance Minister and any other Minister and people at the Ministry of Finance, especially Affif. Both Danny and Affif are pulling their hair out over this mess and have refused to sign any document on behalf of the Government. The gap between the top financial man and the two main financial institutions in the country are opening wider as the fight carries on.
According to the arrangement, the Government would purchase the Seychelles Rupees deposits from Cable & Wireless and Seychelles Breweries against the Euro 50 million. The interest rate agreed was 10.5% p.a. The cow 'dang' has hit the fan and the whole country as a whole will become implicated in this mess, because according to the Finance Regulations, the Government had to publish this new borrowing in the Official Gazette by the 14th April 2008, failing which, there would have been a penalty of Euro 32 million. This information was not published and the Company behind the loan had no choice but to impose a hefty penalty of Euro 32 million. The whole thing has become a nightmare for James Michel and his cabinet of ministers, when he realized the mess his once right hand man has brought upon his administration.
The country has now an additional burden of Euro 82 million, all this when the country cannot afford to service even the interest cost on our loans. Albert Rene has been kept in the dark about the entire mess because he never wanted to help Cable and Seybrew. To make matters worse, they have published in the Official Gazette US$20 million for the SEPEC borrowing, which is not the case. This is just to confuse Lehman Brothers that they have published something for SEPEC with the hope to use the official gazette as a scapegoat for the mistake in that dirty business.
Affif and Danny are fuming with rage about this fiasco and are only hoping that James Michel is not secretly involved too.
A top man at the Ministry of Finance has said to a few friends that the Board of Directors is a whole bunch of monkeys to allow him to run over them and they should all resign with immediate effect. When Joel Morgan came to know about this information, he said that the man should be hanged for this mega blunder. It is because this man is always targeting him and blames him for the Perseverance fiasco.
It is alleged that our man has already collected his hefty commission in Rupees and Euro. What makes matters worse is the fact that the French Ambassador has sought the assistance of the French Intelligence Service and uncovered the big scam between the local man and some Lehman executives. It is stinking from all over the place in Victoria.