TT: $2,000 per week guava season

FORMER finance minister Brian Kuei Tung said yesterday that he cannot live on $2,000 a week as ordered by the High Court recently and intends to challenge the ruling.

"How do they expect me to live on that amount of money!" Kuei Tung exclaimed during an interview with the Express yesterday in Miami.

"If I was only able to spend $2,000 a week, do you think I would have been here in Miami? I fighting that to the end. In fact I ignoring them," he said.

On May 27, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson obtained an ex-parte order freezing the sale of Kuei Tung's assets located in Trinidad and Tobago and overseas, including a luxury apartment, located at Turnberry Towers, Aventura, in north Miami and a house located at Victoria Park Road, Fort Lauderdale, Miami.

The court order also limits Kuei Tung's living expenses to $2,000 but allows him to increase the sum if he can reach an agreement with the DPP or failing that he may apply to the court to vary the terms of the order.

On May 28, Florida Judge Jeri Cohen granted an order enforcing the local High Court order which allowed Kuei Tung to complete the sale of the US million-dollar apartment but debars him from using the proceeds of the sale.

Failure to comply with the terms of the order could lead to a contempt of court charge, an offence punishable by imprisonment or a fine and any person who "does anything with helps or permits Kuei Tung or his daughters, Sonia Kuei Tung and Brigid Duncan, to breach the terms of the order may also be held in contempt of court".
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Kuei Tung is jointly charged with former UNC work and transport minister Sadiq Baksh, and several other businessmen, with allegedly defrauding the Airports Authority, the Government and the people of this country of over $144 million during the construction of the Piarco Airport New Terminal Development Project.

He is also charged with a series of offences relating to the alleged fraud of $19 million and misbehaviour in public office in another phase of the project and is due to re-appear in court on June 15.

The State has alleged that proceeds of the alleged fraud were used to obtain the several assets including the Miami real estate properties.
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Decked in short pants and T-shirt, Kuei Tung, who is currently out on bail, told the Express that he sold the Turnberry Towers apartment for US$1 million yesterday and was in Miami to complete the sale of the condominium. He said that he intends to remain in the United States for a few more days to relax.

"The apartment was sold for US$1 million this morning and the money has been sent to my account in Trinidad. There has been a lot of speculation about how much the apartment is worth including suggestions that it was worth US $1.2 million but that is not true and has been sold for $1 million," he said.

The average Teacher II (secondary school teacher) in TT earns approximately $72,000 per annum as a starting salary ($12,000 USD). That breaks down to $6,000 a month, or $1,500 a week. Out of that comes mortgage or rent, car payment, food, kids' stuff, clothing, yadda yadda. Somehow, the average secondary school teacher in TT manages on less thatn $2,000 a week. The average mason earns approximately $500 per week.

When one considers the wages of the average worker in TT, one can only find appalling former Finance Minister Kuei Tung's arrogance, greed, and disregard for the earnings of the average man -- whose tax dollars were robbed in the Airport construction scam, for his alleged part in which he has been arrested.

How does a government minister amass enough wealth to purchase apartments and condominiums in the United States when the TT-USD exchange rate is $6 to $1?