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Shareholders want probe
From
The Chronicle
of 23 Feb, 2007
In an unprecedented move, shareholders at the National Bank of Dominicas Annual General Meeting voted to discard a proposal by its Board of Directors to discontinue investigations into an alleged $3M fraud at the Bank and instead supported a decision to establish a Special Committee to do precisely the opposite of what the Board had proposed.
Before the meeting, the NBD Management had circulated a two-page resolution that ended by stating that (since) no useful purpose will be served by continued investigation into the said allegation of fraud unless and until new evidence is produced, [that] until such time, the Bank and its Board of Directors are expressly authorised and relieved from undertaking any further investigation into the grant of the credit facilities.
When the motion was first put forward for discussion, Mr. Parry Bellot of the Minority Shareholders Group, addressed the meeting to denounce, paragraph by paragraph, all the points raised. Chairman of the Board, Swinburne Lestrade, informed the gathering what had been done in terms of investigation over the year, conceding that there had been many delays and some aspects not followed through because of cost implications. The submission did not impress those present and soon, Mr. Vanoulst Jno. Charles rose to move his own motion proposing the establishment of a small committee to investigate the alleged fraud in a more determined fashion.
Bellot proposed that a time frame be included so as not to drag on this long festering matter any more than was necessary. The amendment was accepted. When the Chairman later attempted to bring a vote on both motions, Bellot again pointed out that the Boards previously circulated motion had not been formally moved or seconded. When no Board member was willing to come forward, the lone Jno. Charles resolution was voted and accepted by acclamation.
The minority shareholders had earlier circulated a list of 24 areas of concern regarding the Banks governance which they claimed demonstrated a pattern of misinformation and outright deceit, and going beyond the long outstanding fraud allegations.
The elections showed one change to the Board, with Mr. Dermot Southwell coming in for Mr. Alick Lazare.
Stories are taken from our archives of The Chronicle, The Sun, and The Independent which were compiled between 1998 and 2005.
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