Police nab human trafficking mastermind
[Trinidad Express] – A 30-year-old man, believed to be the mastermind behind an alleged human-trafficking ring uncovered in Arouca on Wednesday, was detained yesterday afternoon.
While up to press time full details remained unavailable, Express was reliably informed that around 1.45 p.m. yesterday, a team of officers from the Arouca Police Station and the Arima Police Station, led by Insp Maraj, Insp Gyan, Insp Price, Sgt Haywood, and Sgt Joseph, acting on information received, made their way to Golden Grove Road, where they found and held the 30-year-old man.
The man, said to be from Tunapuna Road, Tunapuna, was then transported to the Arouca Police Station, where he was held up to press time yesterday.
He is expected to be questioned overnight and into the morning on his involvement in the human trafficking ring.
It is believed that he pretended to be from an advertising agency to entrap women.
Venezuela pays ExxonMobil’s assets nationalized in 2007
[El Universal] – The President of the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino), Deputy Ángel Rodríguez, asserted that Venezuela had paid US oil company ExxonMobil a fair value for its assets nationalized in 2007, when the company operated in the Cerro Negro and La Ceiba oilfields, located in the Orinoco Oil Belt.
The deputy alerted that the US oil company sought lawsuits in several international courts with the “judicial gimmick” of becoming a Dutch company.
“If the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Icsid) abides by international law, it has to annul the decision issued in 2014, when it ordered a compensation amounting to USD 1.59 billion for those goods, because another international court had already issued a decision and established that a much lower amount was reasonable,” explained Rodríguez.
Parents deny Brazilian footballer Neymar evaded taxes
[BBC] – The parents of the Brazilian football star, Neymar, have denied their son has done anything wrong, after a judge formally accused him of evading $16m in taxes.
They said the judge had not correctly understood their son’s finances.
The judge accused Neymar of only declaring the equivalent of 8% of his assets in 2013.
He said the forward had omitted payments received from advertising and from Barcelona football club.
The judge froze $47.6m (£30.5m) of Neymar’s assets.
He said this was to cover potential interest and fines and to prevent the player selling assets before the case was settled.
The judge said the frozen assets were in the name of the Brazilian player and three companies in which he and his parents jointly owned.
However, Neymar’s parents said the decision was based on an “incorrect understanding” of their son’s income.
“Neymar did not avoid paying taxes, and neither did any of our companies,” they said.
Neymar joined Barcelona in June 2013 after a successful career with the Brazilian club, Santos.
But the transfer has prompted fraud investigations in Spain over allegations that the fee paid was much higher than the declared €57m ($65m; £41m).
Magistrate adjourns Warner’s request for extradition matter to be discharged
[Trinidad Express] – CORRUPTION-accused Jack Warner has not been discharged from the extradition proceedings against him.
Instead, Warner was told by Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington to return to court on December 2 when the matter may begin.
Warner made his second appearance for this week before Wellington in the Port of Spain Court yesterday when the magistrate was expected to rule on whether Warner should be discharged.
Warner’s legal team had made a case for this, due to the fact the authority to proceed (ATP) was not signed by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi until five days after the September 16 deadline date.
But instead of delivering a ruling,
Wellington informed attorneys representing both sides that even though he took the opportunity to peruse the ATP, he formed the opinion the better decision to make was to adjourn the matter and have the issue dealt with by Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar, who had been presiding over it since Warner’s first court appearance on May 27.
Ayers-Caesar is currently out of the country and is expected to return on October 5.
On Monday when Warner first appeared before Wellington, lead attorney for the State, British Queen’s Counsel James Lewis informed the magistrate that Al-Rawi had signed the ATP, albeit late, and the court now had the green light to proceed.
