CEPEP threatens legal action against GML

CEPEP Company Ltd, its CEO Keith Eddy, and its corporate secretary Nicole Gopaulsingh are bringing legal action against Guardian Media Ltd (GML) for libel in relation to the TT Guardian’s lead story on Sunday.

In a letter sent by e-mail to GML’s managing director Brandon Khan, attorney Jennifer Farrah-Tull of Hove & Associates said her law firm had been retained by the CEPEP, Eddy and Gopaulsingh.

“We are instructed in relation to an online and physically printed article published via your T&T Guardian face book page, website: www.guardian.co.tt and Sunday Guardian newspaper print platforms on Sunday the 6th day of September 2020. The online article is entitled Money flowing at CEPEP and the Front page headline is scandalously and maliciously entitled CEPEP $$ Scandal.

"We have been given brief instructions to bring an action for defamation of character, malicious falsehood, breach of confidentiality and misuse of images against your publishing house, your editor in chief and your reporter that wrote the article Mr Curtis Williams.”

The letter said the firm’s clients denied the allegations made against them in the article.

“Additionally the use of the image of Mr Keith Eddy and Ms Nicole Gopaulsingh to accompany your defamatory article was without their permission and consent and carefully calculated to cause extensive damage to their images and good names.”

The letter said a detailed preaction-protocol letter would be issued by Tuesday and asked for the removal of the “malicious, defamatory, disparaging and derogatory” articles from GML’s online circulation.

It said, if that was not done, the firm had been given strict instructions to seek urgent interim injunctive relieve without any further notice to those who conspired to publish the article.

In a release, CEPEP’s board of directors and management said the newspaper report was malicious and defamatory, and the company was compelled to respond to the misleading and false allegations published by the newspaper.

“It is the second in a series of articles published by the Guardian Editor, which alleges mismanagement by the company and attempts to sully the character of not only the chief executive officer Mr Keith Eddy but also the corporate secretary, Ms Nicole Gopaulsingh, attorney-at-law.”

Referring to allegations made in the Guardian article about Eddy's and Gopaulsingh's pay packages the release said, “The CEPEP board of directors approved salary increases in November of the year 2019 and is currently awaiting the approval of the HR committee and the chief personnel officer.

"The CEO and the corporate secretary have not received any increase in salary and therefore call on the Guardian newspaper to exercise responsible journalism before publishing such inflammatory information.”

Multiple calls to Rural Development and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein went unanswered.