The February 7th deadline has come and gone and Jeff Prosser hasn't paid the US$57 million for the Carlisle Shares. And he isn't the least bit apologetic; in fact Prosser says it's the government's fault. 7NEWS has obtained a letter that Prosser sent to the Prime Minister one week ago on Monday January 31st. Prosser explains that his company ICC was ready to pay for the Carlisle shares on January the 18th but the government, failed to do its part by not honoring agreements it had made to Prosser. And if you're asking what the agreements are, well 7NEWS has obtained a copy of those too in a letter that the Prime Minister sent to Prosser nearly a year ago on February 27th, 2004. In that letter, which was sent one month before the controlling interests were transferred form Ashcroft to Prosser, the Prime Minister agreed to 7 conditions, conditions which up to now had never been disclosed to the public.
The PM agreed to illegalize voice over the internet calls which right now is only being done through BTL's low cost 10-10-199 service. The Prime Minister also agreed to make Prosser's the only provider of fixed wired phones, and change Speednet's and Intelco's licenses so that they could only provide mobile cellular service. And while his competitors would be stripped down, the PM gave Prosser the additional assurance that no new licenses would be issued for 7 years. Other conditions agreed to by the Prime Minister include the setting of a floor for international rates, basically fixing the price so that no one can charge less than BTL, and that the PUC will recognize that Prosser has a guaranteed return when it decrees rates, meaning basically that the rates would be kept artificially high, not to match costs, but to make sure Prosser earns a return of 15% after taxes on his investments, even if that investment includes buying up Intelco's assets which would basically put phone users in the position of having to finance the Intelco debacle.
It's quite a laundry list of concessions and Prosser says that government didn't do any of those things that the Prime Minister had agreed to. More than that, in his letter Prosser alleges that the government has interfered with its financing from the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, and, Prosser alleges, government is working with Michael Ashcroft's Carlisle Limited to get back the Carlisle Shares.
With all this, Prosser asked the Prime Minister to activate a mediation session, as a precursor to possible arbitration, which would happen before an international tribunal. By Prosser's request that mediation would begin on March 5th. Of course, while this happens on one side, Ashcroft's Carlisle Holdings has already initiated arbitration hearing in the United Kingdom, as he is trying to activate his buy back agreement because the Prosser deal has still not formally been closed.
It's a terrible tangle of litigation and competing contentions, and it's unclear at this point how government will extricate itself from a mess that has very much been its own making. But time is not their friend, because in 15 days, the US$57 million that is owed to the International Bank of Miami will come due.
