A&V Oil and Gas Limited, which is owned by businessman Nazim Baksh, is about to reap $84 million dollars, after the company won its case against the defunct state-owned Petrotrin for outstanding bills.
This follows claim of fake invoices being submitted for oil it never supplied.
The $84 million is being held in escrow.
According to a Newsday report, the unanimous decision was handed down by arbiters Sir Dennis Byron, former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), who also served as chairman of the arbitration panel; Lord David Hope and retired CCJ judge Humphrey Stollmeyer, in the arbitration ruling between A&V and Petrotrin.
The three arbiters held that Petrotrin failed to establish A&V engaged in seal tampering or any inappropriate practices in the process of delivering crude oil and was entitled to payment.
They also held that Petrotrin did not have reasonable grounds for suspecting that A&V misconducted itself and was entitled to compensation for the wrongful termination of the agreement.
Petrotrin’s counter-claim was also dismissed
In September 2017, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, at a political meeting, levelled allegation of fraud against A&V dubbed as a “fake oil scandal”. In December 2017, Petrotrin terminated the contract and seized the Catshill wells in Barrackpore and Moruga.
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