Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Burrowes apparently suffering from memory loss
A copy of documentation which Rambarran says corroborates that he made a payment of $10M to GNCB even before the Sale Agreement was signed
….bank hounded me for money prior signing sale agreement -Rambarran
The controversy surrounding the Ocean View International, businessman Wilfred Rambarran and the Guyana National Cooperative Bank General Manager Keith Burrowes has now become a literal tit for tat as to who or which entity is being honest.
Burrowes claimed that the sale of the hotel was being done in secret and it was only by chance that the bank found out.
Rambarran however is stopping just short of calling Burrowes dishonest. He now says that it is unfortunate that Burrowes’s memory seems to be failing him given that he is a man who holds a great many positions.
Rambarran says not only did GNCB know of the sale of the hotel before the actual documents were signed but in fact was hounding him for money even before the Agreement of Sale was signed.
Rambarran yesterday produced a correspondence between the then owner of the Hotel George Lord and Burrowes.
The document signed by Burrowes and dated December 17, 2009, states that in light of information provided to him should GNCB be provided with satisfactory information that an acceptable arrangement has been reached between the Ocean View Hotel Ltd and the Equity Partner, (Wilfred Rambarran) then GNCB would give consideration to some payment plans including the company making a ‘lump sum upfront’ payment.
Rambarran provided supporting documentation stating that by way of a post dated cheque he made a payment of $10M even before he had signed the Sale of Agreement with Lord, money that the bank wanted.
According to Burrowes, at all times, the management of GNCB acted in good faith with Lord in an attempt to resolve the indebtedness of his company, when any other financial institution would have long sold his assets to recoup its monies.
“In return Lord secretively entered into an Agreement of Sale on 2nd January 2008 with Mr.
Wilfred Rambarran to sell to him the property…This was legally, professionally and morally wrong. Rambarran was also complicit with this bad faith arrangement with Lord, and he knew the legal and financial consequences of entering into any acquisition arrangement with such a highly-indebted company.”
Burrowes said that the right thing for both parties to have done was to enter into a discussion with management of the bank, which had always proven extensively accommodating, with a view to arriving at a settlement before the formal signing of the Agreement of Sale.
“Management discovered this underhand move by Messrs.
Rambarran and Lord by chance, and had to acquire a copy of the sale document, which provided for no mechanism for payments of extant debts, from the court files.”
This is not the case, according to Rambarran, who had earlier told this newspaper that the three stakeholders had meet and it was agreed that the interest owed by Ocean View to GNCB would be written off to facilitate the sale and as such it was impossible for the Bank to not know fo the sale.
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