Prominent Trinidad and Tobago Businessman Lawrence Duprey Has Died

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Tributes are being paid to the former businessman, Lawrence Duprey, who died on Saturday at the age of 89.

Lawrence Duprey (File Photo)While there has been no formal  announcement regarding his death, Duprey the former executive chairman of the Trinidad-based regional conglomerate, CL Financial Group that included the Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO), is reported to have died “peacefully”

Media reports on Sunday said that as his health deteriorated, Duprey, who had been resident in Miami with his wife, Sylvia, returned here. He died at a health facility.

Duprey, described as  “an outstanding corporate icon” and a “visionary leader” had inherited his wealth from his uncle, Cyril Duprey, who in 1936, founded the country’s first locally owned insurance company, CLICO.

Following his death in 1988, Duprey in 1993 formed the conglomerate CL Financial, a conglomerate that initially served as a holding company for CLICO. At its peak, CL Financial boasted more than 65 companies across 32 countries, with assets exceeding US$100 billion.

Earlier ths month, the Guyana government announced that it had started legal proceedings in a bid to recover more than US$34 million dollars from the Trinidad-based CLICO Investment Bank (CIB) Limited, which has been in compulsory liquidation.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall and the CLICO Life and General Insurance Company (South America) Limited, which is also in liquidation, have launched the lawsuit naming CIB as the defendant.

According to the lawsuit, the issue dates back to the financial collapse of CLICO Group that includes several companies that operated throughout the Caribbean and controlled by the Trinidad-based CL Financial Limited and its principal, Lawrence Duprey.

The lawsuit states that the collapse, which started around 2007, caused large financial losses throughout the Commonwealth Caribbean, especially in Guyana, where CLICO Life and General Insurance Company suffered greatly.

In January 2009, Duprey and CL Financial were thrust into the national and regional spotlight when then-finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira announced a major crisis in the conglomerate, necessitating intervention by the Central Bank and the Trinidad and Tobago government.

On February 13, 2009, the Central Bank took control of CLICO under the Central Bank Act, which it said was done to protect policyholders and prevent significant disruption to the financial system.

The State initially pumped an estimated five billion dollars (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents)  into CLICO. But On November 27, 2019, Finance Minister Colm Imbert told Parliament that after a decade, the government’s bailout of CL Financial and CLICO had cost the State an estimated TT$23.1 billion. In September 2020, Imbert said the cost of the bailout had risen to TT$$30 billion.

In October 2010, the coalition People’s Partnership government headed by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, ordered a commission of enquiry into the failure of CL Financial and the Hindu Credit Union Cooperative Society. Duprey submitted a witness statement but did not attend the enquiry. In his statement he described himself as a hard-working individual who contributed to job creation and wealth generation.

Nunez-Tesheira has since called for full disclosure of the Sir Anthony Colman commission of enquiry (COE) report into the failure of CL Financial Ltd and three of its subsidiaries.

The former finance minister said while she did not share a close relationship with Duprey, she told the Sunday Express newspaper he was well known for representing the company well and improving the lives of many.

“Mr Duprey’s passing is indeed sad and it is also a loss. My husband worked with the company and had a close relationship with Duprey because they worked for many years and they had a good, positive relationship. I know that my husband had a lot of respect for what he was doing and it gave them a sense of pride.

There are many people who were not of the highest education which, undoubtedly, he was able to lift them out of that, but he didn’t only do that; he went so far as to make sure that his employees were well educated,” Nunez-Tesheira said.

“He represented the company well and as an onlooker not being in politics at the time, I know how much he did for people in the Caribbean and people of colour who would not have had the kind of opportunity he gave them and it is a fact because the history is there,” she said.

Former CL Financial executive Carlos John said apart from Duprey’s business acumen, his philanthropy was also something to be admired.

“For me, he was an outstanding corporate icon and a giant industrialist who swam against the tide and was never afraid to take risks. That was the DNA of the man. He possessed an extraordinary ability to seize a business opportunity and his philanthropy was unmatched,” John told the Sunday Express.

Former president of the Hindu  Credit Union, Harry Harnarine, remembered Duprey as a “visionary leader.

“I started my relationship with Lawrence when I was about 27 years of age. Half of my life was spent in CLICO. I started in sales and ended up as a consultant to Mr Duprey. And I could tell you that I have not seen and I don’t expect to see anybody that is visionary and patriotic like that of Mr Lawrence Duprey.

“Today what is important is that Mr Duprey has left his mark. You can see that every single investment that Mr Duprey has planted upon Trinidad and Tobago is still standing tall, proud and profitable,” he said.

Former planning minister and a former CLF director Dr Bhoe Tewarie said the loss of the Duprey Empire and Lawrence Duprey’s lonely end makes his passing very sad.

“He helped a lot of people in his lifetime and had a charitable heart. My condolences go out to Sylvia and his son, and to his genuine friends and family. He was a very complicated man with very big ideas, and he loved Trinidad and Tobago but understood its limitations, and he tried to find ways of circumventing them.”

Former finance minister Winston Dookeran, said “as  we mourn the loss of Lawrence Duprey, we must be humbled, for he was indeed, perhaps the most visionary entrepreneur of our times.

“He was able to ‘idle’ resources into national prosperity, for which he faced obstacles and for which the Trinidad and Tobago economy continues to benefit—it was the pillar of our success in building a diversified structure.”

Last year, the High Court ordered Duprey to reimburse more than US$139 million to CL Financial and CLICO for facilitating a deal to sell shares in what was then called CLICO Energy to Proman Holdings (Barbados) Ltd in February 2009.

Duprey, who was not represented during the trial, did not appeal  the ruling.