For the insatiable bottom feeders among us it seemed a feast was on offer, everyone invited, no charge. Who could ask for anything more? The menu promised hot sex, leaks, a variety of videos, dick pics galore, and the arcane excitements of dot-connecting Looshan style. Long before the talking heads got down to delivering the goodies, their surrogates were busy whetting appetites throughout the Red Zone: more titillation courtesy the senator Ubaldus Erectus speaking words of lust to an unidentified Trinidadian siren; more indisputable proof that the government is interested only in “friends, family and foreigners”—not necessarily in that sequence. Conceivably the more ambitious of our politicians, the obvious and the ill-disguised, reminiscent of a time shortly after John Compton was laid to rest, were licking their chops in greedy anticipation of the delivery at last of Allen Chastanet’s silvery head—the most discussed empty promise of the year 2018.
Chef Boyardee served his mostly unemployable early morning audience an irresistible tidbit: a recorded phone conversation between a woman who spoke in a Trini-accented let’s-get-it-on voice and a rut-crazed familiar-sounding religious Lothario. After more than five years of hosting Zafè Moun, Boyardee knew well what tickled his viewers. And it had nothing to do with Shakespeare; neither passages from Derek Walcott’s What the Twilight Says. Several times Boyardee appealed to his audience to resist calling him to say who was the recorded sweet-talking man. They would be given ample time to do so the following morning, he promised.
If on this Rock of Sages there existed some who were uncertain of the man’s identity, they soon were put out of their misery courtesy Richard Frederick, host of Can I Help You?—especially renowned as the man patriotic public servants seek out whenever they feel the need to spill their guts in the best interests of the nation, especially if what they need to spill can somehow be associated with Allen Chastanet and his relatives, close and distant.
Two Thursday evenings ago Frederick apologized profusely to his parish priest and fellow ardent churchgoers for missing out on a number of god-related activities, so busy was he helping the poor and the voiceless. Then he ripped into a woman he identified as “that lump of useless protoplasm” who had dared to place before his “countless thousands of Facebook fans” the absurdity that he, not the economic development minister, had penned a particularly contentious “to whom it may concern” letter that featured Guy Joseph’s signature.
Soon he arrived at the night’s entree, earlier publicized on Zafè Moun. Frederick served a potpourri that was at once noisome and exhilarating, depending on the receiving nose. It also tended at times to have dizzying impact on the more discerning. For instance, when the Can I Help You? host claimed that seconds before our April 6 edition went to press I had made a last-minute adjustment to the paper’s front page. A discombobulating announcement, to be sure, that left me wondering whether key members of my presumed loyal staff were as trustworthy as earlier I had believed. Frederick’s revelation also opened up the possibility that my phone may be tapped. I hasten to add that none of this causes me much concern, since I tend to say and write without shackles. What I speak on the phone, I often repeat on radio and on TV. There was nothing unusual about the cited adjustment; it’s the nature of the beast. If you know your business as well as I know mine, you’ll know what is or is not deserving of special treatment.
But back to the earlier mentioned potpourri and some further food for thought, courtesy the host of Can I Help You?: “It appears that the government of Saint Lucia has given instructions to cause this girl, the girl that was seen wining on Ubaldus, to cause her to do certain things. But I want to give y’all a ball by ball commentary with everything that happened and y’all understand 1) why this is bigger than Ubaldus; 2) why Chastanet will have immense difficulty touching Ubaldus.”
The message, as I understood it: Richard Frederick was in possession of classified information that somehow the Chastanet government was manipulating a female in Trinidad “to cause her to do certain things.” I wondered whether the promised “ball-by-ball” might be connected with Frederick’s possibly perverted “certain things.”
Frederick: Y’all heard? And then they will open their mouths and say locals set up Ubaldus. Crap! Allen, all the investigations you want to do, come to me. Talk to me. And ya’ll blaming Labour Party, blaming this? Blaming that? Ubaldus, there’s no one else to blame but yourself.”
The message as I understood it: Ubaldus was culpable for something or other not quite kosher. Perhaps Frederick referred to the girl in a distributed video “that was seen wining” on him at a Savannah Park carnival party for the band Tribe? Despite the poor lighting, the expression on the face of Ubaldus when he realized his moves were being videotaped by a fellow reveler reminded of the famous deer in the headlights!
Frederick (referring to a TT$10,000 promise to the “wining” woman): “All of that is to sweeten the young lady. Whether he owed her or not, I don’t know but it is to sweeten her to get into doing what he wants her to do to win cooperation from Ubaldus to establish business with the government of Saint Lucia.”
The message as I understood it: Someone (WiPay CEO Aldwyn Wayne?) had made an offer of money to a woman in an effort to win Ubaldus’ assistance in establishing a business arrangement with the Chastanet government. Frederick had, but chose not to play, recordings of a Trinidadian lawyer offering the woman “money, all sorts of things, opportunities, to sign a document saying she lied and made up the story.” I wondered what might that story be. I imagined it might hold condemning secret information related to the woman’s recorded conversations with Ubaldus and Aldwyn Wayne—with whom she had borne a child some six years ago and with whom she endures a relationship made in hell, with occasional heavenly respites.
Frederick: “I have [recorded] convos with that lawyer telling the young lady there are big people in Saint Lucia that want this document. So tonight when I heard the release from the [Saint Lucia] AG’s office I was not surprised. They are pressuring her to sign a document, hoping they can buy enough time to come out with this piece of document to say there was no authenticity in everything that was circulated. I have the recordings of the lawyer saying that those big people know that the document is not meant for Trinidad; it is meant for Saint Lucia.”
I must admit to some confusion here. Who were the local big people who would like the Trini woman to say her recorded titillations and the shocking responses of Ubaldus Raymond and Aldwyn Wayne amounted to bad fiction, not so pure imaginings? Or that the recorded exchanges held meanings beyond common comprehension? What might the woman say to make the recordings inauthentic, the work of voice impersonators? Who exactly from Saint Lucia was pressuring Wayne’s former squeeze to produce this vital it-wasn’t-me document?
Frederick also claimed to have recordings that prove the woman was told she would disappear if she did not cooperate with the big people in Saint Lucia. “So it appears the government of this country will do almost anything; even to the extent of having this young lady kidnapped if she does not sign a document essentially saying that everything is fake,” Frederick asserted. “But she has stood her ground. She was even threatened, and I have that recording as well, that she would be extradited to Saint Lucia if she did not sign!”
What! Can a Trinidadian citizen who has not committed a crime in Saint Lucia, who, for all I know, has never placed a painted big toe on local soil, be “extradited” to this country? How is that possible? By what authority? In all events Frederick dared any to suggest he was bluffing, that he did not have in his possession recorded evidence of local big men threatening the Trini woman. Such a challenge, he said, would leave him no choice but to expose even more devastating information.
Finally there was this from Richard Frederick: “Chastanet the prime minister pretends he don’t know who is behind WiPay. He pretends he doesn’t know the directors of WiPay, that it is just another company that government may do business with. But folks, Chastanet has withheld extremely pertinent information that at least leads to conflict of interest. It is his understanding, he says, that the ministry of the public service is in dialogue with WiPay.”
Actually, the record proves a Choice News reporter did ask the prime minister, “What exactly is our relationship with WiPay?” To which Chastanet responded: “We don’t have one yet. WiPay is a company that has been engaged with Saint Lucia and other countries. They have a technology process to be able to handle financial transactions. So, for example, if a ministry wants to take online payments, then there’s the technology to permit that. So it’s certainly one of the companies . . . my understanding is that the ministry of the public service has been in discussions with them. I’m not sure if there’s been an agreement so far with WiPay. That’s all I know so far.”
No one asked “Who’s behind WiPay?” as Frederick claimed, and the prime minister really had no need to “pretend he doesn’t know.”
One final word from Can I Help You? “When Ubaldus agreed to resign, that very Friday someone who is authorized to speak on behalf of government called two friendly government houses to apprise them of the latest development. Rick Wayne was called; HTS was called. Rick had already designed the front page of his STAR newspaper for the following day, Saturday. And he had a totally different front page. But obviously, in keeping with the trending news, Rick quickly changed his front page to be in sync with the developing story.”
Really? Trending news? Trending where? But what a relief to discover my friend may not have a mole at the STAR after all. No one “with authority to speak for the government” called me that certain Friday to tip me off about Ubaldus Raymond’s resignation. As for HTS, on the evening in question, close to 8 p.m. that is, Andre Paul alerted his audience to “breaking news” that the senator had thrown in the towel. Paul revealed as his source “social media.” Anything to avoid saying HTS had picked up on the STAR’s front page that’s normally available online every Friday between 5-6 p.m.
On both scores, therefore, Mr. Frederick had been, er, misled.
So now, let’s drop in on Straight Up, with Claudius Francis. Suffice it to say his report was for the most part at odds with Frederick’s. Claudius began by speculating the reason he’d been “sent all of the tapes” could be the sender considered him irrevocably trustworthy, that he would protect his source no matter what, and that the sender “may be very fearful of the vindictiveness of the state”—what state?— and wanted to ensure someone other than the anonymous sender was also in possession of the tapes. “They sent them for insurance,” added the insurance executive-cum-show host. Francis revealed he had taken a call just before his show aired from an inquiring investigative Trinidadian journalist in relation to the WiPay episode and Francis had informed him, “I am not enough acquainted with the facts of the story to offer anything with any degree of definitiveness.”
In Claudius’ own telling, the reporter had told him that when the story first broke in Saint Lucia the Trinidad media considered it a matter between consenting adults and of no special interest to Trinidad consumers. But after listening to Richard Frederick’s show online “they became more interested because lawyers in Trinidad seemed to be implicated.”
Also that the CEO of WiPay had said he was “pretty tight with a government minister in Trinidad.” Moreover, that “if what was said on Richard Frederick’s show about a lawyer telling the young lady about possibly disappearing that they [reporters] would be asking the police in Trinidad if they were aware of the situation, and if so what they planned to do on this matter that was tantamount to a threat on life and limb.”
Claudius revealed he too had watched the Frederick show and concluded, by the way the host presented his evidence, “Mr. Frederick would make a far better defense attorney than a prosecutor.” I gathered Claudius was saying that when it comes to prosecuting, as was his role on the evening of his show, Frederick sucked. Referencing the DuBoulay family, Claudius recalled that when Allen Chastanet took office in 2016 it was bruited about that Dunstan DuBoulay was among candidates being considered for the position of governor general. “I am on record as saying,” Claudius recalled, “that although the optics might not be right for some on account of him being the prime minister’s father-in-law, as far as he was concerned there were few who might’ve made a better governor general.” So when he discovered Dunstan and his son were listed as directors of WiPay, along with the WiPay CEO from Trinidad, it never crossed his mind “that Dunstan and Richard would be involved in this thing.”
Being the research freak that he and others consider him to be, not without cause, he discovered that Dunstan DuBoulay and the chairman of WiPay in Trinidad had long been friends. It was he who had encouraged Dunstan to “partner with his company in forming a local subsidiary.” It was only after Dunstan had agreed that he met Aldwyn Wayne. These details coincide with my own story in last weekend’s STAR.
His investigations had also convinced Claudius there was nothing untoward or usual about Dunstan and Richard DuBoulay’s relationship with WiPay. As for the involvement of Pinkley Francis, the chairman of Invest Saint Lucia, Claudius found it unsettling that he was also listed as an investor in the local WiPay subsidiary. “If the chairman is to have shares in the business he attracts to Saint Lucia,” he observed, “that ain’t good from my perspective. Bad optics.”
Actually, Pinkley Francis did not attract WiPay. He was invited on board by Dunstan DuBoulay because he owns 12-years-old IBS, generally considered the leading technology integrator in Saint Lucia. But more on that later.
At last Claudius turned his focus to Dr. Ubaldus Raymond. For the benefit of “those UWPees who claim the video is fake,” he said, “when those pictures were taken of that girl we all saw taking a little grind on him, I can tell you, that was the first time Ubaldus met her.” He excoriated Raymond for allowing himself to be “coerced” into “wining on a woman’s backside on an evening when Adventists normally engage in the observation of their Sabbath. For that he deemed Dr. Raymond a hypocrite, especially considering his unfair harsh criticism in 2006 of then prime minister Kenny Anthony, who had through no fault of his own chosen a Saturday as Nomination Day. Claudius declared he had no other interest in Raymond’s behavior while in Trinidad.
As for the woman in the grinding video, Claudius claimed that even after listening to all the tapes he still knew just three things about her: her name, that she may be a teacher and that she is a Trinidadian native. On the other hand, he said, a visiting Martian after hearing the recordings would in a few minutes know all there is to know about Dr. Raymond, save perhaps his date of birth. “With all of his experience,” Claudius sneered, “you want to tell me the man couldn’t smell something fishy in the air?”
As incredible as it may sound, whatever reached Raymond’s nostrils during his phone conversations with the unidentified Trini woman only encouraged him to suck in more of her aroma. But then, even the woman’s oft-bitten baby daddy and WiPay CEO had sensed no reason to be suspicious. As earlier hinted, even though he is married to another woman with whom he has a baby just three months old, he remains connected to the other woman, as incredible as that sounds. But that’s for another show. Suffice it to say Claudius made none of the connections that Frederick underscored during his show.
Some heavy questions remain. For example: Why were those often cited recordings made in the first place? Nowhere on those tapes is Aldwyn Wayne heard referring to recordings of any kind. In any case, considering his wife and his own near impeccable image at home and in other places with WiPay subsidiaries, why would he permit to be made a recording of his private, somewhat salty conversations with a former flame forbidden from calling him at home? The most important question centers on how those tapes made their way from Trinidad to Saint Lucia into the hands of individuals sworn to bury Allen Chastanet before his time. At any rate, politically. Tune in next week for the shocking answers.
We may as well close with a few more words from Richard Frederick: “As I was saying, some reporters assisted [with putting the show together]: We had Janeka Simon who did a wonderful job in her reporting. Her skill is just remarkable.
There were others. Miguel Fevrier . . . some other guys . . .
I believe that being a young police officer from the age of seventeen and then a lawyer thereafter, my investigative skill is beyond repute.”
He returned to the prime minister’s marital relatives.
“I will still hold that the DuBoulays are reputable people but they got involved in this web. It’s too glaring. The situations of conflict of interest are too glaring for comfort.” Of course that could change by the next time Richard Frederick asks: “Can I Help you?”
