After nearly two decades, fraud charges linked to the controversial Piarco International Airport construction project have been dropped.

This as the privy Council handed down a 26 page ruling on Monday morning, stating that former chief magistrate Sherman McNicolls, now deceased, ought to have recused himself before committing a group of former government ministers, public officials, and business people to stand trial in the matter.

This means, essentially, that preliminary enquiries will need to be restarted altogether if any fraud charges are to be made moving forward.

Those charged in that case are: Former finance minister in both the PNM and UNC administration Brian Kuei Tung, Former PNM national security minister and attorney Russell Huggins, Former Nipdec chairman Edward Bayley, Maritime executives John Smith, Steve Ferguson and Barbara Gomes, Ishwar Galbaransingh, chairman of Northern Construction Ltd, Amrith Maharaj, financial director of Northern Construction Ltd and Businesswoman Renee Pierre, then Kuei Tung’s companion.

The law lords in the UK based their decision to squash the charges on  McNicolls’ alleged political bias in presiding over the summary trial of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, who was charged in 2002 with deliberately failing to disclose a London bank account, held jointly by himself and his wife Oma Panday, to the Integrity Commission for three consecutive years, 1997, 1998 and 1999, while he served as Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

McNicolls convicted Panday of the offence, applying the maximum penalty o 11 years. The conviction was later overturned and Mr. Panday acquited. 

Monday’s Privy Council ruling linked Panday’s conviction by McNicolls to the move to impeach then-Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, the corruption allegations that were brought against Sharma by McNicolls and the role of then-attorney general John Jeremie, SC.