ANTIGUA MINISTER OF INVESTMENTS ASOT MICHAEL KNEW VIRDEE'S PARTNER WAS CONVICTED FRAUDSTER, BUT HID HIM FROM CABINET

Asot Michael

Asot Michael, while Minister of Investment in Antigua, deliberately and intentionally hid from the Cabinet the fact that Peter Virdee's partner in PV Energy Ltd., Hans Dieter Trutschler, had a major  criminal conviction on his record. Questions have been raised in Antigua as to whether this constitues a criminal act, and whether Michael should be charged, to demonstrate to prospective investors that Antigua will not brook this type of conduct fronm its elected officials.

Trutschler was "convicted of fraud related offenses for illegally diverting $4.3m in legitimate payments from one company, from accounts he controlled," according to a United Nations report  quoted in media. This occurred in Kosovo in 2002; He was working for the UN at the time, in a senior position.

All this information is publicly available, and Michael, as Investment Minister, and a longtime friend of Virdee, certainly would have known about it, but he failed to give any of this information to his colleagues on the Antigua cabinet, especially due to the fact that Trutschler was sentenced to a prison term of three and one half years imprisonment, under the alias Johanns Dieter Trutschler.

Inasmuch as Michael's fellow ministers in the Cabinet were deceived about the true nature of the individuals behind PV Energy, and have to account to the people of Antigua, who elected them, they should consider their own civil action against Michael, for Malfeasance in Office, or another active Tort, if they are not reelected due to Michael's misconduct.