Throw the book?at corporate executives held legally accountable if their fraudulent actions cause the demise of corporations.
In one of his usually frank presentations, retired permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance William Layne said corporate pariahs such as Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford were behind bars but “no one in the . . . Caribbean has been brought before the courts for the pain and suffering caused by the collapse of CL Financial”.
Layne, who headed the special Oversight Committee set up by Government to control CLICO Holdings’ subsidiaries in Barbados, was delivering the feature address at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) annual general meeting last Thursday.
He said citizens should demand that the full weight of the law be brought to bear on any persons found responsible for the collapse.
Layne also said the law should be changed to allow regulators to publish all decisions made about regulated entities.
Last month Barbados’ Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin said CLICO’s?alleged contravention of an August 2009 order by the Supervisor of Insurance to stop selling new business would soon be headed for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The former permanent secretary added that conglomerates that own regulated entities should be made to submit consolidated accounts to regulators and where they were private companies, they should publish consolidated statements in the Press.
