Lovell Responds to PM Browne’s Comments on Odebrecht Case
Former political leader and attorney-at-law Harold Lovell has responded to recent comments made by Prime Minister Gaston Browne in Parliament, distancing himself from any wrongdoing in the long-running Odebrecht controversy.
In a press release issued on Saturday, Lovell rejected any suggestion of involvement in the bribery scandal that has attracted international scrutiny since 2016. He stated that his legal engagement in 2014, involving the liquidation of the Antigua Overseas Bank, was unrelated to the Brazilian construction firm at the centre of the global investigation.
“I have said publicly, and have the documents to prove, that I represented several persons in a civil matter referred to me by Luis Franca in December 2014. My six-month contract had nothing to do with Odebrecht or Meinl Bank,” Lovell wrote.
He also said he met with Franca and then-Ambassador Casroy James in Miami that month and emphasised that he was not in the United States during the time of a separate alleged meeting in August 2015.
According to Lovell, he publicly disclosed details of his professional engagement during a 2017 sitting of the Senate and provided documentary evidence at a press conference that same year. He reiterated that there were no secret dealings and that he acted transparently in his role as legal counsel.
In the statement, Lovell urged the Prime Minister not to use his name to deflect from other matters, stating: “This is a distraction from issues that merit public attention.”
While Prime Minister Browne has denied any wrongdoing in the Odebrecht matter, Lovell has called on the government to launch a formal investigation to lay lingering questions to rest.
The Prime Minister has not issued any new public statement in response to Lovell’s release.
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AmbassdorJames…Oh how they come cocky and fall like a stack of cards.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive Harold. Come on you really want us to believe you acted in a legal capacity when you’ve never in your life amounted to much more than a political failure.
Are we to believe you are such a legal scholar and luminary that a bank chose you of all people, might I add, a man who has done nothing significantly with your law degree and all of a sudden you’re a hot shot lawyer defending corrupt bankers.
That’s a stretch.
Where there’s smoke, there’s Harold Lovell.
Weak response from an equally weak person. I expected nothing more than exactly what Harold came back with.
His clap back as the kids would say is weak AF.
If you never met with corrupt and nefarious people your name would never have been mentioned.
The PM said you met with the men in Miami a at the Biltmore Hotel, you don’t deny it so why the need for a response?
Break bread with corrupt bankers you get your name called.
Strangest think is; I’ve seen a photo lineup of the named Odebretch players and there was only one English-speaking person and the only negro too. This same individual told us publicly, that he directed the then Ambassador to ‘send back the money (Euro3.5 mil) to the people’ and he personally checked the account to ascertain that the transfer was made. He denied being in the US at that time but when asked to present his Passport as proof, he sheepishly said that he was in Miami briefly, on his way to Disney World. If this sounds like Lovell, then he is the same person who was somehow able to take US $673K in cash, to purchase a property in Coral Gables, Florida.
Misery loves company. Gaston’s a$$ is on fire with the Alfa Nero Saga, so he has to use any diversion to cool off the heat under his a$$.
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