Moonilal reveals lawyers, fees paid for energy briefs

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Gov­ern­ment paid le­gal fees con­cern­ing var­i­ous en­er­gy mat­ters to sev­er­al at­tor­neys and firms over May 1, 2025 to Jan­u­ary 31, 2026 in­clud­ing Black­stone Cham­bers, Alexan­der, Je­re­mie and Co, Free­dom Law Cham­bers, Shas­tri A. Roberts and Deb­o­rah Peake (SC).

The names of at­tor­neys, mat­ters briefed and/or re­tained for and amounts paid were de­tailed in writ­ten replies from the En­er­gy Min­istry to queries from PNM MP Stu­art Young.

They were list­ed on last Fri­day's House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives' or­der pa­per. En­er­gy Min­is­ter Roodal Mooni­lal's replies to Young's queries were sub­se­quent­ly cir­cu­lat­ed.

Young's first ques­tion per­tained to at­tor­neys who were briefed and/or re­tained by the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of TT Ltd and each com­pa­ny in the NGC group of com­pa­nies for the pe­ri­od May 1, 2025, to Jan­u­ary 31, 2026.

It called for the num­ber of mat­ter/s each at­tor­ney was briefed and/or re­tained for; the mat­ter it­self, and the amount paid to each at­tor­ney for each mat­ter.

The writ­ten re­ply from En­er­gy Min­is­ter Roodal Mooni­lal stat­ed:

* Black­stone Cham­bers (four mat­ters)

* Alexan­der, Je­re­mie and Co (re­tained since 2016 -two mat­ters)

* Ir­shaad An­dre Ali (one mat­ter)

* Keisha Manohar-Gokool (one mat­ter)

* Shankar Bidaisee (one mat­ter)

* M Hamel-Smith & Co. (one mat­ter)

The mat­ters and amounts paid were as fol­lows in a tabled doc­u­ment.

An­oth­er query to En­er­gy ref­er­enced the at­tor­neys who were briefed and/ or re­tained by the Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed for the pe­ri­od May 1, 2025 to Jan­u­ary 31, 2026; the num­ber of mat­ter/s each at­tor­ney was briefed and/ or re­tained for; the mat­ter and the amount paid to each at­tor­ney for each mat­ter.

The at­tor­neys and num­ber of mat­ters they were briefed/re­tained for are:

* Ravi Heffes-Doon (one mat­ter)

* Deb­o­rah Peake SC (one mat­ter)

* Or­risha Ma­hara­jh JCS Caribbean Law (one mat­ter)

* Roger Kawals­ingh (one mat­ter)

* Free­dom Law Cham­bers (four mat­ters)

* Shas­tri A. Roberts (one mat­ter)

* Ka­ri­na Singh Lex Grav­i­tas (one mat­ter).

De­tails of the mat­ters, date of en­gage­ment and pay­ment were de­tailed in a ta­ble doc­u­ment.

A third ques­tion ref­er­enced the at­tor­neys-at-law who were briefed and/or re­tained by the Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um Mar­ket­ing Com­pa­ny of TT Lim­it­ed for the pe­ri­od May 1, 2025 to Jan­u­ary 31, 2026, the num­ber of mat­ter/s each at­tor­ney was briefed and/ or re­tained for; the mat­ter in­volved; and the amount paid to each at­tor­ney for each mat­ter.

The En­er­gy Min­istry's re­ply stat­ed that the to­tal amount paid was $178,599.80.

In­for­ma­tion showed the mat­ters in­volved at­tor­neys Naren­dra Lutch­man (nil paid; and the no­tice yet to be sub­mit­ted), Ja­gai & As­so­ciates (paid $68,599.80) and Ste­fan Ramkissoon (paid $110,000.00).

Lutch­man's le­gal ser­vices com­menced No­vem­ber 28, 2025. This in­volved NP ver­sus In­land and Off­shore Con­trac­tors Lim­it­ed).

Ja­gai & As­so­ciates' le­gal ser­vices com­menced Sep­tem­ber 18 2025 .The mat­ter in­volved NP ver­sus Air­port Gate­way Ser­vices Ltd.

Ste­fan Ramkissoon's le­gal ser­vices com­menced De­cem­ber 4, 2025. This in­volved NP ver­sus Be­ta Fu­el­ing Sys­tems LLC.

Sim­i­lar queries seek­ing writ­ten replies on at­tor­neys, mat­ters and sums paid were al­so posed on the or­der pa­per to the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al. These in­clud­ed re­gard­ing at­tor­neys briefed and/or re­tained by the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al's of­fice (in­clud­ing the So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al's De­part­ment) over May 1, 2025 to Jan­u­ary 2025.

Fur­ther sim­i­lar query was posed to the AG's of­fice fol­low­ing the Jan­u­ary 2026 state­ment that $3-4 Bil­lion was spent on mat­ters re­lat­ing to Cli­co's lawyers and ac­coun­tants. Young sought the names of per­sons/en­ti­ties that re­ceived pay­ment, date of this, amount paid and ser­vices pro­vid­ed.