Andre Vega Still in Hiding, But Attorney Confirms Service of Claim for Repayment of Compensation
Andre Vega
Where is Andre Vega, son of former Minister of Natural Resources, Gaspar Vega? The Government wants to know, because it has been looking for him for months to serve him with papers for a court claim in relation to four hundred thousand dollars of tax payers’ monies that he received in compensation for the takeover of land near the Haulover Bridge in 2015. Andre was asked to return it, but has not done so and the Government claims it has been unable to locate him, as confirmed on Friday by Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte and Solicitor General Nigel Hawke. They finally then went through his attorney, Estevan Perera, who confirmed this afternoon to News Five that he has received service on behalf of Vega and is acting as his legal counsel. Perera said he was not prepared to speak on record at this time as he has only just received the file, but indicated that sometime in the course of the twenty-eight days he has under law to file a response. Andre has made no public comment. Attorney Sharon Pitts, who also received four hundred thousand dollars of tax payers’ monies in the same transaction, has not returned a penny to date even though she has already been served and has filed her defence. A date for case management is to be scheduled shortly. On Friday, Peyrefitte told reporters that the case predates him and that he has no intention of halting it.
Michael Peyrefitte
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General [File: February 24th, 2017]
“It is strictly a legal matter and the SG is the person who is the… He is the head litigator for that case. As he has told me, he has difficulty locating Mr. Vega to serve him personally and we may have to do substituted service, but we have served Ms. Pitts. But it’s purely a legal matter that went into the system before I became Attorney General. I have no intentions of discontinuing it, the courts will decide what they have to decide. What happened is that we have to serve him personally. If a certain amount of time passes and we can’t serve him personally then we would have to go to substituted service. But there are no political considerations or favors here. The decision was made that we should go after the monies and we will go after the monies. What the court decides they will decide.”
When the compensation payment was exposed, Andre’s father, Gaspar Vega, who was at the helm of the Ministry of Natural Resources when the transaction occurred, stepped down from cabinet. Sightings of him since then have been few.
