P.U.P. senator questions S.S.B. insider trading

Lisa Shoman

Senator for the People’s United Party, Lisa Shoman, had another view. She pointed out that several of the loans on the list to be written-off, including one in the amount of eighty thousand dollars for S.S.B. C.E.O. Merlene Bailey-Martinez, were indeed recent mortgages and not longstanding loans.  She further questioned the names of former S.S.B. employees who also appear on the write-off list.

Lisa Shoman, Senator, Opposition

“It is clear that one of the criteria, and no one disputes this, was the fifty thousand dollar consideration; however, as my friend Senator Hulse’s keen eyes have picked out several of these mortgages in fact have a distinctly recent vintage and almost every page of this list is larded with disbursement dates of either 2010 or 2011 and one or two ‘09’s.  Not only do I concur with Senator Hulse that there should have been a cutoff but there should have been clear criteria as to who could benefit and what would be the measure of that benefit. There are several people here who are ex-staff and that should raise the question as to whether they got the tip off early enough to be able to benefit from the insider knowledge.  There are questions in fact as to whether board members or any of their families benefited, staff members and any of their family members benefited and all of those questions are proper questions in the public’s mind without seeking to impugn anyone in anyway.  A telling excavation of this list, a drill down of this list exposes some ugly realities.  For instance, as one media house has famously pointed out, one of the most prominent names on this list is at number four hundred and fifty-three, one Merlene Martinez and there is an amount here for eighty thousand dollars, a pay down for twenty thousand dollars and a disbursement date of twenty-fourth August 2011.  That should raise anybody’s eyebrows.  But if that drill down was not penetrating enough at number one hundred and thirty-eight, there is someone who got a disbursed loan on the thirtieth September 2011.”