There is a new row brewing at the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) surrounding the unauthorised investment of US$3 million on the stock market. It appears that Chief Financial Officer, Richard Jodhan, along with Executive Secretary, Andrew Sealy, last year signed documents with a Wall Street brokerage company and invested the sum of money in high risk equity stocks without the board's authority.

A select committee, which was headed by Antiguan banker and former Leeward Islands batsman Enoch Lewis, reported to the WICB's board that "after reviewing the documents provided by Merrill Lynch... we found no evidence of such authority and power being vested in these officers."

Former WICB president Pat Rousseau, in a statement last week, said: "I consider the appointment of Mr. Jodhan (to the interim management committee) improper and irregular." In his statement Rousseau also suggested that action should be taken against Sealy, for allegedly "signing documents without authority for the investment of the money with Merrill Lynch".

The Lewis Committee document confirmed that both officers signed documents to Merrill Lynch and that the pair claimed they had full power and authority to enter this agreement.

Former WICB vice-president Clarvis Joseph, speaking last night on State radio, confirmed that the WICB lost US$286,000 from these investments. Joseph said that in addition to not being authorised to play the equities market last year, it was a well-known fact that the stock market was very unpredictable ahead of presidential elections in the United States. Joseph, however, does not believe that the CFO acted to defraud the board, and said that even if the investment had paid dividends, it also would have been wrong, because the investment was not authorised by the board.

Joseph said he found it strange that the board re-instated West Indies team manager Ricky Skerritt, because they "acted without the board's authority and had exceeded their own authority", but were not equally concerned about the investment of US$3 million without the said board's permission.

In a report dated 15 May, the Lewis Committee urged the WICB to "pull the plug on the investment and put its money into safer short-term instruments that made sense, given the Board's cash-flow problems". The report further went on to state "that the WICB borrowed US$2 million from the Wall Street bank Merrill Lynch against the investment portfolio".

Rousseau in his statement revealed that the executive committee in October 1999 received a proposal from Jodhan to invest US$100,000.00 with Merrill Lynch. But, Rousseau continues, "the recollection of the vice-president and myself is that the request was refused". Rousseau goes on to say that "the Minutes of that meeting have not been produced". Instead, the former WICB president claims that Jodhan invested US $496,000 with the Wall Street bank.

In a budget proposal for the 2000 financial year, Rousseau said, Jodhan in May last year indicated an intention to invest US$3 million with Merrill Lynch "but makes it clear that he will seek the approval of the executive committee". Rousseau insists that the approval was not sought, but the investment made.

The Lewis Committee which also included Clarvis Joseph, Val Banks and Stephen Alleyne, reported that they found out that the fund in which the WICB had invested was for a long-term growth strategy, in which 65 per cent to 85 per cent of the exposure is in equities, thus carrying high risks. The report continues: "Given the potential high level of equity exposure and the specific nature for which the funds were acquired (i.e., reported coverage of short-term cash flow needs), this committee is of the opinion that the investment was ill-advised."

The Lewis Committee further concluded: "In reviewing the Merrill Lynch statements, we discovered that as at February 28 ...WICB also has a current liability of US$2 million. We understand that these funds were borrowed and leveraged against the value of the portfolio to cover cash and understand that these funds borrowed leveraged against the value of the portfolio to cover cashflow shortfall arising from difficulties experienced in collecting funds from the Australia tour."

Jodhan has since verbally tendered verbally his resignation to the board at its recently concluded AGM, but did not offer any further details. Meanwhile Sealy, as part of the board's restructuring process, will be leaving office at the end of June. His position with the board was made redundant along with the Director of Coaching, Reg Scarlett, in January.

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