T&T National Security Minister: ‘NY Judge finds I did no wrong’
(Trinidad Express) National Security Minister Edmund Dillon has issued a statement saying he is pleased to report, that the Court Proceeding in the United States, with respect to his friend Neville Piper, “has been fully and effectively resolved”.
Dillon stated that presiding Justice Laura Visitacion-Lewis moved the proceeding out of open court and into Chambers.
According to Dillon, the judge ordered that the record of the proceeding be sealed and restricted, all parties interested in the proceeding from making any public statements, save and except, that there has been no finding of wrongdoing against Dillon.
Dillon left Trinidad and Tobago on Monday for a civil court hearing in New York expected to take place this morning.
The hearing involved the guardianship and property hearing of 88-year-old Neville Piper.
Piper’s niece alleges in court documents filed a few months ago that her uncle had been the victim of elder financial abuse, exploitation and fraud.
For more than seven months, Dillon has been visiting the United States to attend the US Supreme Court civil matter in which allegations of fraud have been levelled against him.
US civil court documents alleged Dillon attempted to defraud Piper of his money and his Manhattan condominium sometime last year.
An order filed by his attorneys claims that Piper, an alleged incapacitated person (AIP), transferred 50 per cent of his condominium located at 301 Cathedral Parkway, Uptown Manhattan, to Edmund Dillon.
The document said, “The purported signature of Piper on the deed and transfer documents does not appear to be Piper’s signature and the elderly man denied ever executing such documents and denied any recollection of the transaction.”
‘Allegations not true’
Dillon said last month that reports that he has been charged or convicted for fraud are untrue and that his signature and that of his friend Neville Piper on property documents were notarised.
He said that allegations of fraud levelled against him continue to be heard in the New York Supreme Court.
In a release, Dillon took issue with what he deemed to be several “erroneous and libellous” statements about him regarding these civil proceedings.