Senior Political Reporter
Land and Legal Affairs Minister Saddam Hosein says the Attorney General’s Office will probe the lease of Chaguaramas state lands by Tembladora Energy Logistics Limited (TELL), where former People’s National Movement (PNM) treasurer Howard Chin Lee is a director—but Chin Lee has deemed Hosein’s statements on the lease misleading.”
Chin Lee spoke yesterday as he clarified Hosein’s claims regarding TELL’s leasehold interest in state lands.
Giving details, Chin Lee said, “For avoidance of doubt, TELL did not purchase the lease from the T&T government. Any suggestion that the government sold this leasehold interest to TELL at an undervalued price completely misrepresents the nature of the transaction.”
Hosein, in yesterday’s 2027 Budget debate in Parliament, alleged PNM management of state lands involved “… friends, family and financiers—why does Chin Lee get preferential treatment as PNM treasurer compared to ex-Caroni workers, waiting 20-plus years for their leases?”
He cited three parcels of Chaguaramas land given to Alcoa for its occupation years ago. He said it was done in such a way that they were not paying a premium, because it was for bauxite transshipments and T&T received revenue based on the volume of bauxite involved.
He said Alcoa, in winding up operations, decided to sell the company property—which stood on state lands—to Pier One Marine Ltd (POML). Hosein said due to the sale, the PNM cabinet had to assign the interests in the state lands to the new company because they were buying the plant. Between March and June 2019, they sought to assign the lands to POML.
“But in 2021, a letter was written asking that the interest be assigned not to POML anymore, but Tembladora Energy Logistics Limited—ten-plus acres of prime lands,” Hosein said.
“The principals of TELL happen to be Howard James Chin Lee, Ann Marie Chin Lee, and company secretary, Hayden John Adrian Gadsby. So the lands had to be transferred from Alcoa to TELL, which is really Chin Lee. At that time, if I’m not mistaken, Chin Lee was a former PNM national security minister—and at that time, sitting PNM treasurer.”
Hosein claimed the lands were valued for $51 million, but, “they decided to transfer the lands to Tembladora without tying the lease to what it was—bauxite—and tied the lease to no premium.”
“What that means, when they calculated what the leasehold interest is, they paid $51,000 to assign the interest in Tembladora for a $51 million property! Tembladora paid the state $51,000 to assign the interest for a $51 million property,” Hosein claimed.
He claimed TELL, on getting the state lease for $51 million, mortgaged the lands for US$19 million.
“Did the former, former prime minister have any interest in that property?”
Hosein claimed when leases were being prepared, public servants in the Attorney General’s ministry raised red flags.
He claimed the PNM cabinet said, “Not to worry about that.”
He said the annual rent the company pays for the three parcels is $2,400, $172 and $10.
“It was a ‘fire sale’! The file on the issue is ready to go to the AG’s office!”
Hosein said he was also sending a file to the AG’s ministry regarding land north of Grand Bazaar in Valsayn. He claimed it was allocated to National Petroleum for a gas station, but a 2023 Cabinet note rescinded previous plans to give it to NP and a lease was done on April 8, 2025—20 days before the April 28, 2025 general election—to give it to a businessman who has business near Grand Bazaar.
Chin Lee—Saddam misleading
Commenting on Hosein’s claims, Chin Lee confirmed TELL is owned by POML. But he said TELL didn’t purchase the lease from the government.
“The company acquired, through a private commercial arrangement with Alcoa International out of Pittsburgh, all of its Trinidad assets, which included, inter alia, the assignment of the remainder of its interest in certain Carenege lands held under State leases going back to 1947, plus the equipment, infrastructure, buildings, warehouses, the jetty and the tank farm which were all used by Alcoa as part of its bauxite transhipment facility,” he said.
“The State’s involvement was limited to the Commissioner of State Lands approving the assignment and variation of the existing 1947 lease to facilitate its continuation and the transfer of the leasehold interest from Alcoa International to TELL. Importantly, the variation changed the permitted use of the property from bauxite-specific operations to energy-related activities, both of which are still industrial in nature, hence the reason why no premium was required for this transaction.”
He continued, “Equally important is that this facility had been non-operational and mothballed in a semi-abandoned condition since 2008, when Alcoa International ceased T&T operations. Through substantial private-sector investment, TELL has revitalised the facility, transforming it into a productive energy shore base and certified ISPS staging port facility supporting T&T’s oil and gas industry.”
Chin Lee said a document Hosein alluded to—and a $51,705 payment—is merely a processing fee charged by the Commissioner of State Lands to process consent.
