– Ram accused of acting in “Bad Faith”
The claim filed by Cara Investments Ltd against Christopher Ram and Scotiabank Ltd continued on Wednesday last  before the Honourable Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang. The trial resumed with Lead Counsel Sanjeev Datadin leading Cara Investment Ltd’s first witness, Mr. Paul Stephenson, in giving his evidence. Mr. Stephenson in his evidence on Wednesday indicated that Ram had breached his contract with Cara and as a result was liable to them in damages for breach of contract.
FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS MADE BY RAM
Stephenson testified that he had examined the financial projections for Hotel Tower, which Ram had circulated to investors, and found those figures to be overly ambitious and unlikely to be achieved, which he attributed primarily to Ram’s inexperience and inability to appreciate the hotel industry in Guyana. He said the figures incorrectly placed emphasis on the non-core business of hotels, namely food and beverage sales. He further claimed that the financial projections submitted by Cara to Ram when he was Receiver of Hotel Tower were lower and more realistic.
He went on to testify that he had examined the actual financial report for Hotel Tower for a period when Ram was Receiver and stated that those figures were far below Ram’s own projections, having been extremely low; also that Ram had restructured operational methodologies and used a management model and style that had been untested, which Stephenson claimed was unlikely to be successful because it did not focus on the core business of average room rate and average occupancy. In an invited comment, Datadin said the comparison between financial projections for Hotel Tower made by Ram, and those of his clients that were submitted to Ram 10 years ago, may give the Court an idea of the potential loss his clients suffered; and to show that their figures were conservative and realistic.
BAD FAITH
He further said that he had received a letter dated 2nd December 1999 via fax, written by Trust Company Guyana Limited, which purported to offer shares in Hotel Tower Limited to AINLIM at the same time that Ram had a public newspaper advertisement inviting bids for potential investors to purchase the hotel. He said it was confusing that Ram as a Receiver would advertise for bids for the Hotel Tower on the one hand, while he was simultaneously trying to float the shares for investors on the other hand. He claimed that the two processes were mutually exclusive.
Mr. Datadin, responding to queries by this newspaper after the day’s proceedings about the implications of Ram’s actions, said “It appears that Ram was being less than professional and would be acting in bad faith if he was inviting public bids for Hotel Tower when he was seeking to attract other investors by a sale of shares”. He refused to answer a question posed as to whether Ram’s actions could be deemed corporate dishonesty.
THE CASE
Cara Investments Ltd is suing Christopher Ram for his conduct when he was Receiver of Hotel Tower, claiming that he breached the contract he had with them when he had invited public bids for the sale of Hotel Tower, and alleges that breach entitled them to damages in excess of 1.8B. Cara is represented by Sanjeev Datadin and Sir Fenton Ramsahoye S.C.; while Ram was represented yesterday by Ms. Abiola Wong; while Scotiabank is represented by Mr. R. Fields S.C.