Friday October 17th, 2008: After two days of hearing in a New York district court, the judge dismissed the case brought by Grynberg against the former Minister of energy Gregory Bowen and others , in which he claimed among other things that the former Minister asked him for a bribe.
The Government of Grenada in 2005 had terminated Gryberg’s agreement to explore for oil and gas in Grenadian waters after he had invoked a state of force majeure only 14 days after he had signed the agreement in July of 1996 and used the inactive period to sell rights that he did not have, instead of investing in the exploration for oil and gas.
Grynberg in an effort to have the agreement re-instated formulated a lawsuit in which he alleged that the then Energy Minister asked him for a bribe and threatened the Keith Mitchell Administration to file the lawsuit if his demand was not met. Neither Government nor Mr. Bowen succumbed.
Grynberg’s original complaint in the New York district court was thrown out by the judge. He thereafter amended his complaint three times in an effort to keep the issue alive until the general elections in 2008 in a locally co-ordinated effort to remove Gregory Bowen and the New National Party from office.
In dismissing the case against Mr. Bowen the judge found Grynberg’s allegations to be scandalous baseless and false.
It must be noted that despite the winner of a lawsuit in New York, the individual parties paid their respective legal cost. However in this case the judge advised that he would entertain an application for Grynberg to reimburse the legal fees of the defendants, pointing to the glaring libelous abuse perpetuated by Grynberg.
Mr. Bowen will be holding a Press Conference in the near future with his legal team, when all the issues will be ventilated. Further all legal recourse in respect of damages in both jurisdictions, Grenada and the USA will be investigated.
It is instructive to note that by Mr. Bowen winning the case, not only is his name cleared, but he has also removed potential damages of US $500 million from the Government and the people of Grenada; the amount that Grynberg sued for.
One would recall that in 2007 Mr. Grynberg’s attempt to revive the case against Minister Bowen was dismissed on Friday September 28th 2007 on a submission filed by Mr. Bowen’s Attorney Jade Johnson.
