This country has a crisis of ‘loan sharking’ that is taking advantage of people in financial need and destroying them, destroying their families and threatening them with violence against themselves and loved ones, and who knows if any of these senseless murders were a punishment or a coercion to pay?
It is massive in scale and most caught in the web do not know who to turn to when they end up in over their heads.
My question this morning is, where is the government and the police?
How is this being allowed to mushroom and no one take any action similar to action taken against DSS that led to laws against pyramid schemes?
I call on the minister of finance as well as the Attirney General this morning to take a Bill to Parliament outlawing loan shark activities and setting draconian penalties for those who engage in same.
Unlicensed loan operations and those with underworld connections should of course be flagged and publicly exposed by the media.
I also call on the Commissioner of a police who MUST be aware of this as there are rumors of police officers who are hired by some loan sharks as enforcers, to make such extra duties offenses that leads to termination from the police service and prosecution, to let the public know of existing laws, and where to go to make a report if they find themselves a victim of such a scam.
I am calling on all victims of loan sharks to contact me via WhatsApp at 6822110 with information that I will make public to at least alert unsuspecting others of the existence and identity of loan sharks so they themselves do not get trapped.
I will be sharing interviews with a young house wife from San Fernando and the owners of two fairly large businesses, one from a well known Port of Spain family and another based in Movie Towne Port of Spain who found themselves tangled and ended up running for their lives until they got family members to mortgage homes and sell vehicles to pay off the ever escalating debt.
A simple loan of fifty thousand could quickly become a million dollars as interest is compounded weekly and applied to the original balance.
In times of serious financial desperation brought on by the collapsed economy and poorly handled lockdown that ruined many financially left many as prey to these white collar criminals.
The authorities have a responsibility to act here, and must explain their silence and their inaction that allowed this to put do many at risk.
Phillip Edward Alexander
Political Leader
Progressive Empowerment Party