Karl Lewin-Led Committee Withdraws Allegations of Wrongdoing & Apologises to Two Barita Executives

l-r: Paul Simpson, Group president and CEO for Corner Stone Investments Company and deputy chairman for Barita Investments, Karl Lewin, chairman of management committee representing Rita Humphries-Lewin, Jason Chambers, chief investment officer, Cornerstone and managing director of Barita Unit Trusts Management Company 

A management committee representing retired business luminary Rita Humphries-Lewin has discontinued a counter suit against Barita Investments, Cornerstone Group and two of its main principals, Paul Simpson and Jason Chambers.

The committee, which is chaired by Mrs. Humphries-Lewin’s husband Karl, has also publicly apologised to Simpson, Chambers and their families and withdrawn all allegations of wrongdoing.

The counter-suit was filed in response to an initial suit, which was filed by Simpson and Barita seeking to have aspects of a deal which had been arrived at in 2021 regarding Barita enforced.

Mrs. Humphries-Lewin is the founder and former owner of Barita. Simpson’s Cornerstone Group acquired majority ownership in the company several years ago.

The settlement of the major corporate dispute, which had attracted a series of headlines in the press last year was confirmed in a publication in the Jamaica Observer on Sunday.

The publication withdrawing allegations of wrongdoing follows a move by the Committee of Management of Humphries-Lewin affairs which in 2023 had asked the Supreme Court to undo more than $2 billion worth of transactions involving the retired businesswoman and Cornerstone and its subsidiary Barita.

The committee had alleged that the businesswoman was not in the right frame of mind when the deal was consummated and there were errors in the transaction.

But in a major development, the committee said it got it wrong and regrets impugning the reputation of Mr. Simpson, Mr. Chambers along with Cornerstone and Barita.

The Committee of Management of Humphries-Lewin said it made the decision to withdraw the claim and express regret having received and considered further information and documentation now provided to them concerning certain transactions involving the sale of Mrs. Humphries Lewin shares in Barita Investment Limited and the related purchase of shares in Cornerstone United Holdings Jamaica Limited and Cornerstone Financial Holdings Limited (the Cornerstone Companies).

“In light of the further information and documentation and having consulted with and taken advise from attorney-at-law and in the interest of justice, the committee withdraws all allegations and imputations of misconduct and wrongdoing against the Cornerstone companies and their officers Mr. Paul Simpson and Mr. Jason Chambers”, the Committee of Management representing Mrs. Humpries-Lewin wrote.

The committee said it sincerely regrets that complaints it made had called into question the professional character, integrity and judgement of Mr. Simpson and may have included inflammatory statements about Simpson which had raised concern among relevant regulators.

“We have agreed to discontinue the counter-claim filed in claim number SU 2023/CD00256 against Barita investments limited, the Cornerstone companies and their subsidiaries and especially their officers, Paul Simpson and Jason Chambers. We sincerely regret any harm that may have been caused to the Cornerstone Companies, Barita, their subsidiaries and their officers, especially Mr. Simpson and Mr. Chambers, the chairman of the companies and their families”, Mr. Lewin and his committee wrote.

The transactions involving Cornerstone and Mrs. Humphries-Lewin came into question when businesswoman, Deborah Mordecai-Edwards wrote a letter of complaint to the Bank of Jamaica. Mordecai-Edwards is Mrs. Humphries-Lewin’s niece.

Mordecai-Edwards — an attorney and director of BPM Financial Limited, a competitor to Barita Investments — also charged that the transaction in which her aunt sold just over half her remaining shares in Barita Investments in September 2021 for about $2.26 billion, to purchase a stake in its parent company Cornerstone, should be declared null and void.

Humphries-Lewin had sold 28,231,734 shares at $80 each, to purchase 1,388,889 shares in Cornerstone at US$10.80 each.

Simpson, Chambers, Barita and Cornerstone strongly denied any wrongdoing and insisted that the deal was treated with in a honourable and principled fashion.

Mr. Simpson and Barita had also taken the Jamaica Gleaner to court via a defamation suit which centred on the public firestorm and a series of publications which the Gleaner had made about the issue. That case is still before the Supreme Court.

The mea culpa from the committee representing Mrs. Humphries-Lewin indicated that they accept that Mr. Simpson and his companies did nothing wrong in the deal which had been the subject of contention.