CATEGORY:MAJOR DEVELOPMENT ------------------------------ INSIDE GRENADA SUNDAY August 19,2007 ST.GEORGE’S – Hon. Gregory Bowen, Energy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Grenada, has been able to successfully overcome a legal hurdle placed in his path by oil tycoon Jack Grynberg of RSM Corporation. Jack Grynberg, a litigious Denver-based oil and gas developer with a multi-million dollar empire, accused the Grenada Energy Minister of soliciting a bribe from him back in September 1996 and proceeded to file a US$500 million lawsuit against the Grenadian minister. On Friday (August 17), during a press conference, Minister Bowen informed the nation that the Grynberg case had been dismissed in New York. He described the lawsuit as being frivolous and one that lacked credibility. This must have been a great relief to Minister Bowen who has consistently maintained his innocence throughout the entire saga, in the face of mounting, stinging criticism from opposition forces in the country. Legal Advisor to Cabinet, Mr. Hugh Wildman, in his address to the media, explained the grounds on which the case was dismissed. He said that “... the Judge felt that instead of going through all the grounds on which dismissal was sought, it was sufficient that the action was statute barred.” According to Mr. Wildman “... this goes to the point I made earlier, which is, this was some after-thought on the part of Mr. Grynberg - it was something he came up with long after he thought that this oil thing was not working out and he wanted the government to not contest the arbitration in England; so when that failed, at the last minute, he tried to come up with this lawsuit.” During the press conference, Bowen once again stressed the point that he had never had any dealings with Mr. Grynberg in 1996 and stated quite emphatically that he had never solicited any bribe from him. Mr. Bowen said that the authorities in Grenada did a search, and they found out that this gentleman (Grynberg) never came to Grenada in 1996. He said that in London, somewhere after the 18th of June, in giving his evidence, his Lawyers (Bowen’s) asked Mr. Grynberg if he ever came to Grenada and how many times. Grynberg said yes he had visited Grenada and he had done so three times. He said that without even being asked, Grynberg brought out his passport and showed a stamp for Venezuela on the 12th of September. Grynberg claimed that “... there was no stamp in Grenada in 1996, because he came to Grenada and there was nobody at the airport to check his passport, and he walked through immigration and came out.’ Hugh Wildman accused some ‘political lawyers’ in Grenada of encouraging the lawsuit in order to score political mileage and that the outcome of the case must have dealt a major blow to their plans. Mr. Bowen and his team are also convinced that the case between the Prime Minister and Eric Restiner will be dismissed.