ANTHONY Levy, the attorney-at-law representing Thermo-Plastics, yesterday charged that the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) undervalued and sold the assets of the company to connected parties in an incestuous affair after the 1990s financial meltdown.

Levy was posing questions to FINSAC general manager Errol Campbell in the ongoing enquiry at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston.

According to Levy, National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ), then headed by Rex James, acquired the assets of Thermo-Plastics from FINSAC and sold two properties at Twickenham Park in St Catherine for $35 million and $9.4 million respectively.

The attorney, however, contended that the assets were grossly undervalued, saying that the tax department had a valuation of $145 million for the property that NIBJ sold for $35 million. He added that the combined value of both properties was closer to $183 million.

Levy, who told the enquiry that the case was now before the courts, said that records show that James was also a director of FINSAC-subsidiary REFIN as well as a director in the company that purchased the $9.4-million property.

“This was an incestuous affair,” Levy commented during the proceedings, adding that public notice was never given, as required by law, nor was the sale advertised.

Thermo-Plastics, a container manufacturing company considered at the time the largest of its kind in the Caribbean, was sold in 2002 after racking up over $100 million in debt.

Campbell, when asked if he knew who did the valuations for the sale of the properties, told the enquiry that he did not have that information.

In his second day of testimony, the FINSAC general manager was again hauled over the coals for an apparent lack of preparation or intentional evasiveness.

In response to question after question, Campbell said that he was either unaware or did not have records to adequately answer.

Commission chairman Justice Boyd Carey, forced to intervene, read the mandate of the enquiry and instructed Campbell to either answer questions or provide information to the Commission.

“Somebody has to answer,” Carey remarked.

Levy, in the meantime, suggested that James as well as Thermo-Plastics receiver Richard Downer be called to give testimony in the enquiry.