Chester Sam­bra­no

Econ­o­mist and for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Mar­i­ano Browne, has cau­tioned against any move to al­low the whole­sale ex­change of old $100 ban­knotes, say­ing such a de­ci­sion would raise se­ri­ous ques­tions about un­ex­plained wealth and cor­rup­tion.

The sug­ges­tion came from for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan af­ter the court, last Fri­day, or­dered the State to pay more than $40,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to the es­tate of an el­der­ly woman, who was de­nied the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­change old cot­ton $100 notes for poly­mer notes in 2020, af­ter she be­came strand­ed abroad dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.