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For­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Mar­i­ano Browne, has en­dorsed the de­ci­sion of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie to end long-stand­ing civ­il suits tied to the col­lapse of the CLF con­glom­er­ate, with ma­jor­i­ty share­hold­er Carl­ton Reis call­ing for the State to fi­nal­ly re­lin­quish con­trol and al­low CL Fi­nan­cial (CLF) to re­build.

On Fri­day, Je­re­mie laid in Par­lia­ment the Re­ports of the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the col­lapse of the CLF group and the Hin­du Cred­it Union (HCU), re­veal­ing that the State spent ap­prox­i­mate­ly $28 bil­lion res­cu­ing CLF and its sub­sidiaries, with a fur­ther $3 bil­lion to $4 bil­lion spent in sub­se­quent years on le­gal, ac­count­ing and ad­min­is­tra­tive mat­ters linked to the col­lapse. Je­re­mie an­nounced the end of the civ­il ac­tions, cit­ing years of stag­na­tion, bal­loon­ing le­gal costs and the ab­sence of mean­ing­ful progress.

Browne, in analysing the CLF/CLI­CO fall­out, said the move was both nec­es­sary and over­due.