David Lammy 'ran away' from eco-project that collapsed in chaos - AOL

David Lammy has been accused of turning his back on a sustainable farming business after it collapsed.

The Deputy Prime Minister had boasted that the venture in Guyana would make the country "the breadbasket of the Caribbean", but he "ran as far as he could" when it started to fail, it was claimed.

Pomeroon Trading, the company involved, faces allegations of unpaid bills and wrecking a Guyanese coconut farm.

A 92-year-old woman who leased land to a British banker behind the firm said Mr Lammy abandoned her when she sought his help, and ignored her when she went to his hotel for three days running, hoping to talk to him.

The saga, which has now ended up in court, could embarrass Labour as it prepares for next month's local elections.

Mr Lammy, who is also the Justice Secretary, acted as an unpaid adviser to Pomeroon Trading, set up by Neil Passmore, a British businessman.

The business aimed to produce coconuts and spices sustainably by clearing and replanting land that had become overgrown.

Mr Lammy declared a shareholding in the company in the parliamentary register of members' interests between 2019 and 2024.

When the company announced its intention to go public in 2019, Mr Lammy told the media in Guyana: "I hope Pomeroon's initial public offering will excite all my fellow Guyanese people as much as it excites me.

"At a time of huge and understandable focus on the oil and gas industry, it is proof that the country's Green State development strategy is serving in parallel to attract investment, expertise and responsible practice to the agriculture industry."

Newspaper reports showed Mr Lammy touring the 700-acre plantation on the banks of the Pomeroon River with Guyanese government officials and foreign investors.

His entry in the register of MPs' interests says he provided advice on "Guyana, the Caribbean and on the company's community development fund".

Duncan Turnbull, then the chief executive of Pomeroon Trading, said at the time that as well as improving the quality of coconuts, the firm had "focused on projects in education and female empowerment" in the wider community.

Eight years on, the project has descended into acrimony, with the owner of the land suing Pomeroon Trading for $387,000 (£288,000) in alleged unpaid rent and another $500,000 in damages in the High Court of Guyana.

Zena Stoll, 91, claims the company let her Stoll Estate fall into ruin and that Mr Lammy turned his back on her when she went to him for help.

In court documents, she said: "Buildings fell into disrepair, families who had worked on the estate for many years left, and the drainage system began to lose efficiency."

The court filing accused Mr Passmore of having "taken advantage" of Ms Stoll, who handed control of the property to his company after he obtained a lease agreement from her in 2017.

Pomeroon Trading denies the allegations and has filed a counterclaim, arguing Ms Stoll leased the property on false pretences.

Ms Stoll told The Telegraph that Mr Lammy, then a backbench MP, had given her his mobile phone number in 2018 after she attended an event in London at which he had endorsed Pomeroon, telling her to call him if she had any questions.

When she became embroiled in a dispute with Pomeroon Trading, she tried to phone Mr Lammy but he did not answer.

She tracked him down to a hotel where he was staying in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital, in 2023 and waited in the lobby for three days for him to appear. When there was no sign of him, she left notes at reception but received no reply.

"He abandoned me," she said. "I depended on him to put in a word for me ... I spent three days sending him notes every day for three days, and I wondered why he ignored me.

"The only way I would think of him ignoring me is that he is embarrassed that whatever he had recommended to Neil has turned sour, and that's the reason for him not meeting with me.

"So I'm disappointed in you, minister. Minister Lammy, I do hope that you will do a good job wherever you are. And perhaps one day, you'll try to get in touch with me and apologise for not answering my requests."

Stanley Ming, a Guyanese businessman who says he approached Mr Lammy on Ms Stoll's behalf, said: "When David recognised what was playing out, he ran as far as he could."

Mr Ming, a mutual friend of Mr Lammy and Ms Stoll, added: "I've known David a long time. I don't consider David a businessman, David is a political animal. I think he has a certain set of values and I have known him to be a very decent person."

He said that when he had called Mr Lammy to inform him of Ms Stoll's concerns: "[Mr Lammy] said, 'Stanley, I don't want to get involved in that, that's gone to the legal [case] and [I am] washing my hands'."

Mr Lammy's parents are from Guyana and he is a frequent visitor to the country. He has also said Britain should listen to requests from Caribbean nations for slavery reparations if it wants a trade deal with them.

When Ms Stoll waited for him in his hotel, he was in the country to open the Sophia Point Rainforest Research Centre, a not-for-profit biodiversity facility founded by Mr Lammy and Nicola Green, his wife.

Sir Tony Blair was one of the guests of honour at the ceremony, a significant coup for Mr Lammy.

In 2019, Mr Lammy became "envoy extraordinaire" at the University of Guyana. In 2022, his appointment to the board of the Guyana Natural Resources Fund - set up to manage income from oil fields discovered in 2015 - was front-page news in Guyana, though Mr Lammy says he never took the job.

Mr Lammy has never disclosed the value of his former shareholding in Pomeroon Trading. Under parliamentary rules, MPs do not have to declare shareholdings of less than £70,000, or less than 15 per cent of a company's share capital.

In 2021, Pomeroon's website listed among its partners UK Trade and Investment, now part of the Department for Business and Trade. A spokesman for the department said: "We hold no records of UKTI/DBT funding for Pomeroon Trading."

Pomeroon Trading maintains that Ms Stoll is the one at fault because, it says, she did not supply documentation proving herself the estate's rightful owner and failed to mention a family quarrel over its ownership, breaching their agreement.

This scuppered plans to drum up investment by listing the business on the Guyana Stock Exchange, leading to a financial loss, it claims.

Pomeroon accuses Ms Stoll of "fraudulent misrepresentation" in its counterclaim for $100,000 and is seeking a further $100,000 for breach of contract. It has also requested a refund of all rent paid.

Ms Stoll, a British national also known as Zena Stoll Bone, moved from the Caribbean to London in the late 1950s and later returned home. She says she lost patience with Pomeroon Trading in March, 2023, and her lawyer wrote to the firm demanding it vacate the land.

By this time, Pomeroon Trading had fallen far behind on rent, according to Ms Stoll's legal claim, with payments having been "sporadic and in continuous arrears", though Pomeroon Trading denies this.

Pomeroon, which planned to become a "poster child for Guyanese agriculture", eventually left the Stoll Estate in September 2024.

Mr Passmore said: "Pomeroon believes it has been knowingly and quite deliberately defrauded following a good faith investment in Guyana. Pomeroon is the victim of mendacious litigation and has served a defence and counterclaim it expects to prevail.

"Over the period 2018-2022, Pomeroon Trading invested significant capital in trying to rehabilitate the Stoll Estate. It was widely seen and held up by domestic and regional government and agencies as a poster child and a 'model farmer' [by Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development] for sustainable agriculture.

"Mrs Zena Bone referred to Pomeroon in public media articles as a 'perfect partner'. Pomeroon has still never been shown any proof of the purported Stoll family ownership.

"Evidence that has now arisen of at least one previous similar 'tenancy' and dispute [that] suggests Pomeroon Trading may not only have been deliberately and knowingly defrauded by Mrs Bone, but in fact are not the first victims of her behaviour."

A spokesman for Mr Lammy said: "There is a live dispute and ongoing legal proceedings between Ms Stoll and Pomeroon Trading on the facts of this case which it would be inappropriate to comment on.

"Mr Lammy had no operational role in Pomeroon Trading and was not involved in its day-to-day management, HR, contractual or financial arrangements.

"He disposed of his shares for a nominal sum of £500 on entering government in July 2024 and he no longer acts as an unpaid adviser or has a relationship with the company."