This week’s featured general improvement as Newsmaker of the Week simply ended is the vary of reactions and happenings which have occurred since dash sensation Usain Bolt gave his first public interview in relation to the multi-billion greenback fraud at Shares and Securities Restricted (SSL), the place he reportedly misplaced hundreds of thousands of US {dollars}.
The 100m and 200m world document holder dominated headlines this week, along with his authorized staff being compelled to sentence what they described as “efforts” responsible Bolt for his monetary loss from the fraud additionally affected different individuals.
It might be simply argued that Bolt’s explosive interview on ‘The Repair’ podcast sparked a series response of developments, together with a robust rebuttal from his lawyer, Linton P Gordon, over ‘victim-blaming’ makes an attempt, and a media interview wherein the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Paula Llewellyn, indicated her workplace’s readiness to prosecute the case.
On January 12, 2023, information broke that hundreds of thousands of {dollars} reportedly went lacking from Bolt’s account at SSL, which subsequently led to a multi-agency fraud probe that resulted in Jean-Ann Panton, a former wealth advisor on the agency, being the only individual to be charged to this point.
Two years later, Llewellyn has lastly confirmed that the allegations towards Panton, together with a 22-count grievance that includes a number of complainants, listing Bolt as one of many complainants.
“In respect of Bolt, cumulatively, there are about 5 completely different counts, (together with) larceny as a servant and interesting in a transaction involving felony property. The sum that’s alleged in respect of the fraud the place Welljen is worried, that is Bolt’s firm, is US$6 million,” Llewellyn advised the Gleaner, which was printed in an article on Friday.
Paula Llewellyn
Bolt’s interview with ‘The Repair’ podcast make clear his frustration with the dealing with of the investigation, which he feels has been ongoing for 2 years with out important progress.
He additionally questioned how one individual – Panton – might be solely answerable for the large fraud.
“So yah go inform me all this cash lacking and a one individual know ’bout it? One any person cannot transfer spherical (that amount of cash) and no person else nuh know ’bout it in a giant establishment the place it is speculated to be regulated…,” Bolt stated.
When requested if he feels that the authorities are doing sufficient to unravel the fraud case, Bolt responded: “No, bredda”.
He contended that, “(It’s) the Authorities alone actually can do nothing large bout this”.
However his remark and point out of the phrase ‘Authorities’ has seen the retired athlete being subjected to heavy criticism and backlash from individuals on social media, particularly supporters and members of the governing Jamaica Labour Celebration (JLP).
The event has additionally prompted a forwards and backwards between the JLP and the Opposition Folks’s Nationwide Celebration (PNP), with supporters of the governing celebration pushing the view that the scandal at SSL has nothing to with politics or the current Authorities.
PNP supporters argue in any other case, citing that SSL was regulated by the Monetary Companies Fee (FSC) that had submitted a 2019 examination report of SSL to the Finance and the Public Service Ministry in April of 2020.
However, just a few weeks after information of the fraud scandal at SSL broke in January of 2023, then Portfolio Minister, Dr Nigel Clarke, stated he was solely made conscious of such a report being submitted that month after his coverage tackle on the fraud on the funding agency.
“This was not a report ready for me particularly. Slightly, it was a duplicate of an current FSC report that the FSC makes use of to do its job,” wrote Clarke in a newspaper article then.
Dr Nigel Clarke
He added that, “The report, which doesn’t include the regulatory historical past with respect to SSL that’s now within the public area, discovered breaches worthy of the advice that the FSC meet with the board of SSL to deal with liquidity points at SSL, and additional beneficial that SSL be ‘issued instantly with regulatory instructions in an effort to have the problems resolved in a well timed method’.”
However media stories said that SSL was flagged from way back to February of 2017 in an eight-page opinion ready by the FSC, for what it described as a “tradition of non-compliance and mismanagement of consumer funds”.
In a December 2023 assertion, the Monetary Investigations Division (FID) stated there have been “over 200 affected accounts and a staggering quantity exceeding $4.7 billion (US$30 million) attributable to fraud and different irregularities associated to shoppers’ funds” at SSL.
Bolt’s lawyer, Linton Gordon, on Friday, vehemently denied media stories that recommended that a few of Bolt’s funds had been by no means deposited into his SSL account.
Gordon dismissed the assertions as “false, baseless, and entirely without credibility”.
In an announcement that was shared by Bolt on his X (previously Twitter) web page on Friday, Gordon emphasised that each one funds lodged at SSL by Bolt’s firm, Welljen Restricted, had been transferred by way of financial institution transactions, and had been acknowledged by the establishment in writing.
Moreover, Gordon stated Ken Tomlinson, who was appointed by the FSC to handle SSL, discovered information confirming the lodgements and attested to them within the Supreme Court docket.
Usain Bolt (left) and his lawyer Linton Gordon.
“Due to this fact, any suggestion that funds from Mr Bolt’s firm, Welljen Ltd, didn’t attain SSL, is inaccurate and with out benefit. The notion that Mr Bolt was negligent in making these deposits is fully unfounded,” Gordon argued.
The lawyer additionally took purpose at these in search of to shift blame onto Bolt, characterising it as a “textbook case of victim-blaming”, and an try to absolve the Authorities of its failure to guard the general public and people defrauded at SSL.
Gordon argued that, “To recommend that Mr Bolt was careless, or lacked correct monetary administration, is to suggest the identical about each Jamaican who has invested in a government-approved monetary establishment.”
To strengthen these factors, the lawyer identified that Prime Minister Andrew Holness, the Authorities of Jamaica, and tons of of different Jamaican residents, invested in SSL, an establishment which Gordon stated “was authorised and controlled by the federal government”.
Added the lawyer: “There now seems to be an organised effort to shift blame onto The Honourable Usain Bolt for his loss, when he’s responsible of nothing greater than investing within the nation that he loves.”
In the meantime, Llewellyn advised reporters on Friday that the excellent paperwork from the FID will decide if different prices are to be laid within the SSL case, and don’t have anything to with Bolt’s case.
A day earlier than, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson, known as for the discharge of a report from United Kingdom-based forensics agency Kroll, this after citing what he stated was the seeming “disturbing” and “selective” leaking of the report back to a media home.
Julian Robinson
“I’m calling for 2 issues: one, for the Authorities to launch that forensic report in its totality, to not proceed this train of selecting and selecting sections of the report and sending it to particular media homes, however to place your entire report on the desk so that each one Jamaicans can see what occurred,” Robinson said.
He additionally pressed the Authorities to supply an replace on the standing of the fraud investigations.
On the matter of the discharge of the Kroll report, Finance and the Public Service Minister, Fayval Williams, was quoted within the media as saying she would take authorized steering on the problem.
Because the investigation continues, Bolt’s quest for justice has sparked widespread consideration and concern.
Others, nevertheless, like former Folks’s Nationwide Celebration (PNP) councillor-turned-JLP member, Venesha Phillips, have requested some questions of the retired sprinter about his private duty within the SSL debacle.
“Did you get recommendation or directive from Authorities instantly or not directly relating to making the funding you made after which misplaced?” Phillips requested on Tuesday.
“Was all of it privately carried out? Have you ever sued the one that managed your affairs? These questions, if answered, will give us right here perspective,” stated the previous Folks’s Nationwide Celebration (PNP) councillor-turned-JLP member.
And, in a fast rebuttal, Phillips urged the 100m and 200m document holder to not fall for “gas-lighting”.
Venesha Phillips (centre)
“There’s no sufferer shaming. You’re a sufferer, nevertheless it was not peanuts that you simply had been investing, and given your profile, I requested you whether or not you opted for sure stage of recommendation, and should you thought of authorized motion towards a few of these you trusted with ur (your) funds,” she said.
Other than that social media spat, customers of assorted platforms have been weighing in on the newest within the seemingly extended probe into the fraud at SSL.
“If this was in America, you (Bolt) would get again your cash very long time and any person gone a jail… Jamaica won’t ever higher,” stated a male Fb person.
“The Authorities has no duty for the cash that Mr Bolt misplaced in SSL. He put quite a lot of religion in his funding advisors, who knew little or no about funding,” one other man opined.
“Bolt, you wait too lengthy to begin making noise about your lacking cash. If anybody deserves that sort of cash, it’s Bolt. He labored exhausting for it and on the similar time introduced pleasure to the world and elevated Jamaica within the eyes of the world to a different stage,” a Fb person commented.
Argued a girl: “Bolt, I respect your achievements, however do not let me darkish you up.
“Do not point out the gov’t (Authorities), as a result of did Anju (Andrew Holness) let you know to spend money on SSL? Rely your losses and transfer on,” she recommended.
In including her voice to the matter, one other lady stated she doesn’t imagine that the Authorities ought to play any function in reimbursing the dash icon.
“I really feel dangerous for Bolt, however my group wants water and roads so NO, the Authorities can not use tax payers cash to present you again one thing your colleagues stole, as an alternative of fixing issues folks pay tax for!” she wrote.
Commented one other: “Bolt, the gov’t by no means maintain your hand and inform yuh, ‘Spend money on SSL’, so a beg yuh nuh name Andrew (Holness) Authorities in yuh mess and mek PNP use you. Third time period loading!”
Shared a person: “Sigh, have to be irritating to be eager about whether or not or not your going to get again your hard-earned {dollars}. Rattling, him (Bolt) might be tremendous rich, it is nonetheless his cash. He wants a solution (about his lacking funds).”
Stated a girl: “The dash legend deserves his cash, nevertheless, Venesha (Phillips) isn’t fallacious.”
In response, a person stated: “After all he (Bolt) deserves his cash, however undoubtedly not my tax cash.
“He (Bolt) should go search for his handlers and discover out what they did along with his cash.”
In the meantime, one other man issued a broadside towards these desirous to separate politics from the SSL scandal.
“Politics goes to be talked about on this case whether or not we prefer it or not, as a result of the prime minister take out all him cash (in 2021)… and bear in mind FSC (Monetary Companies Fee) did spotlight issues about SSL,” the person wrote.
He argued that, “Folks desirous to separate politics from this ting to go sit down as a result of FSC had a duty, they usually failed these traders at SSL large time – non-public firm, sure, however FSC had a task to play.”
Source link
