Market Opportunities Unlimited (MOU) Blog

Relief for Olint Investors?...Amidst Continuing Woes for Cash Plus Investors

Yesterday, Olint investors  must have breathed a collective sigh of relief, when  the Jamaican Parliament amended the Mutual Assistance Criminal Matters Act...an Act that provides the legal framework for countries to work with Jamaica  to solve cross-border crime.

 

Background

 

In May of this year,  the Turks and Caicos Islands' Supreme Court, issued a Confiscation Order to Jamaica, in order to retrieve the US $21 million that David Smith (former CEO of the failed investment/ponzi scheme), alleged that he had given the two major political parties - the PNP and JLP and prominent Jamaican politicians 

 

The Confiscation Order was to be enforced by October 24,2012.

 

However, due to the fact that the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) was not one of the countries included in the Mutual Assistance Criminal Matters Act, the Confiscation Order could not be enforced in May.

 

The amendment of the Mutual Assistance Criminal Matters Act, now allows the Turks and Caicos Islands' authorities to carry out investigations re the alleged US $21 million and confiscate the money, on behalf of Olint investors, should the money be found.

 

Now, it will be interesting to see if the TCI authorities will be able to recover the monies from these politicians and political parties...

 

...and if there will be criminal proceedings against any, should he be found guilty... for in the Caribbean, it's very difficult to convict politicians of crime...


...Intra-country governments often shield themselves and each other, by dragging their feet on amending laws that will make them culpable, so it will be very interesting to see how the TCI authorities meander around this.

 

(One example of this, is the failure of the Jamaican Parliament to develop and enact impeachment laws that would see politicians being thrown into prison for acting unlawfully).

 

Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, are the other countries  that were also added to the Act, yesterday.

 

In Related News

On October 3, the fraud trial of Cash Plus CEO - Carlos Hill, was postponed to March 4, 2013 -  the 6th postponement  in over two (2) years.

 

News  emerged two (2) days later, on October 5, that current Cash Plus Liquidator - Hugh Wildman, had been unsuccessful at retrieving the JMD $100m that he claimed was overpaid to the previous liquidator -Kevin Bandoian of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

 

(Kevin Bandoian  had made claims for his fee of JMD $200 million (USD $2.23 million - as at January 2010), against Cash Plus monies recovered, for 45-days' work done immediately after the defunct ponzi scheme went into receivership).

 

I think that it would be very instructive for Cash Plus investors to ascertain how much money Mr. Wildman is being paid as Cash Plus' Liquidator...and whether or not the courts have given him a time frame within which he's  to recover investors' monies, hidden all over the world...

 

...for it seems like everybody's being paid besides the investors in the above ponzi schemes.

 

(I'd like to thank Mike Schmid for the use of his Flickr inset photo above, entitled,"Pocket Change"...

 

...which is unfortunately what investors in the above schemes will be getting, by the time liquidators are through "administering" monies left in these schemes).

 

Gillian

 

Sources Include

http://rjrnewsonline.com/local/changes-to-mutual-assistance-criminal-matters-act

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20121003/news/news5.html

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/latest/article.php?id=40381

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20111016/focus/focus4.html

Olint Backlash Hits Jamaican Politicians!

The Jamaican media was awash with news, yesterday, of a Confiscation Order coming from the Turks and Caicos Islands' Supreme Court, to retrieve US $21 million from David Smith (former CEO of failed investment/ponzi scheme - Olint), by October 24,2012.

 

 

The value of the cash or realisable property to be retrieved is US $12.5 million, whilst the value of tainted gifts to be retrieved are US $8.5 million.

 

These tainted gifts were supposedly given to Jamaican political parties and politicians by David Smith, former Olint CEO, during Olint's hey-day (2001-2008).

 

(David Smith was convicted of over US $220 million fraud last year. As a result, he's presently serving a 6.5 year prison sentence in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and is to serve a 30-year prison sentence in the USA).

 

Here's a breakdown of these gifts:

 

1. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) -US $5 million


2. The ruling People's National Party (PNP) - US $2 million


3. Former Prime Minister - Percival James (PJ) Patterson - US $ 1 million


4. Daryl Vaz - JLP Member of Parliament - US $50,000


5. An unnamed political candidate from Mandeville -  US$ 100,000

 

Already, the named politicians are denying ever receiving any money from Olint.

 

PJ Patterson even issued a press release yesterday, stating that he knew of no such gift.

 

Daryl Vaz is the only politician to admit that he received monies from Olint, for political campaigning.

 

It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this Confiscation Order and if the Jamaican Director of Public Prosecutions will become involved in this case, given that the TCI Confiscation Order, involves recovering assets that David Smith defrauded local and overseas Jamaicans.

 

Gillian

 

Sources Include

1) Article, "Politicians React to Being Named on Olint's Gift List", The Gleaner, May 8,2012

2) Television Jamaica's Nightly News at 7:00 p.m, May 7,2012

3) CVM Television's News Watch Hour at 8:00 p.m., May 7,2012

 

Upcoming Changes to Jamaica's Telecoms Industry?

Yesterday, the Jamaican Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology issued a press release with the following proposed changes to Jamaica's Telecommunications Industry:

 

1) The implementation of Number Portability

 

The press release stated that the three (3) major telecommunications providers on island: Digicel, LIME and Flow,  have signed off to Number Portability -  where a user will retain his/her telephone number if they switch to a different telecommunications provider.

 

The move is expected to  facilitate increased competitiveness in the island's telecoms industry

 

LIME had previously expressed concern when Digicel announced in January that they will not be running a concurrent Claro network and so Claro customers could switch to Digicel and still keep their numbers.

 

(This was in response to Digicel's announcement that the government had given them the go-ahead to completely shut down the Claro network in their takeover of that company, as it would be  inefficient and expensive to operate the two networks.

 

LIME was at that time offering free SIM cards and mobile data plans of JMD $100/day to Claro customers who wished to switch to the LIME network).

 

Number Portability will be applicable to both mobile and broadband networks, so users should be able to switch amongst networks without any problem.

 

2) New Telecoms Regulator

 

There is to be a new telecoms regulatory body in Jamaica, as the Office of Utilities Regulations will no longer be regulating telecommunications on island.

 

(However, investigations are still underway to assess the organizational capacity that will be needed to facilitate this change to Jamaica's regulatory sector and the results aren't expected until August of this year).

 

3) Universal Broadband

 

Digicel, LIME and FLOW have committed to providing islandwide broadband coverage.

 

Well, I'm not too sure how ground-breaking this bit of news is, as two (2) of these three (3) networks already have the entire island covered with broadband service -4G for LIME  and cable broadband for  Flow.

 

Digicel has limited 4G broadband coverage across the major towns on island,  but is expected to fully roll out its 4G mobile service by April of this year...and will, due to competitive pressure, have no other choice than to make it available islandwide, by year-end...a feat made easier by their acquisition of Claro's 4G service.

 

Ok, so what we seem to have above, is a bunch of pronouncements.

 

...of which the listening public must be forewarned... as no timelines have been  given for the implementation of the above changes.

 

The reality is that pronouncements no. 1) and  2) require a lot of planning, so we'll have we wait to for at least 3-6 months for Number Portability and at least one year for  a new telecoms regulator to be instated.

 

Already LIME's Managing Director - Garfield Sinclair, is claiming that he's been in no meetings involving Technology Minister - Phillip Paulwell and other telecoms providers re the above pronouncements, so maybe the above pronouncements are just the optimistic outlooks of our Technology Minister.

 

Will keep you updated re this.

 

(I'd like to thank june21st for the use of his Flickr inset photo above, entitled, "Telecom Tower").

 

 Gillian

 

Sources Include

1) Article,"Digicel 4G Broadband FAQs", via Digicel.com, accessed February 15,2012

2) Power 106 FM, February 14,2012

3) Article, "Fight for Claro customers", Jamaica Observer|Business, January 15,2012