Lightning fast
Between 2012 and 2017, Jamaican track and field legend Usain Bolt put US$6.5 million in the investment business Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL), but the money was moved out nearly immediately without his knowledge.
According to a Jamaica Observer investigation, Bolt invested US$6.2 million in SSL in 2012 through a limited liability company called Welljen, which is thought to be an amalgamation of his parents’ first names, Wellesly and Jennifer Bolt.
In 2017, another $900,000 was put to Bolt’s account. However, beginning in 2012, US$5.8 million was removed from his account via cheques and cash.
Furthermore, US$90,000 in the account between 2019 and 2022 was swiftly withdrawn.
“The money removed would have included interest and dividends earned on top of the minimum amount invested,” an Observer source said on Sunday.
The source provided the Observer with the portfolio holdings and liabilities statement, which bore SSL’s logo and was allegedly sent to the Bolt team in September 2022, and showed fixed income of US$3,714.58 million, equities of US$7,415.06 million, and cash of US$918,000.01, totaling US$12,047.65 million in the company.
Lawyers for Bolt had written to SSL demanding that the reported sum in his account on October 31, 2022 — US$12,758,181.74 — be refunded by January 27.
The attorneys also alleged that there was just $12,000 left in the account.
When the deadline passed last Friday, one of Bolt’s attorneys, Linton Gordon, told the Observer that they were in talks with the Financial Services Commission (FSC), which had taken control of SSL, and that any further comments would be improper at the time.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has joined local investigators in the investigation into what is thought to be the largest fraud at a registered Jamaican financial institution.
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The FBI responded to the Observer’s inquiry late last week by confirming that it has entered the probe, but it didn’t say anything further.
The investigators are looking into ten transactions between July 2021 and May 2022 in which millions of dollars were stolen from Bolt’s account and transferred to a bearer in order to reportedly buy blue-chip stocks in American companies.
E-mails reportedly authorizing the purchase of the stocks were allegedly sent by a previous member of Bolt’s management team to the former SSL employee at the center of the probe, but Observer sources believe the e-mail address used to send the authorizations was faked. Furthermore, the former management team member has categorically denied authorizing the transfer of monies from the sprint legend’s account.
Bolt is one of at least 40 SSL clients whose money were completely or nearly completely wiped out in the fraud, which is estimated to have cost more than $3 billion so far.
The FSC has sent a temporary manager into the company to oversee its operations as a result of the incident, which has gained international attention principally because Bolt is a victim.
Furthermore, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke proposed a slew of financial sector reforms this week, as well as cashiered the FSC’s executive director and replaced him with Temporary Manager Kerron Burrell.
Clarke also replaced four FSC board members with top Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) executives, including Governor Richard Byles, who is now chairman, Wayne Robinson, Jide Lewis, and George Roper.
Clarke also informed the country that, in addition to the FBI, forensic auditors from other countries will assist local law enforcement agencies in investigating the scam.
Clarke announced late last Wednesday that the FSC had been successful in getting a court injunction prohibiting the directors of SSL from winding up the company and liquidating assets.
The members of SSL, according to Clarke, had applied to the Companies Office of Jamaica for a members’ voluntary winding up of the firm on January 16, 2023.
The court order prohibits SSL’s trustee and directors from disposing of or dealing with assets and liabilities in its name; withdrawing, transferring, or otherwise dissipating funds from accounts in its name wherever held; winding up or dissolving the company; or reorganizing the company or its operations, whether in document form or organization of its members, assets, and liabilities.
