NCB accused of flouting law
February 09, 2007
Financial regulators, using the country's money-laundering law, have charged the National Commercial Bank (NCB) with failing to report suspicious money dealings by one of Jamaica's reputed drug lords, Norris 'Deedo' Nembhard.
Last night, NCB's CEO, Patrick Hylton, confirmed that six summonses had been served on the bank relating to six transactions over an eight-month period in 2003. He all but conceded that employees at one of the bank's branches failed to file requisite reports.
Information available to The Gleaner indicated that one transaction in 2003 was worth more than US$20 million.
Sanctions were imposed
"When those transactions were discovered later that year, the bank took immediate steps to institute its disciplinary process for the employees involved and to file the requisite reports based on information available at the time," Hylton said in a statement. "Sanctions were imposed arising from this process."
Hylton did not name the employees, disclose the disciplinary action taken or the branch involved. However, court sources told The Gleaner that the transactions had taken place at NCB branches in Linstead and St. Catherine where Nembhard had accounts.
Nembhard was declared a drug kingpin by the Bush administration and has been in jail, since 2005, fighting extradition to the United States.
Nembhard lived in Runaway Bay, St. Ann, and operated several ostensibly legitimate businesses.
He was among a clutch of high-profile accused drug dealers - nabbed by the police force's Operation Kingfish in a series of raids two years ago - hauled before the courts on U.S. extradition warrants. Among the others was Montego Bay businessman Leebert Ramcharan, another designated drug kingpin as well as Donovan 'Plucky' Williams. Jamaica's Supreme Court ruled that all should be sent to the U.S. for trial. The group, however, appealed the extraditions.
Under Jamaica's money-laundering law, transactions of US$50,000 or above, except where clients have special exemptions, should automatically trigger reports to the Finance Ministry.
Although NCB, owned by the Jamaican-Canadian billionaire Michael Lee Chin, eventually came good with the information, the Financial Investigations Division of the Finance Ministry still brought charges for the bank's failure to file the reports within the stipulated time. The case is to come up in court on February 23. It is believed to be the first time that a financial institution has faced such a charge....
Author: Barbara Gayle
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
