SSL now on Bolt deadline
Linton Gordon, one of the attorneys representing Olympian Usain Bolt, on Thursday said the public should look out for the “expected and the unexpected” today — the deadline given to investment firm Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) to return more than US$12 million fleeced from the track and field icon’s account in what has now been found to be a massive fraud perpetrated for more than a decade.
“There is nothing to say at this stage, given what is happening. Let it stay until the day, because we have some delicate things dealing with. We have met with persons and we are dealing with certain matters,” Gordon told the Jamaica Observer in a phone interview.
On January 16 Frater, Binns and Gordon, the law firm representing Bolt, had sent a letter to SSL demanding that US$12,758,181.74 — the reported balance in Bolt’s account at October 31, 2022 — be repaid by January 27.
The attorneys also noted that only US$12,000 remained in the account.
Bolt is one of at least 40 SSL clients whose investments were totally or almost wiped out in the fraud estimated to be more than $3 billion so far.
The issue, which has attracted international attention primarily due to the fact that Bolt is a victim, has resulted in the Financial Services Commission (FSC) sending a temporary manager into the company for oversight of its operations.
Additionally, a raft of reforms for the financial sector were announced this week by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, who also cashiered the FSC’s executive director and replaced him with the temporary manager Kerron Burrell.
Clarke also replaced four members of the FSC board with senior BOJ executives— Governor Richard Byles, who is now chairman; Wayne Robinson, Jide Lewis, and George Roper.
Additionally, Clarke told the country that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as forensic auditors from overseas, will assist local law enforcement agencies with a probe of the fraud.
Late Wednesday, Clarke disclosed that the FSC was successful in obtaining a court order blocking the directors of SSL from winding up the company and liquidating assets.
According to Clarke, the members of SSL had applied to the Companies Office of Jamaica for a members’ voluntary winding up of the firm on January 16, 2023.
The court order bars the trustee and directors of SSL from disposing of or dealing with assets and liabilities in SSL’s name; withdrawing, transferring or otherwise dissipating any funds from accounts in its name wherever held; winding up or dissolving the company; or reorganising the company or its operations whether in document form or organisation of its members, assets and liabilities.