Seven accused persons who were charged with money laundering by the Finance Intelligence Unit (FIU) will have to stand trial in the Supreme Court of Belize, according to a ruling handed down this morning by the examining magistrate, Kathleen Lewis, who heard arguments earlier this month in a preliminary inquiry into the $1.5 million money laundering charge.
Magistrate Lewis ruled that there is enough prima facie evidence for the accused persons to be committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court.
On December 31, 2008 police, after being tipped off, conducted a raid at the Johnson Street home of Michael and Marlene Coye and removed 1.5 million dollars in Belize currency. The bust resulted in the Financial Intelligence Unit charging Melonie Coye, the owner of Money Gram International, and her parents, Marlene and Michael Coye, with money laundering on January 2, 2009.
James Gerou, Melonie’s husband, was charged several days later. The FIU’s list of persons who would eventually be charged with money laundering continued to grow and eventually, Jude Coye, who was out of the country when his family was charged, would later be added, along with Dietrich Kingston and Atlee Matute, former employees of Money Gram International Limited.
As the months passed, eventually Money Gram International, the company, was also charged with money laundering.
In handing down the decision, Magistrate Lewis said: “I am of the opinion that all the accused were involved in money laundering on December 31, 2008.”
Lewis said that the FIU’s evidence was enough to commit the accused persons to stand trial in the Supreme Court. “There is prima facie circumstantial evidence,” Lewis told the court.
Although three defense attorneys had made no-case submissions during the preliminary inquiry, Magistrate Lewis itemized the attorney’s arguments and then systematically ruled against each of their submissions.
Attorney Dickie Bradley had argued that the FIU’s reliance on the retired Senior Superintendant George Heusner should not be accepted by the court, because there is nothing on the court’s record that suggests that Heusner is a handwriting expert.
In her ruling, Magistrate Lewis said that she could not uphold the submission that Heusner is not a handwriting expert.
The defense had also argued that the FIU failed to present a search warrant in its disclosure.
Magistrate Lewis, however, ruled that the Police Act gives the police the right to carry out their statutory duty.
And on the question of the search warrant, she ruled that: “Failure to tender the search warrant does not affect the validity of the statement.”
The bulk of the evidence that the FIU relied on to build a case against the Coye family and the others, comes from former Money Gram employee, Shaun Oliver, who told investigators in her deposition that: “There is a practice of money laundering going on at the Money Gram office, where I work.”
In her deposition, Oliver told police that she had seen Melonie Coye, James Gerou and Jude Coye signing Money Gram forms with names other than their own.
The defense attorney had submitted that nothing had occurred on December 31, 2008, and that the FIU’s charge bears no connection to the large amount of cash that was discovered at the Coye’s residence.
In building the money laundering case against the accused persons, the FIU submitted some eighty-six statements from people who gave statements to the police, saying that they had never authorized anyone to use their name or driver’s license to conduct any business with Money Gram.
The defense had argued, however, that the FIU failed to make any connection between the bundle of names and statements from prominent people in Belize City, and the accused persons. According to the defense arguments, none of the forms purportedly coming out of the Money Gram office had any of the accused persons’ signatures or handwriting on them.
Following the delivering of the ruling, attorney Arthur Saldivar, when asked if he is planning to ask the Supreme Court to quash the Magistrate’s committal ruling, said that he and the other defense attorneys would have to confer with their clients and get instructions from them to see where they are heading.
Saldivar added that: “We are still recovering from what turned out to be a shocking turn of events.”
Attorneys for the defense, Dickie Bradley, Arthur Saldivar and Anthony Sylvester, Jr., have now entered the phase of the case where the court will bound over the witnesses to continue with the committal proceedings.
The case was adjourned until Monday, December 7, 2009.