Five members of the Coye family, of Johnson Street, Belize City, are due to stand trial next Tuesday, June 16, for money laundering charges in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court after the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) made a $1.5 million bust on New Year’s Eve at their home.
The Central Bank of Belize has shut down their MoneyGram sub-agent at Central American Boulevard in Belize City, and the master agent, Omni Networks, followed by pulling the plug on its branches countrywide.
Now there are new allegations that the MoneyGram service, through at least one agent that existed on Central American Boulevard in Belize City, was used to fraudulently wire millions of dollars into Belize, using stolen data from unsuspecting driver’s license holders—and they were indiscriminate in the use of the database, using the names of even Prime Minister Dean Barrow; Amandala’s publisher, Evan X Hyde; Central Bank Governor, Glenford Ysaguirre; and thousands of others to perpetrate the false transactions.
Several sources claim that the transfers were engineered to hide the transfer of tainted money from outside Belize, some of them said to be linked to online sports betting in Costa Rica, where people’s personal information had allegedly been used for as long as a year and a half (mid-2007 to December 2008), to transfer money to Belize.
The FIU director, Marilyn Williams, told Amandala this morning that the FIU cannot comment in too much detail about the investigations, because the case goes to full hearing next week. She said that they are investigating the true source of the money.
She claimed that “anyone identified” as a part of the scam will be charged.
Williams, whose identity was also stolen and used in the scam, did confirm to us on Friday that the investigations surrounding the fraudulent use of the Belize City driver’s license database to conduct the transfers is also a part of the FIU’s larger money laundering case against the Coyes.
Back in January, the FIU charged Michael and Marlene Coye, along with their son Jude, their daughter Melonie and her husband, James Gerou, for money laundering. Ernest Raymond, Jr., was later charged jointly with the Coyes.
The Coyes had maintained at the time of their arrest that the $1.5 million that the FIU had confiscated were the proceeds of legitimate business and that they are innocent of the FIU charges.
Authorities have still not completed the tally of funds illegally transferred in the name of Belize City license holders, and they continue this week to track down persons whose identities were stolen in the scam.
PM Barrow and Governor Ysaguirre victims of identity theft
According to Prime Minister Barrow, h e found out at the start of the year, when the FIU had moved in on MoneyGram in Belize City, that his name was among “the host of luminaries” that had been used in the scam, even though they had never personally used MoneyGram.
He said that it had been obvious that someone had access to the driver’s license database, which they used to select names to perpetrate the scam.
The Prime Minister said his concern is, how they were able to access the database.
The Governor of the supervisory authority, Glenford Ysaguirre, found out during the course of the investigation that his name, too, had been used in the scam.
He told our newspaper that he was not necessarily shocked when he found out, because by that time he was already aware that the identities of other well-known Belizeans had been used in the fr aud.
The perpetrators either did not know or did not care whose names they were using, Ysaguirre told us.
Was Central Bank sleeping at the wheel?
Apart from the security of the driver’s license database, another issue that has been raised concerns the adequacy of monitoring by the Central Bank of Belize, the supervisory authority. It is clear that one of two things happened: either the Central Bank completely missed the fact that false money transactions were indiscriminately being conducted in other people’s names, or they knew and willfully turned a blind eye to what was happening.
Multiple sources tell our newspaper that the authorities did observe a marked increase in transfers at the Money Exchange International sub-agent on Central American Boulevard.
When we questioned him on this matter of monitoring, Central Bank Governor, Glen Ysaguirre, told Amandala this evening that those increases did “not necessarily” send up a red flag.
The Central Bank only pulled the plug on MoneyGram’s Central American Boulevard agent after its owners were indicted by the Financial Intelligence Unit on money laundering charges in January 2009.
He tells Amandala that they are generally keener at monitoring money leaving Belize than funds coming here from the US, because they assume that authorities in the US would have done their due diligence to ensure that the monies being sent abroad are from legitimate sources.
Ysaguirre told Amandala that the Central Bank has stepped up vigilance for monitoring incoming transactions as well. However, he claims that it would be too cumbersome to inspect each transaction.
Pennsylvania woman indicted in federal court
By all indications, this is not a novel scam. Amandala’s research led us to a case from a Pennsylvania federal court where a US agent for four different money transfer corporations, one of them being MoneyGram, had been indicted on federal and state charges on 6 counts of money laundering, as well as aiding and abetting illegal transactions.
The agent was accused of having conducted international transfers to Dominican Republic and Columbia, allegedly the proceeds of illegal drug trafficking.
The defendant in question was accused of knowingly handling proceeds of illegal activity to conceal and disguise the nature, the location and source of the transactions, and of permitting the use of false identification and fictitious names “to prevent the discovery of the sender’s true identity and to evade reporting requirements.”
The point here is, such scams have also been reported to have transpired in the US, where a money transfer agent is deemed to have designed and structured money transfers to hide illegal money – and hence the money laundering, and aiding and abetting charges.
The Belize agents for MoneyGram
Who are the players in the money transfer business? Amandala did some digging and this is what we found out: Omni Networks Limited, formerly Fultec International Computer Systems Ltd., is the master agent for MoneyGram in Belize.
The master agency had sub-agents in 9 locations: Orange Walk, San Pedro, Ladyville, Belize City, Belmopan, Dangriga, Independence, Placencia and Punta Gorda.
According to the company, they began offering MoneyGram services countrywide in Belize on July 1, 2007, allowing customers to both send and receive money.
Amandala’s research reveals that the shareholders of Omni Networks Ltd. (and their shareholdings) are as follows: Dean Fuller (5,600); his wife, Diana Fuller (5,600); his sister, Susan Fuller (800); Lynette Ross (2,000); the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Tourism, Michael Singh (3,067); Delmarie Fairweather (16); Fred Shyu (250); the daughter of Manuel Esquivel, Ruth Esquivel (6); Ernest W. Fuller (300); Henry Gill (250); and Klay and Vanessa Young (400).
The company’s directors are: Dean Fuller (general manager), Diana Fuller, Susan Fuller, Michael Singh, Lynette Ross, Delmarie Fairweather, Fred Shyu, and Ruth Esquivel.
We stress that the FIU has not implicated Omni Networks Limited in the MoneyGram money laundering scam. The record shows that the owners of the sub-agent, Money Exchange International Ltd., and their relatives are the only ones that have been charged.
Money Exchange International Ltd. ran at least two branches: one in Belize City at Central American Boulevard and another in San Pedro.
The registered shareholders of the sub-agent are Michael Coye with 5,000 shares, and his daughter, Melonie, also with 5,000 shares.
The company’s 2 directors are the same Michael and Melonie Coye.
Fultec distances itself from database breach
Sources at the traffic department of the Belize City Council have indicated to our newspaper that there are several people who have access to the driver’s license database, among them staff at the department and the IT staff at the Belize City Council, police, and Fultec, which they say set up the system for the Belize City Council.
Since the key players of Fultec, a popular IT/computer company in Belize City, are incidentally also key players in the MoneyGram master agent, some have questioned whether they, too, are not involved in the scam.
However, Fultec Systems Limited issued a press release this evening, distancing itself from the breach in the database.
Fultec went on record to say: “We state for the record that Fultec Systems Ltd. is not involved with and has no connection to the illegal use of the data from the Transport Department.” (Emphasis theirs)
Head of Belize City’s traffic department, Kevaughan Jenkins, told Amandala on Friday that he does not believe anyone on staff there would have compromised the database.
Not the first money transfer investigation in Belize
Back in 2004, the Central Bank moved in on another money transfer agent, Western Union, which was being operated by BTALCO — Belize Transportation Agencies Limited, at the time under the management of Michael Singh, a major shareholder in Omni Networks.
The media had then reported that the branch of Western Union had been under FIU investigation for questionable transactions, and the Central Bank had pulled the plug and cancelled their operating permit, but details as to what had caused the authorities to clamp down on the operations were sketchy.
The Western Union agent had claimed at the time that the market was not conducive for the amount of agents that were in operation.
Belize will have to look at identifying theft legislation
This is the first time that the identities of Belizeans have been so widely used to mask money transfers. Now that identity theft has been added to the list of white collar crimes affecting us here in Belize, Prime Minister Barrow said, in speaking with Amandala this evening, that government will have to consider new legislation to deal with that dreaded reality.
“We are in an age where we should look at this type of legislation,” said the Prime Minister.
He left us with this thought, however: that he is more concerned about who was involved with the database; who would have taken the information (including his) and used it so fraudulently.
Identity theft, said Barrow, is obviously here, and Belize will have to get the technical help to update its laws to deal with it.
Driver’s license database being centralized
On April 3, Amandala covered the launch of the national driver’s license database, at the Transport Department’s Belmopan headquarters.
At the time, Dean Fuller, Omni Networks general manager, had told our newspaper that the entire driver’s license database from across the country would be stored centrally in Belmopan.
Public officers manning the system demonstrated to our newspaper that anyone accessing the system has to have his or her fingerprint scanned to get into the system.
Some license-holders are still concerned, however, over the security of their personal identification data, and whether it could be used again for unlawful activity.
In today’s press release, Fultec revealed that ,”…earlier this year, the general manager of the company received a call from the transport department indicating that the computer housing the driver license database had been compromised, and that it had happened before.”
They were advised to put in place a better password system, the release added.
Was your name used in the scam?
Several Belize City license-holders have been asking our newspaper if their names had been used in the scam. FIU’s Marilyn Williams told Amandala today that they will not visit everyone whose name has been used, as their resources are “stretched thin,” but she will have to consider whether she would make the entire list public.
She claims that the public has nothing else to fear, because they have shut down the MoneyGram agent where the fraudulent transactions were suspected to have occurred.
Williams said that nobody else, apart from the Coyes, has been implicated in the MoneyGram scam.
Comments from the public
Responding to a posting we made on Facebook for this article, some Belizeans made the following comments:
“On the record, I’m tired of people with ‘resources’ getting away with crime in Belize.”
“How ‘bout a class action lawsuit?”
“This is some serious sh*t. I think WE ALL need to know at some point if our names were used. I would sure hate to be accused for money I had neither received or have no knowledge about.”
What is clear is that everyone in the driver’s license database has cause for concern, because even if your name wasn’t used in the scam, all indications from the officials we spoke with are that the entire database has been compromised. The implications of that are huge, as the possibility exists that the same stolen database could be exploited for future scams, even outside Belize.
(Author’s Note: While investigating this story on Friday, I, Adele Ramos, found out that my name was also used in the fraudulent MoneyGram transactions. On December 12, 2008, the MoneyGram sub-agent in question recorded a transfer of US$600 from Felix Anongos in California to me. The slip had my date of birth and driver’s license number on it. Someone signed the slip, but the signature is certainly not mine and I never received the money. In fact, I’ve never used MoneyGram in my life!)