Doctor pleads guilty in $600m fraud case

An upper St Andrew medical doctor has pleaded guilty to her involvement in an elaborate mortgage loan and real estate scheme used to defraud several Jamaican banks of approximately $600 million, court officials have disclosed.

Chloe Douett, 30, who resides in Cherry Gardens, was convicted in the St Catherine Circuit Court on July 24 on an eight-count indictment, which includes seven crimes related to the fraud scheme and one linked to her licensed firearm, the Court Administration Division (CAD) told The Gleaner.

The crimes related to the multimillion-dollar fraud scheme are conspiracy to defraud, two counts of uttering forged documents, demanding property on forged documents, possession of identity information, obtaining property by false pretence, and use of criminal property.

The medical doctor was also convicted of breach of duty to securely store firearm and ammunition, according to the CAD.

She is one of four persons who were arrested in January this year and charged with various crimes related to the fraudulent scheme following a multiagency investigation led by the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) with assistance from the Financial Investigations Division.

The CAD has not yet responded to questions submitted by The Gleaner last Thursday about the status of the cases against the other three accused.

The scheme – which lasted 14 months, beginning in January 2023 – involved the creation of forged driver’s licences, birth certificates, marriage certificates, and taxpayer registration numbers in dozens of fictitious names, investigators previously told The Gleaner.

FICTITIOUS DOCUMENTS

Sleuths claim that the fictitious documents were used to swipe several upscale St Andrew properties from their legitimate owners through applications made to the National Land Agency (NLA) for replacement titles on the basis that the original documents were either lost or damaged.

When the new title is issued, the property is then ‘sold’ by one of the alleged fraudsters – posing as the legitimate owner – to an accomplice through a mortgage loan disbursed by an unsuspecting financial institution.

In one case, Dwayne Pitter, one of the three remaining accused fraudsters, used the fictitious name ‘Odain Anthony Lawes’ to get a total of $352 million in mortgage loans from four banks over a one-month period in 2024.

The mortgages were to ‘purchase’ properties in several upscale St Andrew neighbourhoods, investigators claim.

NLA records show that Pitter, who is from Olympic Gardens in St Andrew, identified himself as an engineer who resided at “1037 Irving Drive in Ironshore, Montego Bay, St James”, on the mortgage transactions.

Pitter is facing 44 criminal charges in three cases tied to the fraudulent scheme, the CAD previously confirmed.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com