Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
THE FIRST prison sentence for offences committed under the Money Laundering Act was imposed on Tuesday on Roxroy Mendez , accounts supervisor who was formerly employed to the Victoria Mutual Building Society.
Mendez pleaded guilty to 32 counts of money laundering when he appeared in the Brown's Town Resident Magistrate's Court, St. Ann on Tuesday and was jailed for two years.
In addition to the prison term Resident Magistrate Bertram Morrison fined him the maximum of $1 million or 12 months imprisonment.
WIFE CHARGED
Donna Mendez, his wife, was charged jointly with him but the Crown withdrew the charges against her after her husband pleaded guilty to the charges.
If the fine is not paid Mendez will have to serve a total of three years imprisonment.
The Money Laundering Act came into effect in January 1998 to curb money laundering in particular from illicit activities such as drug trafficking.
David Fraser, acting senior deputy director of public prosecutions and Caroline Williamson-Hay, acting senior prosecutor of financial crimes, in outlining the facts of the case, said that the 32 counts to which Mendez pleaded guilty were in respect to foreign exchange amounting to $11.18 million.
Mendez who was employed to the VMBS branch at Ocho Rios, St. Ann had obtained the money by falsifying the accounts in the general ledger at VMBS. The proceeds of the crime were traced to certain financial institutions where Mendez and his wife had accounts.
The accounts have been frozen and the Crown intends to make an application for forfeiture of the money. VMBS intends to take steps to claim the money.
Attorney-at-law Sandra Minott-Phillips of the law firm Myers Fletcher and Gordon watched proceedings on behalf of VMBS.
Mendez was represented by attorney-at-law H. Charles Johnson.
