Fiery showdown in Sagicor fraud hearing fizzles as case adjourns to March

King's Counsel (KC) Valerie Neita-Robertson led an arsenal of defence attorneys who took the prosecution to task yesterday in the multimillion-dollar fraud case brought by Sagicor against four former employees.

The plea and case management hearing, set for yesterday in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court, failed to get under way and has now been set for mention on March 27 next year.

Alysia Moulton-White, a former vice president of group marketing at Sagicor; her sister, Tricia Moulton, the bank's former Liguanea branch manager; Malika McLeod, a personal banker; and Tishan Samuels, a client care officer, are facing fraud charges in connection with a suspected $65-million racket uncovered at the bank's Liguanea branch in October 2022.

Among the charges are conspiracy to defraud, larceny as a servant, breaches of the Cybercrimes Act, and making unauthorised withdrawals from customers' accounts.

At the start of the testy, near one-hour proceedings, Neita-Robertson, who alongside John Mark Reid, represents Moulton, on learning that legal officers from Sagicor were present, questioned why they were there.

This would be the start of several exchanges where the defence made it clear they were not dealing with Sagicor but the Crown who had put together a case against their clients.

Neita-Robertson told the court that she would not be accepting any evidence from Sagicor and begged the presiding judge to regularise what was happening.

The defence team said they were given partial to no disclosure when the court, on the last occasion, made an order for full disclosure, as well as footage from the banking hall to be presented by the Crown to the defence to show who deposited money to Moulton-White's account on separate days.

Ann-Marie Feurtado Richards, attorney for the prosecution, stopped short of saying the defence attorneys were not being truthful about receiving emails sent, citing that they informed the court that they were not accepting any evidence coming from Sagicor.

“The fact that they can say 'is from Sagicor' would mean they received… ," Feurtardo Richards said.

Neita-Robertson wasted no time in rising to her feet to excuse the utterances of Feurtardo Richards, and stated categorically that she had only seen an email sent to another defence attorney in the matter.

Feurtardo Richards informed the court that it was not until arriving in court that she learnt of the difficulties in obtaining contents or not receiving entirely an email sent with disclosure.

She said an email with a cover letter was sent to all the email addresses that were provided.

The Crown counsel even took to her cellphone to open contents of the email.

Senior Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole Montague had to intervene at several junctures.

“I don’t want to put out any more fires, can we move on please,” she said, citing that a simple phone call after the emails were sent could have eliminated the chaos.

Neita-Robertson, however, was clear that Sagicor was the complainant in the matter and the prosecution was tardy.

“Disclosure should come from the Crown and not Sagicor,” Cole Montague said.

Neita-Robertson told the court that a list of all the material the prosecution is relying on should be made to the defence before Christmas.

“Each of us will go through and see what we don’t have and we will pen counsel a letter… also I notice that emails are coming from Sagicor. I am sorry, I am accepting no email from Sagicor… all these irregularities are going on which is causing confusion,” she said.

Neita-Robertson told the court that part of her push to move the matter forward, having entered only in September, she photocopied partial disclosure documents sent to her colleague.

“At my own cost,” she said.

Neita-Robertson told the courtroom and the other attorneys awaiting their own cases, that it was the state who charged her client and so they should produce all materials regarding disclosure at their expense.

Earlier in the proceedings, Rita Allen Brown, who represents Samuels, told the court that she received a compact disc but the contents cannot be obtained after multiple attempts using different programs.

McLeod is represented by Peter Champagnie, KC, and Moulton-White is represented by Bert Samuels and Matthew Hyatt.

Hyatt told the court that he received and examined two compact discs that were requested.

“Nowhere on the footage is Mrs Alysia Moulton-White,” he said.

In relation to Moulton-White, $661,000 was deposited to her account in various transactions of which she says she had no knowledge.

Hyatt also requested a withdrawal slip for a transaction of $400,000 on September 21, 2022.

But, Feurtardo Richards told the court that copies of same were in the email sent to the attorneys.

She also told the court that some of the requests by the defence attorneys, including Hyatt, were not possible to be fulfilled, citing privacy concerns in an instance where all contents on an account for Sagicor for the last two years was requested.

In the same breath, she outlined that a report was outstanding from the Financial Investigations Division (FID).

According to the Crown, the FID said the report would take up to three months be submitted.

At this point consideration was given to a three-month window and the matter was adjourned until March next year.

All four defendants had their bails extended.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com