Prosecution to call 50 witnesses in INSPORTS fraud trial
Published:Friday | November 24, 2023 | 12:12 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
Former Financial Controller at INSPORTS, Andrew Wright, and five former employees implicated in a suspected $222-million fraud at the government agency, are scheduled to return to the Home Circuit Court on January 18.
Wright, the promoter of the French Connection and Chug It parties, along with his co-defendants Rudolph Barnes, Oneil Hope, Jonnique Mills, Andrea Picton and Sherene Farquharson, had his bail extended when they appeared in court on Thursday.
A trial date is expected to be scheduled at the next hearing.
The defendants are accused of being part of a team of former INSPORTS employees who wrote, signed and cashed fraudulent cheques for payees who were neither employed nor contracted to the agency.
They are charged with various offences, including conspiracy to defraud; acquisition, use and possession of criminal property; engaging in transactions involving criminal property; and larceny as a servant.
The suspected fraud and other irregularities were detected by INSPORTS in 2017 during an examination of their financial records. The matter was then reported to the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, triggering an investigation.
In the meantime, the prosecution has disclosed that it intends to rely on 50 witnesses during a three-month trial.
Wright was arrested in April while the Industrial Disputes Tribunal was hearing a wrongful dismissal case he brought against the state-owned agency.
Peter Champagnie, KC, is representing Wright, attorney-at-law Seymour Stewart is representing Hope, and Jacqueline Asher appears for Mills.
Attorney-at-law Xavier Leveridge is representing Picton while his colleagues Steven Jackson and Earl Hamilton are representing Barnes and Farquharson, respectively.