Ghost sales - Report: FLA targeted gun dealer with fake transactions, logged ammo purchase to dead man

An Integrity Commission (IC) probe has exposed severe Firearm Licensing Authority data manipulation, revealing that an employee falsified electronic records to target a prominent licensed dealer when he, among other things, logged that a dead man had purchased ammunition.

 The revelation was made in a 131-page report tabled in Parliament late Tuesday, more than two months after it was submitted by the country’s chief anti-corruption body.

 Parliament previously noted that it had not been tabled because the matter was sub judice.

 The IC investigation, which began on June 14, 2021, was triggered by an anonymous email sent, detailing several allegations.

 The IC Director of Investigation Kevon Stephenson concluded that well-known licensed firearm dealer Kent Brown was targeted by the FLA, following an assessment of the authority’s records.

 “The DI concludes that the act of manipulating the LMS (Licence Management System) and the inputting of what appears to be inaccurate information on the system by an employee of the FLA, to the detriment of Mr Brown, is sufficient basis for a reasonable and detached observer to form the view that Mr Kent Brown was targeted by the FLA,” said Stephenson.

 He said his conclusion is premised on the fact that without any reasonable justification or Brown’s request or consent, FLA employee Shevon Robinson made what appeared to be inaccurate entries to Brown’s LMS.

 The dealer believes that he was targeted because of a letter he wrote to the editor about the FLA’s operations.

 Brown reportedly wrote to the FLA in 2020, after it conducted an audit of his establishments in 2019 and produced the report the following year, indicating that he had excesses and shortages of rounds and should immediately give an account of the rounds.

 Brown said he went on the system and discovered that there were four entries made on the system where three persons purchased a total of 6,000 rounds of bird-hunting ammunition.

 He said he wrote to the FLA, seeking more time to provide a response.

 Brown told the IC that the database would not accept a purchase of more than 200 rounds per person each day.

 Additionally, he said that he did not sell bird-hunting rounds on his range and that he had no records of the listed persons entering the range on the day in question or making any sales to them.

 “Moreover, the range was not opened on that day. I am the only person that can access the range database from my end. However, there are instances in the past where the FLA accessed my database from their end. This happens sometimes when the system is down and I send the information manually for them to input it onto the system,” he said.

 The FLA indicated that its Quality Control Unit can alter incorrect dealer data upon formal request and managerial approval. It said correcting disputed entries involves cross-departmental verification and that outside this unit, only the programmer and database administrator have system access.

 Stephenson said given the information, he sought to ascertain whether the individuals named as the purchasers of the 6,000 rounds of ammunition were in possession of the requisite firearm users’ licence in order to purchase bird-hunting ammunition for the referenced July 2018 period.

 He said the FLA confirmed that Witness 1 held a valid firearm user’s licence for a 12-gauge shotgun, which is a calibre used for bird hunting. Witness 2 also held a valid firearm user’s licence for a 12-gauge shotgun.

 Meanwhile, Witness 3 held a 12-gauge shotgun licence that expired on May 7, 2018. Stephenson said he began the renewal process on May 4, 2018, which remained in a “created” state on the system.

 He said because he required recertification, he was issued a temporary licence valid from May 4, 2018, to September 20, 2018.

 Under the FLA regulations at the time, an individual holding a temporary licence was not permitted to purchase ammunition.

 Stephenson said he enquired whether individual licenced firearm holders were permitted to purchase more than 200 rounds of ammunition per day from an authorised firearm dealer.

 He said this specific enquiry was made based on assertions made by Brown as to the maximum number of shotgun rounds a person is permitted to purchase on any given day.

 The FLA indicated that an individual licence holder is permitted to purchase fifty 9mm/pistol rounds as per their certificate, 200 training rounds per day at a range facility, and 2,000 bird-hunting rounds for the bird-hunting season.

 The FLA said additional approval is required for any ammunition purchase outside the established ammunition purchase policies.

 Following this, Stephenson said he made checks to ascertain whether the concerned individuals were in possession of the requisite hunting permits in July of 2018 in order to purchase the bird-hunting ammunition.

 He said NEPA’s CEO, Leonard Francis, confirmed that agency records showed that no applications were received from the three witnesses for hunter's licences during the 2017, 2018, and 2019 bird-shooting seasons.

 Stephenson said he spoke to the three witnesses, who confirmed that they did not make the purchases registered on the LMS system.

 Witness 1 indicated that he had known Brown since 1997. He said on May 17, 2021, Brown showed him FLA records falsely indicating that he purchased 2,000 bird-hunting rounds on July 11, 2018. He said he hadn't hunted since 2015.

 Witness 2, who said he had known Brown for 17 years, noted that around 2021 or 2022, the dealer showed him a suspicious list falsely claiming that he purchased 2,000 bird-hunting rounds. He denied ever participating in bird hunting.

 Stephenson said he attempted to obtain a witness statement from Witness 3 but discovered, through a media search, that an individual sharing the same name had died on June 16, 2018.

 He said to verify this, enquiries were made with the Registrar General’s Department (RGD), and the Acting CEO, Desmond Davis, subsequently provided a statement and a certified copy of the original death record, confirming the individual's passing on that date.

 Stephenson said following an examination of the certified record, he was satisfied that Witness 3 had been deceased since the aforementioned date.

 “The DI highlights that Witness 3 died on June 16, 2018, and the concerned entries were made to the LMS on July 11, 2018 …” said Stephenson in his report.

 Robinson, the FLA employee the system recorded making the entries, told Stephenson that: “As it relates to these particular entries, I was given the instruction either by email or memo from the director [of the] Information System and Technology Department or the chief executive officer to make the entries on the Licence Management System.

 “However, I cannot say for sure which of the two methods the instructions were given at the time. When I made these entries in the Licence Management System, I was the database administrator,” he said, while indicating that changes to the system are sometimes made based on a request from the dealer.

 However, Stephenson said he checked for Brown's data requests but was told by the FLA that a 2019 server failure crashed past emails.

 He said that after enquiring on the status of the recovery of the data from the failed server, Shane Dalling, CEO of the FLA, stated, “… I am duly informed … that despite extensive efforts and the application of all available resources, the project to recover the lost data was ultimately unsuccessful.”

 Stephenson concluded that the entries by Robinson had the potential to cause adverse consequences for Brown’s business operations.

 “Further, and as has been established above, one of the three individuals who is alleged to have purchased 2,000 rounds was deceased at the material time. The other two individuals have denied purchasing said rounds. This is consistent with Brown’s account that the sale of the referenced rounds to the individuals identified did not occur. The DI is, however, unable to conclude whether Kent Brown was targeted because he did not pay $2,000,000 to Elsworth Callum, former senior compliance officer at the FLA, as was alleged,” said Stephenson.

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