Sagicor Fraud Trial Speeds Up After Lawyers Agree On Evidence Handling

The multimillion-dollar fraud trial involving Sagicor ended ahead of schedule on Wednesday while the court checked that both sides accepted the documents being placed into evidence.

Malika McLeod, Tricia Moulton, Alysia Moulton-White and Tishan Samuels are before the court on a 22-count indictment. The charges include conspiracy to defraud, larceny as a servant, unauthorised withdrawals, and alleged breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act and the Cybercrimes Act.

On Tuesday, the witness gave evidence about forward transaction records and account statements connected to August and September 2022. Those documents were admitted as Exhibits 27 through 32.

When testimony resumed the next day, Exhibits 33 to 35A were added. The witness told the court that, from signatures he recognised, the documents were further bank statements and account details prepared by Malika McLeod and approved by Tricia Moulton. He also said he could name the teller who handled them, relying on his familiarity with files that had already been submitted.

The court was then directed to Exhibit 35B, described as the transaction record tied to an alleged J$2.5 million withdrawal. The witness noted that the words "loan fees" appeared in the space reserved for the client's signature.

Drawing on his banking experience, he said a form of that nature should carry the customer's signature when it is generated directly from the customer's account. The court heard that Tishan Samuels processed that transaction.

Exhibit 36 was identified as a statement for a United States dollar savings account. Two credit advice documents for transactions done several days apart in September 2022 were separately marked as Exhibits 36A and 36B.

Another document, Exhibit 36C, was described as a spot-deal transaction record, a form usually linked to foreign exchange accounts. The version held by the witness carried the words "internal record" in the area where the customer's signature would normally appear.

The court was told that those transactions would generally move through a treasury servicing account and that they were handled by Tishan Samuels.

At the start of the afternoon sitting, prosecutors tendered an August 2022 accounting statement from Tishan Samuels as Exhibit 31G.

By that point, the prosecution and defence accepted that going through every document one by one was proving slow and drawn out, with no clear end in sight. They suggested that the outstanding bank statements be grouped into exhibit series and placed before the court together to make the process more efficient.

The court accepted that proposal. The trial is scheduled to continue on September 9.