Former K.H.M.H. accountant returns to clear name
Her name, along with that of hospital C.E.O. Alvaro Rosado, was forged on a number of cheques that added up to the massive theft of over two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars from the K.H.M.H.. At the time the scam was made public, Joan Anderson-Lord, the hospital’s former accountant, was no longer living in Belize. But with her name all over the newspapers and airwaves, she decided it was time to return home. This morning she told News 5’s Jacqueline Woods why.
Joan Anderson-Lord, Former Accountant, K.H.M.H.
“Because I know that I am innocent of whatever and I really don’t want people to go off with the idea that I am involved in any situation as such at all, at all, because I have never been involved with any kind of misunderstanding with money business or anything of that sort. I’ve never ever been a part of anything like that. It has to be somebody from within the hospital who is acquainted with the system and how it goes; I am of that belief. And likewise, I am also of the belief that somebody at the bank had to have some dealings with whatever took place.
Jacqueline Woods
“Now two companies have been implicated, Bustich and?
Joan Anderson-Lord
“Imperium International.
Jacqueline Woods
“Are familiar with these companies?”
Joan Anderson-Lord
“No. I came back and I did my own investigation pertaining to these companies and I found out that these companies were first registered on the fourteenth of August. That was the day before I stop work at Karl Heusner.”
Jacqueline Woods
“No doubt you’ve had an opportunity to look at the forged signatures, how concerned are you about these signatures?”
Joan Anderson-Lord
“I am concerned because there are people out there that would like to forge my signature, and looking at those signatures, honestly, I don’t think that they have done a good job at it. Cause from the time I looked at those signatures, I realised that those cannot be?that somebody was trying real hard to see if they could have been able to forge my signature. And I am surprised at those people at the bank for accepting those cheques without verifying those signatures. I have been working at Karl Heusner for about a year and I could recall every time cheques were made for big amounts, the banks always call to verify if we had written cheques to those persons before they cash those cheques.”
The bank in question is the Bank of Nova Scotia, and police are still trying to determine how such an enormous theft could have gone undetected.
