Attorneys for Alleged Fraudsters Seek to Unfreeze Assets
Michael Young
This morning, a huddle of lawyers representing individual companies associated with the legally besieged Titan International Securities appeared in the courtroom of Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. The attorneys were present for an inter-party hearing with officials from the Financial Intelligence Unit, following the restriction of financial assets stemming from a federal indictment in which six executives and the companies they each work for were accused of complicity in a billion Belize dollar scam. Robert Bandfield, Andrew Godfrey, Kelvin Leach, Rohn Knowles, Brian De Wit and Cem Can have all been arraigned in the Eastern District of New York. Leach and Knowles were detained at the Phillip Goldson International Airport when they attempted to leave in a private plane to the Bahamas. They are out on bail, but there is a request for their extradition by the U.S. The monies from firms, including Unicorn International, represented by Senior Counsel Michael Young, have all been frozen locally.
Michael Young, Attorney for Unicorn International
“Well of course what has happened is that there have been freezing orders which have been granted by the court on the application of the FIU and in respect of the respondents, various attorneys who represent the respondents have made applications for these freezing orders to be discharged. There have been a flurry of applications between the FIU, on the one hand, and the respondents on the other and what we dealt with this morning on the part of the court was what we would call housekeeping. These applications are going to be heard, of course the respondents say that the freezing orders should not have been granted, should be discharged and the court has set October twenty-seventh to hear the applications.”
Reporter
“Sir, where are these monies located?”
Michael Young
“Various banks in Belize.”
Reporter
“And what kind of sums are we talking about?”
Michael Young
“I prefer not to talk about that.”
Reporter
“Is there any liabilities for those banks that are holding the monies?”
Michael Young
“I would not want to comment about that either.”
Also present in court on behalf of Robert Bandfield and Andrew Godfrey was former FIU Director, attorney Marilyn Williams. The matter is scheduled to be heard next Monday.
While Sedi served up the two Bahamians like “Sheep to the Slaughter” to the US government to take the heat off his brother and nephew before an official extradition request was issued and by the US government, I agree these monies should be seized. Not only should the money be seized, but the banks should be heavily fined and also the attorneys should be either disbarred and or suspended from officially practicing law for at least a period of eighteen months to two years. Make no mistake about this, these attorneys knew exactly what was going on. They turned a blind eye because of the large kickbacks they were receiving. Now, we should look into who really owns that Matalan building, not on paper, but who actually financed it; i.e. the money-man in the background. The banks talk about doing due diligence and adhering to laws, but their employees only do so when it’s not beneficial to them. If I could only call names of a couple of those who profited from those large sums being deposited in their banks when looking the other way. There’s one former bank manager living in Florida who has several rental properties there off his hustle from his bank when the US wasn’t bringing down the pressure . I say seize the money and discipline these attorneys. Might not happen because Dean and Michael are buddies. Let me tell you how this will play out; all the vultures at the top will get a portion of the millions and the Bahamians will suddenly disappear , nowhere to be found.