Woman at middle of Treasury scandal missing

There is a big development in the case of the hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from the pension fund at the Treasury Department. Since Thursday there have been reports that police had questioned government employee, Monica Escarpeta, pending charges in the case. The monies were reportedly deposited in an Atlantic Bank account sporadically since 2007 to present. But while Police have detained another woman, News Five investigations reveal that the second class clerk at Treasury, Escarpeta, never made it to the Police Station. And according to her attorney, Dickie Bradley, it also came as a shock to him.

Dickie Bradley, Attorney for Monica Escarpeta
“Second reports are that she is already in the Police Station, either at C.I.B. or Patrol Branch which keeps the cells and the lock-up. I went and checked and the officers at C.I.B. says that yes they do have a person in connection with the alleged missing money from the Treasury Department. But that is one of the persons that they are interviewing. The other person who you’re inquiring, Ms. Escarpeta, the officer informed me that they do not have her.”

Marion Ali
“So she’s never been detained?”

Dickie Bradley
“Well, I will base on what the police have said to me. The last time I spoke to her she said to me she was getting ready to be detained. They had just searched her home, removed her computer and I also think she said other personal effects, including her cellular phone. She was not at home. Her mother came down to this station to inquire, she was detained and told that unless her daughter comes in she will not be released and she will be charged. This is what Ms. Escarpeta told me, she was very concerned. So we had made arrangements that I would meet her here and she would hand herself over to the police officers.”

Marion Ali
“This was when?”

Dickie Bradley
“This was in the night, I don’t want to be too specific cause she was hiding out but this was in the night, this would have been Wednesday night, and sometime yesterday we would have come down and she would have handed herself noh. I have been getting second hand reports but she has not called me to say what is the situation. According to them, there is no record that she ever came in.”

Marion Ali
“But you are her attorney right?”

Dickie Bradley
“Well, the last time we spoke she sought advice and we made arrangements that she was prepared to come in and lay out this complicated matter that there is monies missing over a long period of time from the pension section of the Treasury Department.”

Marion Ali
“Do you think that she had second thoughts, chickened out?”

Dickie Bradley
“I don’t want to speculate on her behalf.”

Marion Ali
“In terms of the allegations that she will face, as her attorney, how does it look?”

Dickie Bradley
“She’s saying it’s a complicated matter. It involves cheques at the pensions section of the Treasury Department and it is over a period of time and it is a large amount of money based on her conversation.”

Marion Ali
“Okay, and you’re saying she’s telling you this, that it involves…”

Dickie Bradley
“I like how yoh di pull me in…”

Marion Ali
“It involves cheques over a period of time?”

Dickie Bradley
“That is correct. There are more than one person working in the section, that her department put her on leave, the procedure of the government is that in fact they can send you on your leave, and that she was surprised to learn that nobody else had been sent on forced leave, that her department made a formal report to the Police Department about the matter that cheques had been made and that government monies are missing. She was wondering why is it that only she is being singled out when there are others who are in fact involved in transactions and it is over a period. That was some of the answers I can say to you. So clearly if there’s a problem with the cheques whoever handles the cheques has to be a suspect. That would be the normal course of things. As to whether who done it I can’t speculate on that part.”

So where is the missing Monica Escarpeta? It’s anybody’s guess. And tonight police have a picture of her listed as wanted in their C.I.B. office. In related news, the Atlantic Bank has clarified that a woman by the name of Karen Young named in the missing monies case, is not the same person employed at the bank.