Coye family to stand trial for laundering $1.5 million

And the owners of MoneyGram and two employees, accused of Money Laundering, were committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court. Melanie Coye, her father, Michael, mother Merlene, brother Jude and husband James Gerou, Athlee Matute and Deitrich Kingston are charged under the revised Money Laundering and Terrorism Act. This morning, Magistrate Kathleen Lewis bounded over all witnesses to appear to the Supreme Court when the case is called early in the new calendar year. But attorney for the defendants, Arthur Saldivar, appeared a bit charged this morning when he requested without success that the fifty thousand-dollar bail imposed on his clients be reduced. But Prosecutor, Antoinette Moore rose to say the Financial Intelligence Unit is not asking but now that the defendants have been committed to stand trial, it would be more logical to increase the bail. Magistrate Lewis kept bail as is and reminded the defendants that they must continue to report to the court every Monday. In addition, their travel documents remain surrendered to the court until their case is complete. Their attorney, Arthur Saldivar, explained to us afterwards, that he did not agree with the Magistrate’s decision on not lowering the bail requirement.

Arthur Saldivar, Attorney for the Coye Family
“Just considering the fact that the Coye family has been made to suffer through this ordeal for now ten months without income, I thought that the Magistrate would have exercised her discretion and reduced bail, considering that another matter is here in the Magistrate’s Court for much more money where I believe Omni Network and Dean Fuller are being charged with the same offense for six million and their bail is something like twenty thousand. To have the Coye family, who have been charged with much less having to pay fifty thousand each, I believe is unjust.”

Marion Ali
“Another argument could be though, that the Magistrate did exercise discretion since your clients are now committed to trial.”

Arthur Saldivar
“A committal to trial is not an establishment of guilt. The presumption of innocence is maintained. All that occurred here at the Magistrates’ Court is that in the mind of the Magistrate there is a prima facie case; certainly not in any way, shape or form sufficient enough to establish guilt. In fact, guilt cannot be established until trial. In this particular instance, we have persons who have diligently carried through the orders of the court without any glitches or discrepancies occurring and as a result I believe discretion could have been exercised in their favour.”

Marion Ali
“How are your clients doing?”

Arthur Saldivar
“Not too well. Physically it’s definitely taking a toll. Health-wise, we have in particular Mr. Michael Coye who is a diabetic and as a result of the loss of income he has not been able to basically keep up with the treatment he needs to have.”

The new court date for the Supreme Court has been set for January nineteenth, 2010.