F.I.U.’s 6.5 million dollar money laundering case falls apart

dean fuller

It was big news one year ago when the manager and owner of Omni Networks and Fultec Systems, Dean Fuller, was charged with laundering over six point five million dollars.  The alleged offenses brought by the Financial Intelligence Unit were said to have occurred between October ninth 2007 and January first 2009.  It was an intricate case that was also linked to the identity theft of numerous drivers in the License database of the Belize City Council. Fuller’s charges further extended to another of his companies, OMNI, the former master agent for MoneyGram International in Belize.  At one point, the court also froze all of Fuller’s assets until earlier this year.  But while the F.I.U. and the prosecution appeared in the beginning to have landed a landmark case, all that came crashing down in a stunning manner.  In fact, the prosecution withdrew all the charges against Dean Fuller and today we spoke with his attorney, Eamon Courtenay.

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Dean Fuller

eamon courtenay

“My client, Mister Fuller and two of his companies appeared before Senior Magistrate Dorothy Flowers this morning to face the charge of Money laundering of sum nearly six million dollars. The F.I.U. appeared and they withdrew all the charges against Mister Fuller. The matter, as you know, was a P.I., a preliminary inquiry, and they failed to get off the ground. It means that all the charges against Mister Fuller and his companies are now withdrawn. The criminal side is completed and the civil side, you know, the Court of Appeal in March had allowed our appeal and released all his accounts. So this matter is now completely behind Mister Fuller.”

Marion Ali

“Ok! First off, does this mean that they can recharge him and re-arrest him and bring back these charges again?”

Eamon Courtenay

“Well that’s a good question. The situation is as we have maintained form the very beginning that there is absolutely no evidence against Mister Fuller or any of his companies. I think it is important to remember what happened here. The F.I.U. charged an agent of Money Gram; Mister Fuller was the master agent. He had the contract with Money Gram and he had contracts with other parties who were sub-agents all across the country, where you could go in and do your transaction. The F.I.U. charged one of those agents and they said because Mister Fuller is the master agent, he’s the person in contact with Money Gram , it means that he must be guilty of what these people did. I think any first year law student will tell you, that obviously that makes no sense. Somebody can’t be charged for a criminal matter by association. I make that point because it demonstrates that there is absolutely no evidence against Mister Fuller or his companies. Whatever may be said about the sub-agents, we are not interested in that; there is no evidence against Mister Fuller and his companies. This matter has come to an end like this because we eventually had to get in contact with the D.P.P. to say that we are going to sue for malicious prosecution because this is a preposterous situation, where there is no evidence against this man and his companies. And the F.I.U. in a stubborn way continue with this prosecution. Fortunately, as I understand it, the private lawyers, Senior Council Miss Antoinette Moore and Miss Pitts were able to convince Marilyn Williams that there was absolutely no case here against them and that is why they dropped it. I give you this long story Marion to say to you that, based on all the evidence and there were over nearly seventy statements that they gave us, all of that amounted to absolutely nothing, so I would say that it would be a gross abuse their powers if they attempted to come back again and I think at that stage Mister Fuller would certainly what remedies he would want to move with against them. I don’t see how any new evidence can come forward. It is now nearly a year since he was originally charged. And the only way evidence can come forward at this stage in my view, would be if it was manufactured.”

Courtenay says Fuller is contemplating to sue the F.I.U. Meanwhile, in a separate case another person who was charged with money laundering, Ernest Raymond Junior, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court today.  He is charged with concealment, but the case could not proceed against him because the prosecutor, Antoinette Moore, had other commitments in Dangriga.  Chief Magistrate adjourned the matter until July eighth, but not before making clear that it is not fair to further inconvenience Raymond for another few weeks because the prosecutor has other commitments. Raymond is represented by Attorneys Dickie Bradley and Arthur Saldivar.