Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton last week adjourned the trial relating to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2003 remigration scam owing to problems with the witnesses.
Perdessa Dundas who was slapped with 54 charges of forgery and corrupt transactions by an agent for her alleged involvement in the scam was present in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
Lawyers for Dundas did not turn up until about twenty minutes after the scheduled time and the magistrate then announced August 4 as the new date for the continuation of the matter. Attorney-at-law Candace Raphael from the chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is prosecuting the case.
Stabroek News was told that the matter was originally being heard by former Magistrate Bertlyn Reynolds who transferred it to Magistrate Adrian Thompson. When he resigned from the bench the matter was assigned to Magistrate Octive-Hamilton.
It is not clear how many witnesses had testified so far but this newspaper was assured that evidence was taken.
This newspaper was told that nothing much has been happening in the case for some time but last week’s adjournment was due to problems with the witnesses.
In January 2005, Dundas was slapped with 42 counts of forgery when she appeared before the then Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan who released her on her own recognizance.
It is alleged in the forgery charges that Dundas on various dates in 2003, with intent to defraud, forged Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minutes in favour of several persons, purporting to show that they were signed by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rudy Insanally.
Then in June of that year, she was faced with twelve more charges – two counts of corrupt transaction by an agent and ten counts of forgery. She had appeared before Sullivan and was released on $10,000 bail.
Prior to these two sets of charges, Dundas together with another Ministry of Foreign Affairs agent, Simone Hinds were charged with corrupt transaction and forgery. They were however acquitted on those charges by Magistrate Maxwell Edwards.
When the scam was detected many persons from both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Finance fell under suspicion.
Hinds and Dundas who were both employed with the Foreign Affairs Ministry were arrested and later charged.
They were accused of not only forging the Ministry’s Minutes to show they were signed by the minister but also of taking sums of money from persons as payment for the preparation and processing of letters authorizing duty-free concessions.
