Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin yesterday set October 21 for the continuation of the New Building Society (NBS) multi-million dollar fraud case after lawyers submitted that they were going to withdraw their High Court proceedings so that the matter can proceed.
Initially, Director-Secretary Maurice Arjoon of 1-2 La Fleur Road, Eccles, Assistant Mortgage Manager Kissoon Baldeo, 38, of 86 Zeeburg, West Coast Demerara and Operations Manager Kent Vincent of 1247 Canje Pheasant Lane, South Ruimveldt were charged with conspiracy to defraud the NBS of $69M. Last October, shortly after the matter was brought before the court the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack ordered that the charges be withdrawn against the trio and reinstituted together with Ashley Legall, 59, Imran Bacchus, Amarita Prashad, 18, and Mohanram Shahebudin. The latter four employees were subsequently fired.
Yesterday the court was told that attorneys-at-law Nigel Hughes, Anil Nandlall and Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos are now representing Arjoon. In their submissions, the team asked that the $1M bail granted to the former managers be reduced as the defendants had to borrow from relatives and use their savings. They also submitted that the managers have attended hearings on all occasions over the last year and are not flight risks. The lawyers pointed out too that since the fraud was uncovered and the trio fired they have been unable to secure employment of a similar nature. Arjoon remains unemployed. The court also heard that the High Court proceedings, which prohibited the magistrate from hearing the new charges (an Order Nisi was granted to allow this) would be withdrawn.
After hearing the submissions and application, the magistrate said that when the High Court matter was withdrawn, the trio would be placed on $200,000 bail each, which is the same sum that the other four accused had been granted. The PI in the matter is expected to continue on October 21. To date, the only evidence submitted is the testimony of Audit Manager Atma Lall Rajaram, on October 3, shortly after the first charges were laid. Since then the matter has been stalled by High Court proceedings filed by the lawyers.
The first charge alleges that on November 20, 2006 Legall, Bacchus and Shahebudin conspired with others to withdraw $20.5M from the Savings and Prosper account in the name of Bibi Khan at NBS by way of two cheques. The second reads that on November 1, 2006 Legall, Bacchus, Prashad and Shahebudin allegedly conspired with others to withdraw $15M from Khan’s account in the form of two cheques in the name of M. Kryshundayal and Compton Chase respectively. The third charge states that Bacchus, Legall, Shahebudin, Baldeo and Vincent on November 17 allegedly conspired to withdraw $22,664,000 from Khan’s account by using two cheques, one in the name of M. Hussein and the other, Compton Chase. And the fourth charge reads that on November 8, Arjune, Vincent, Bacchus, Legall and Shahebudin conspired with others to withdraw $32,230,384 from Khan’s account using two cheques.
Shortly after the reinstitution of the charges, lawyers for the managers filed a motion in the High Court before Justice Jainarayan Singh Jr asking that the court prohibit the DPP, the Commissioner of Police or any of his servants from reinstituting any new charges against them. Attorney-at-law Hukumchand who is the special prosecutor in the case, had said on at least one occasion that the prosecution could not proceed until the determination of the High Court matter which was brought by Arjoon, Vincent and Baldeo.
