(Jamaica Observer) The judge’s order for David Smith to pay US$55 million in restitution and forfeit a US$730,000 house he purchased in 2006 for his sister and brother-in-law, could give hope to investors in his failed ponzi scheme, Olint. Jamaicans are among the 6,000 investors in Jamaica, Turks and Caicos Islands and in Florida who had approximately US$220 million invested in Smith’s Olint, which was sold to investors as a foreign exchange trader that gave higher returns.
With the sentence of Smith on Thursday in a US federal court to 30 years’ imprisonment, local investors virtually gave up any hope that their money would be returned, as previously promised by Smith. Judge Mary Scriven, according to a Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) report,