(Jamaica Gleaner) What seemed like an easy way to make $15,000 for a Corporate Area man has mushroomed into a nightmare that could end with him and several others locked behind bars.
The Sunday Gleaner understands that some persons desperate for money have been selling the use of their bank accounts to criminals to move large sums of cash, undetected by law enforcers.
Countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States have already enacted laws to stop this development, and Jamaican investigators are discussing if similar measures might be needed locally.
“We are aware of this scheme, and we are intensifying our investigations into it,” Senior Superintendent Clifford Chambers, head of the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID), told The Sunday Gleaner.
“In the past two weeks, we have found that some $65 million has been moved through accounts in this manner, but we are not yet in a position to name a person or persons of interest who are masterminding this fraud,” added Chambers.
He noted that several accounts have been impacted and some persons are now before the courts facing charges in relation to the scheme.
MONEY LAUNDERING
Details of the scheme were given to The Sunday Gleaner by one man whose account has been used to move stolen money or to launder the proceeds of crime.
David Grey, a Jamaican, was caught in the web of deception after he thought he had struck the deal of a lifetime when a man offered to pay him $15,000 for the use of his savings account, debit card and his personal identification number (PIN).
“The man never mek it look like so much trouble. Him mek it look like him just want to move money from one account to another,” an obviously worried Grey told The Sunday Gleaner as he recounted the story.
“Now it look like many people could be going to prison, including me, for what dem don’t know about.”
Grey said he did not think twice when he was approached in February by a man who offered him $15,000 for his debit card and PIN for his savings account.
“I had $250 in the account and I used to see the man at a place where I used to gamble, so I just think is a one-time thing,” said Grey.
“But when mi check, mi notice that the man move in excess of $400,000 through the account,” added Grey.
NO INITIAL CONCERN
He said while that raised questions in his mind, he was not unduly concerned initially.
“When mi know is trouble now is when mi go to the bank and somebody there told me that is eight persons get arrested for this already,” said Grey.
“When mi check about my account, dem tell mi that it is frozen and I would have to go to my branch to clarify that, but I know that is where dem would arrest mi, so mi just call it a loss.”
Grey, shocked by the amount moving through his account, reported the matter to a bank official without telling him that he was the one who actually sold the card.
