As silence continues over the SOCU money-laundering probe into Assistant Commissioner of Police, Calvin Brutus, the Sunday Stabroek has learnt that Top Cop Clifton Hicken submitted a statement to the investigators acknowledging that he collected an envelope with $8.5m in cash from a businessman to offset the cost of Brutus’s wedding at the Pegasus Suites Atlantic Conference Centre.
Hicken’s statement to the investigators, seen by the Sunday Stabroek, will raise further concerns about the culture in the police force of accepting money and incentives from the business community despite the fact that this could undermine the role of law enforcers.
The statement by Hicken was meant to corroborate Brutus’ contention that he (Brutus) had collected a large amount of monetary gifts at his wedding which were later deposited at a bank and which then triggered a money-laundering investigation by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).