PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Financial Investigations Bureau (FIB) says it has been successful in filing an application resulting in the forfeiture of TT$410,000 (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) that had been seized from a chartered accountant in December 2019.
In a statement, the FIB said that due to the ruling by Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle, the money has been deposited into the Seized Assets Fund (SAF).
It said the cash was seized in December 2019 from the 43-year-old chartered accountant under the Proceeds of Crime Act and that the accountant had come under the scrutiny of FIB detectives after attempting to convert cotton notes to the polymer during the demonetization process at the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT).
According to the statement, the accountant entered the CBTT on December 29, 2019, and was told to return with supporting documents and to prove his source of funds. He returned on December 31 without any credible documents and indicated that the money represented winnings at a casino and his savings.
But the FIB said that they found “several discrepancies” as detectives investigated the ownership of the money.
“It was also discovered that the accountant had two registered businesses and did not pay any taxes for either the business or himself.”
The statement said that following the hearing of the application applied for by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Chief Magistrate Earle-Caddle granted a Forfeiture Order to have the sum of cash and any interest that would have accrued be forfeited and deposited into the SAF.
“The court found that the cash, more likely than not, derived from the specified offenses of money laundering and tax evasion,” the statement added.
