For 2 months now, the 6 Belizean offshore companies and 6 persons named in the indictment from the Federal Court in New York for securities fraud have had their money in Belizean Banks frozen.
As we've told you, those 6 individuals include Belizean Andrew Godfrey, Bahamians, Kelvin Leach and Rohn Knowles, Canadians Brian De Wit and Cem "Jim" Can, and American Robert Bandfield. Among the accused corporate defendants are IPC Management Services, LLC; IPC Corporate Services Inc.; IPC Corporate Services LLC; Titan International Securities, Inc; Legacy Global Markets S.A; and Unicorn International Securities LLC (Unicorn).
The many attorneys representing these defendants have been tied up in the court room of Justice Kenneth Benjamin since October 21 in closed door hearings. They have been trying to get the freezing orders reversed. These were granted to the Financial Intelligence Unit back in September.
We can't tell you the exact amount of the frozen funds, but we understand that it's over a million dollars in several different bank accounts connected to the defendants. That's kind of money that the attorneys have been trying to convince Chief Justice Benjamin release, and today, after considering all arguments, he did.
After the delivery of the judgment, a few of the attorneys for the defendants spoke with the awaiting media outside of court. Here's how they explained it to us:
Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for Rohn Knowles
"Our application was a simple one to unfreeze all the assets that were frozen by the government. Very briefly, the court ruled that all the assets should be unfrozen, meaning the restraining order is completely discharged. He did so on total lack of evidence to support the allegation made and the fact that if you wanted to restrain the assets, you would have had to charge our clients which they didn't did. Costs are for to be borne by the FIU which will be considerable and the short point I want to make on that is this; it is our view that this was prompted by the government of the United States, the costs of course will be borne by Belizean tax payers, not the government of the United States."
Michael Young, SC - Unicorn Securities Int'l, LLC
"We are talking about monies in Belizean banks which are here. The freezing order which was issued on the 24th September 2014, was issued against all properties of the respondents including the particular monies on accounts which were identified in the application, so it was sweeping order against the property of the respondents in Belize. It was an important decision handed down by the Chief Justice and it signals that you can't just have allegations which are from abroad and then in consequence of that or following upon that you are going to seize properties of companies or persons doing business in Belize under Belizean laws. There are constitutional protections which are enjoyed by persons who live or do business in this country and in fact this case had to do with that. Fundamentally what occurred is that and the court found this to be the case, the FIU moved to freeze property under the act, when the requirements of the act were not met."
Eamon Courtenay - Attorney for Titans/Kelvin Leech
"I know my clients are very happy. I think one of the very important points is the description by the Chief Justice of the devastating allegations made against all our clients without any substantiation, no evidence to support it, merely responding to a request from the United States."
Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, you clients business has been disrupted, what's the next step? Will he seek to continue business here or what is his next step?"
Eamon Courtenay
"I think there are two things; one is, first of all to take an assessment of the damage that has been done to their business, damage that has been done to their reputation and somebody has to pay for that. That the first thing. Secondly, as you know there is this provisional request for the extradition of our clients. That is something that we still have on the table that has to be dealt with and so we would want to get beyond that before the clients are in position to make definitive decisions of where they want to go, but I can say at this point there certainly would be a damages claim against the Government of Belize."
Local News reports have featured Kelvin Leach, and Rohn Knowles extensively, and along with their backstories, but one of the other defendants, who we've not reported on is Canadian Cem "Jim" Can. Canadian news reports say that he has a history of defending against similar allegations in that country, and they note that he hasn't been caught by any authorities as yet. The US Government is seeking to extradite him to face those security's fraud charges as well as the other 5. But, while no one has detained him yet, he seems able to communicate clearly with his attorney in Belize on what his instructions should be.
Today we asked his attorney about that access he enjoys, when law enforcement haven't been able to locate him. Here's what he told us:
Michael Young, SC - Unicorn Securities Int'l, LLC
"We will have private conversations with our clients on that issue."
Daniel Ortiz
"Are you able to communicate with your client Mr. Jim Can, he is missing or....."
Michael Young, SC - Unicorn Securities Int'l, LLC
"Have you ever heard of something called email? Make communication very easy, doesn't it?"
We note that he has also emailed CBC News in Canada to dispute the facts of their story which they ran earlier in October.
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