Case against last five accused dismissed
THE multi-million dollar fraud charge, against four ex-employees of the New Building Society (NBS) and a businessman, was dismissed yesterday by Acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry. It happened after the main witness for the prosecution failed to attend, again. The man had been called on more than one occasion previously but was not in attendance.
As a result, the magistrate freed the five accused, Imran Bacchus, Ashley Legall, Mohanram Shahebudin, Kissoon Baldeo and Kent Vincent, who were the last still facing trial.
The charge against them had alleged that, on November 17, 2006, they conspired together and with other persons to effect the withdrawal of $22,664,000 from the Savings and Prosper Account in the name of Bibi Shamila Khan at NBS, with two cheques, one for $20,500,000 in the name of M. Hussain and the other, for $2,164,000, made out to Compton Chase, thereby defrauding Khan.
Last year November, former Director/Secretary Maurice Arjoon along with Amarita Prashad were discharged by Magistrate Fazil Azeez on the ground that there was insufficient evidence against them.
There were four preliminary inquiries (PIs) before the court, in relation to the same case and Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin, who was presiding at one trial, dismissed one of the charges in 2009, also on the basis of insufficient evidence.
Initially, Arjoon, Assistant Mortgage Manager Kissoon Baldeo and Operations Manager Kent Vincent were charged with conspiracy to defraud the NBS of $69M. In October 2007, shortly after it reached the court, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack ordered that the charge be withdrawn against the trio and reinstituted together with charges against Legall, Bacchus, Amarita Prashad and Shahebudin.