I’m no fugitive, says Ian Lyn Muhammad
But local police say Interpol alert still active
Published:Monday | October 11, 2021 | 12:09 AMErica Virtue/Senior Gleaner Writer
Former Carmax used-car salesman Ian Lyn Muhammad has expressed shock and sadness that he is still flagged by the International Police (Interpol) as being wanted by Jamaican law-enforcement authorities.
Lyn Muhammad said that the designation has its genesis in 2015 when the police investigated a fraud case involving more than $200 million.
He said that following a court appearance in April, the Jamaica Constabulary Force “placed the international stop order on me on April 7, 2015”. His profile became the face of the fraud surrounding $165 million.
On Saturday, Lyn Muhammad told The Gleaner that he was angry at the denotation.
“The police investigation in 2015 into $230 million fraud at used-car dealership Carmax was hot. ... At that time, the JCF wanted me to come in for questioning, but I was three weeks in the United States, where I grew up in my teenage years and was back,” he said.
“I am really shocked to see the story about Jamaica criminals on Interpol list with my face and name as the profile. I have rebuilt my life and run a successful company only to read this post from 2015 passing it off as news in 2021. It’s not even that I was charged for anything and I absconded bail. I was never charged for anything in Jamaica,” he said.
However, in a brief response to queries by The Gleaner on Sunday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey confirmed that the case against Lyn Muhammad was still active.
Lyn Muhammad said he has sought to engage the services of a United States attorney-at-law to have the alert removed.
“He informed me that the Jamaican authorities sent my info to Interpol claiming I was the owner, which I was not, and that I had left with the money, all the time with no proof or even correct information on the company’s ownership. The fact is I am not an owner and never was at the time of the incident,” he told The Gleaner.
“Also, I did not take any money from Carmax to America. That’s a lie, and I am not a fugitive of the law. I was never charged for anything in Jamaica,” he reiterated.