SSL lifeline

The Government is to pay the salaries of restive employees of investment firm Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) to avoid disruptions in the ongoing investigation into the alleged fleecing of more than $4 billion from clients. None of the more than 20 persons who make up the staff turned up for work at the company’s St Andrew offices on Thursday in protest of the non-payment of their August wages.

Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said the Government will intervene because “SSL’s income cannot support its operating expenses, much of which are necessary to facilitate the ongoing investigations”.

“Consistent with the policy commitment outlined in my Budget presentation of March 2023, where I stated that the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) will make the required resources available to facilitate a thorough investigation of the SSL matter, I wish to advise as follows: The GOJ will ensure, through the FSC, which appointed the temporary manager, that SSL employees are paid for their work,” Clarke told The Gleaner yesterday.

The total amount of money to be provided, when it will be paid, and for how long the support will run are reportedly being worked on.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC), which regulates investment houses, took charge of SSL on January 17, days after the company reported an incident of fraud. In March, the FSC declared that SSL was “insolvent”.

The current staff are key to researching for investigators, dealing with clients’ concerns, and helping with the transfer of accounts to yet-to-be-named brokerage firms.

“We feel disrespected and neglected. We understand the trauma that is happening with the clients, but there’s also trauma with the staff,” said one of the employees who did not want to be named.

Another worker said they want “justice” in the case because “we are professionals and we have a life, and people should not invest their hard earned money and cannot get the benefit. We are not all criminals, and we have to deal with the perception every day and still turn up to work”.

“Just tell us when we are getting paid. Somebody has to care about our position. We know that we did not steal anybody’s money. These things are hurtful, and we have children to send to school.”

The workers say they will not return to work until a date for the payment is announced.

In several newspaper advertisements in the last week, SSL said the temporary management team “is finalising the process to facilitate clients regaining access to their accounts”.

The company said clients need to review and confirm their account balance as at June 30,2023.

Staff took industrial action on Thursday, the same day the Financial Investigations Division (FID) provided an update on the probe that started in January.

Selvin Hay, the director general of the FID, said the investigation has taken on “new dimensions which are wider than first expected”.

The FID is the government agency that investigates financial crimes in Jamaica.

“What is being uncovered is that there are approximately 70 affected accounts. This is significantly more than the just over 40 affected accounts at the initial phase. The investigation has also identified other fraudulent schemes at SSL which have resulted in the misappropriation and/or loss of numerous investors’ funds amounting to over US$10 million (approximately J$1.5 billion),” he said.

When the probe started, it was reported that some $3 billion had allegedly been defrauded from some SSL clients.

The FID said the investigation has revealed “an entrenched culture of gross mismanagement dating back well over a decade” at the 50-year-old SSL, which for a time, included dozens of Jamaican business and political elites among its clientele. Before the next court date in the matter, the agency said it anticipates the arrest and charge of “other actors involved in the multiple fraudulent schemes recently discovered”.

Former client relationship manager at SSL Jean-Ann Panton is the only person charged in the case so far. She is due back in court on December 6.

The FID said it is “robustly pursuing various lines of inquiry and taking all the necessary steps to lead evidence-based prosecutions in the court at the appropriate time against all guilty parties”.

Meanwhile, the FID’s Principal Director of Investigations, Keith Darien, sought to address concerns about the perceived slow pace of the probe.

“The duration of the fraudulent activities as well as the variety of fraud has resulted in the investigative process taking an extended period.”

He said prosecuting financial crimes requires “meticulous evidence gathering to ensure success in the court and to follow the money so that any illicit funds or assets may be identified, restrained, and recovered”.

The FID has appealed to victims to cooperate with investigators who have reached out to them, noting that responses to emails and phone calls “have been short of encouraging”.

Last week, representatives of Kroll Associates, the UK-based international forensic accounting and intelligence firm that was hired by the FID to assist with the probe, were in the island. The finance minister said they updated him in advance of the planned statement from the FID.

“GOJ will provide whatever resources are necessary for investigators to thoroughly pursue this matter,” Clarke said, noting that the Government’s policy position regarding SSL is still to “seek international help, leave no stone unturned, follow the evidence wherever it leads”.

The Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson, who demanded an update last Friday, said statements on the case should be given on a “periodic basis”.

“I believe it will give victims of the fraud some confidence that the investigations are being pursued without fear or favour and that those responsible will be held accountable,” he said.

Months ago, athletics icon Usain Bolt, who is among the alleged victims, threatened to go to the international media with his views because of a lack of updates from the authorities.

His lead attorney, Linton Gordon, yesterday declined to comment on the developments.

In May, Panton claimed that she “confessed” to the fraud because of an alleged “offer” from her former boss and SSL’s founder, Hugh Croskery.

Croskery has denied the claim. His attorney, King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie, said in May that Panton’s allegation “does not accord with my instructions from Croskery”.

The FID, the Financial Services Commission, which regulates the securities industry, and the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Fraud Squad are leading the probe.

They are getting assistance from the US Federal Bureau of Investigations, Kroll, as well as the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network for the Caribbean.

Many of the more than 8,000 accounts at SSL are held by elderly Jamaicans, who have all been unable to access what was invested for their pension. Persons for whom SSL was their broker have also been unable to move their accounts.

The FSC said earlier this year that the multiple court cases have impacted the process to do the account validations. The status of a trustee appointed by SSL to lead the reorganisation of the firm is among the cases to be settled.

The FSC has faced scrutiny after Gleaner revelations that for more than a decade, it flagged SSL as a “problem institution” with a “culture of non-compliance and mismanagement of client funds”.

However, despite the findings from its own investigators, the FSC never revoked SSL’s licence and the public was never told of the concerns.

Although the finance minister has argued that SSL accounted for just over two per cent ($29 billion) of Jamaica’s $1.45-trillion securities industry and posed little systemic threat to the sector, there have been concerns about the reputational damaged to the country’s financial sector.

Clarke has planned a series of transparency and operational reforms to be rolled out over the next 24 months.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com