PRISON HANGS OVER BRADY
FCJ wants disbarred attorney locked up for $110m debt
Published:Thursday | April 27, 2023 | 1:13 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter
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The state-owned Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) has filed an application in the Supreme Court to have disbarred attorney Harold Brady sent to prison for a debt that has ballooned to over $110 million. The application is scheduled to be heard...
The state-owned Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) has filed an application in the Supreme Court to have disbarred attorney Harold Brady sent to prison for a debt that has ballooned to over $110 million.
The application is scheduled to be heard on July 20, when a judge is expected to rule whether Brady should be imprisoned.
There were no responses to questions emailed to Brady’s attorney, Jerome Spencer, late yesterday seeking to ascertain whether he would challenge the application and, if so, the grounds he intends to rely on.
“I will respond after I receive instructions [from Brady],” Spencer said.
The debt stems from the sale of an FCJ-owned property on Marcus Garvey Drive in the Corporate Area for $140 million, which was handled by Brady, according to a complaint the company filed with the General Legal Council (GLC) in 2015.
The GLC regulates the legal profession in Jamaica.
According to the complaint, he collected the full purchase price for the property but only accounted for $70 million despite “numerous requests” to hand over the funds.
Further, the FCJ complained to the GLC that Brady’s failure to hand over the file relating to the transaction “with due expedition” and to register the sale agreement within 30 days caused the company to incur interest and penalties that pushed the debt to $111 million.
After a hearing, the GLC found Brady guilty of professional misconduct and ordered that his name be struck from the list of attorneys authorised to practise in Jamaica and that he should pay FCJ $111 million with interest.
Under Jamaican law, a judgment of the GLC can be enforced similarly to a judgment of the Supreme Court.
The FCJ’s application to the Supreme Court last Thursday sought to enforce a previous order made by another High Court judge in 2019 that the disbarred attorney be committed to the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre for 30 days, attorneys for the FCJ told The Gleaner on Wednesday.
That order was made after Brady failed to make agreed $1 million monthly payments to the FCJ as ordered by the court, according to the attorneys.
“The committal proceedings are an enforcement tool provided for in our law for somebody to essentially compel a judgment debtor to pay a debt. So this is what the FCJ is using to kind of force Mr Brady to pay the sums,” one of the attorneys told The Gleaner.