Smith

A joint team of United States and Turks and Caicos law enforcement officers reportedly raided the offices of multibillion-dollar investment club Olint Corporation on those islands yesterday.

The Gleaner learnt yesterday that Olint's offices in Miami, Florida, were also ordered closed by the US authorities who removed computers and files from both locations.

Documents belonging to Olint's principal, David Smith, were also taken from his home.

A source close to the case told The Gleaner that Smith's assets had also been frozen by the authorities in Turks and Caicos.

A close friend of Smith said he was not in Turks and Caicos when the authorities arrived there.

"He got wind that they were going there, so he wasn't there when they arrived," the friend said.

The friend said that, in addition to Smith facing pressure from the US government, the Olint head's mother had been receiving bomb threats in the last week.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw declined to say anything about the reports coming out of Turks and Caicos last night.

"I'm not going to comment at this stage because it is an operation in another island that I have no information about," Shaw said.

On Monday, Olint advised its investors here that its New Kingston offices would be closed to the public until further notice.

Problems

The source claimed Olint's most recent problems started two weeks ago when it sought to wire US$200 million through a prominent Jamaican bank. The bank reported the suspicious activity to the authorities and an investigation followed.

Olint has been facing a string of legal problems since 2006 when the Financial Services Commission (FSC) served a cease-and-desist order on the entity. On November 3, 2006, the court granted a stay of execution of the commission's cease-and-desist order until March 26 last year when the appeals ofOlint and LewFam would be heard by the court. It was also ordered that there should be no increase in the membership of Olint until the appeal was heard.

On December 24, the FSC was vindicated when the court held that the operations of Olint were in breach of the provisions of the Securities Act. This through its dealing in securities and engaging in the participation of a profit-sharing agreement, issuing investment contracts, and providing advice to potential investors without the required licences and registration.

The court held that LewFam was in breach of the Securities Act in performing the functions of a dealer's representative or investment adviser's representative without the required registration under the Securities Act.

Cease-and-desist

The court also found that the commission's issuance of the cease-and-desist order was correct and directed that the stay of execution of the order was ended.

While the authorities awaited the decision of the court, Olint carried its operations off-shore and outside the immediate jurisdiction of the Jamaican authorities.

Olint appealed the ruling of the Supreme Court and was granted a stay of execution until the appeal was heard in February this year.

In May, the National Com-mercial Bank was also barred from closing three Olint accounts until an appeal was also heard.

Last month, Smith was named in an investigation of another company by a US-based indepen-dent regulatory body for suspicious activity. Smith was named as principal of the company and was alleged to have contributed close to 100 per cent of its capital.