Barbara Gayle, Senior Staff Reporter

AN INVESTOR in the troubled David Smith-led foreign-exchange trading club, Olint, has failed in his bid to have the Supreme Court bar the National Commercial Bank (NCB) from paying over money which it holds in accounts opened by Olint.

Dr Christopher Walker, who lives and practises in Florida, claimed that he had US$2.4 million invested with Olint and for the past 17 months, he has not received any money from his account.

He said he feared that if the money in the NCB accounts was paid to Olint, it would be dissipated without the trading club settling its debts.

Ownership of Olint money

According to Dr Walker, a substantial amount of the money in the Olint accounts belonged to him.

He was seeking an injunction from the Supreme Court to bar NCB from paying out the money to Olint. He said he wanted the money to remain in the Olint accounts for at least 15 days.

This would give him time to obtain the support of like-minded investors so they could pursue a final order to bar NCB from paying out the money to Olint.

Attorney-at-law David Rowe, who also practises at the Florida Bar, represented Dr Walker.But Michael Hylton, QC, who is representing NCB, opposed the application which was heard in chambers last Friday before Justice Lloyd Hibbert.

Last week, the United Kingdom Privy Council gave NCB the go-ahead to close Olint's account.

The Court of Appeal had ruled last year that the account should remain open until the civil suit between Olint and NCB had been determined.

Failed to comply

The bank had served notice on Olint that it was going to close its accounts because it had failed to comply with certain requests, which included the presentation of audited financial statements.

Olint went to the Supreme Court, which turned down its application to bar NCB from closing the accounts. Olint appealed and the Court of Appeal ruled in its favour.

But NCB took the issue to the United Kingdom Privy Council and won.

Smith was arrested last Thursday in the Turks and Caicos Islands on fraud charges. He is on US$1 million bail with surety. The arrest stemmed from months of investigations into the operations of Olint.

The Jamaican Court of Appeal is to hear legal arguments tomorrow in an appeal which Olint has brought against a Supreme Court ruling in December 2007.

The court upheld a cease-and-desist order issued by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in March 2006. The FSC issued the cease-and-desist order on the grounds that Olint had breached the Securities Act and was not licensed to carry out foreign currency trading activities.