A cease-and-desist order should not have been issued against investment club Olint Corporation Ltd, because it did not breach any regulations or laws, Lord Anthony Gifford, QC, said Monday.

Lord Gifford is representing Olint in the appeal the company has brought against a Supreme Court ruling which upheld a cease-and-desist order which was first issued against it in March 2006.

The Financial Services Com-mission (FSC) had issued the order against Olint on the grounds that it was breaching the Securities Commission Act, because it was not licensed to trade in foreign exchange.

Lord Gifford said Olint was a private investment club and the FSC did not have the power to regulate private investment schemes. He said the FSC had the power to regulate only institutions and persons offering financial service to the public.

The queen's counsel said that although Olint had a wide membership, it did not offer any financial service to the public. He said before a cease-and-desist order was issued, the law made provision for the FSC to have a hearing. None took place in Olint's case.

Negotiable instruments

He also submitted that the buying and selling of negotiable instruments was quite different from the buying and selling of foreign exchange.

Lord Gifford and attorney-at-law Huntley Watson, who is also representing Olint, referred to the minutes of a meeting by the board of the FSC on March 27, 2006. Lord Gifford said the board came to a conclusion at that meeting that foreign-exchange trading was not regulated.

Attorneys-at-law Nicole Foster Pusey and Jeremy Spencer are representing the FSC.

Olint's boss, David Smith, is facing fraud charges in the Turks and Caicos Islands. He was arrested and charged last week. After the cease-and-desist order was issued, Smith went to the Turks and Caicos Islands, where he conducted business.