FBI seeks MoBay 'businessman'

By Keril Wright, Staff Reporter

Wick

WESTERN BUREAU:

AN AMERICAN national, Paul Ronald Wick, who operated a telemarketing company in the Montego Bay Free Zone, is being sought by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for fraud in the United States and Jamaica.

Mr. Wick, who left the company, Sharpe Communications, last year, is listed on the FBI's June "wanted list" for conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.

The allegations are that between 1994 and 2000 Wick and an accomplice operated several fraudulent telemarketing companies in Houston, Texas; Marietta, Georgia; and Montego Bay, Jamaica.

It is alleged that credit cards and vacations were sold to victims with poor credit ratings and to persons who had signed up for vacation sweepstakes.

Two of the companies are reported to have defrauded customers of more than US$18 million.

Mr. Wick and his alleged accomplice were indicted on January 10, 2001, by a Houston, Texas, federal grand jury on 12 counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud through operating fraudulent telemarketing companies.

Sharpe Communications changed hands a month before Mr. Wick's indictment, according to Dwayne Gayle, the new owner of the company. Mr. Gayle told The Gleaner yesterday that the company has been in his name since December last year but declined to say from whom he had acquired it.

Former employees of Sharpe Communications have identified photographs of Mr. Wick as the company's initial operator.

Checks with the Registrar of Companies revealed that Gayle's name did not appear under any company listing and there was no listing for Sharpe Communications. Also, there was no listing under the name "Paul Ronald Wick".

A spokesperson at the United States Embassy told The Gleaner yesterday that the FBI and the Jamaican police have been co-operating in trying to arrest and detain Mr. Wick for eventual extradition to the USA for trial. However, according to reliable sources, Mr. Wick may no longer be in the island.

Sharpe Communications is part of the Information Technology industry that Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Industry and Commerce, expects to supply 40,000 jobs in five years.

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