Will the theft of laptops from SSL’s head office impact the ongoing fraud investigation?

So last week, burglars stole five laptops from the head offices of Stocks and Securities Limited. 

According to the police, thieves broke into the two storey building, ransacked the offices and made off with five laptops, one of which was reportedly used by SSL’s Chief Financial Officer.

Mhmm… That’s suspicious. 

Of course the robbery raised eyebrows because we’re still in the middle of an international fraud investigation involving billions of dollars and one of Jamaica’s favourite sons, Olympian Usain Bolt.

It’s even more suspicious because it happened literally hours after the Financial Investigations Division, FID, announced that more charges could drop any day now.

According to the FID’s latest update, more than 200 SSL clients were swindled out of US$30 million!

Remember, when this investigation started in January, we only knew about 40ish affected accounts and US$12 million scammed. So this is a massive increase, and it points to longstanding, widespread fraud inside SSL.

Which is something that the FID confirms, saying their investigation has revealed a web of prolonged mismanagement and deceit dating back to the company’s inception in 2006.

Now the FBI and a forensic accounting team from the UK have been working with the FID on this case since the start.

However, the FID’s chief technical officer, Selvin Hay, said the theft of the laptops will not impact the investigation. I mean, they’ve been working on this case for almost a year, so I’m guessing that anything they needed from the laptops, they already have.

Meanwhile, former wealth advisor Jean Ann Panton is still the only person who’s been charged in connection to the fraud.

The FID said the Office of Public Prosecutions has the file and will decide if additional charges are necessary… and that’s the bottom line.