I smell a lawsuit coming from the Chin brothers, former owners of the Alliance group of companies in Jamaica.

So in a stunning ruling on April 4, Jamaica’s courts cleared brothers Robert and Peter Chin of all charges under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).

In December 2021, the charges against the Chins sent shockwaves through Jamaica’s financial sector.

Alliance was one of the largest cambio operators in Jamaica, handling a reported 30% of all Moneygram transactions and more than 8% of all remittance inflows on the island. 

But that all came to a sudden halt when the Financial Investigations Division laid out 17 charges for various financial crimes over a three year period.  The Chins were accused of not reporting certain transactions and not being authorised to lend foreign currency.

A few days later, the Bank of Jamaica, which regulates all financial institutions, suspended Alliance’s cambio and remittance licenses, effective immediately.

The move left 500 employees suddenly jobless a couple weeks before Christmas.

Alliance had also been in the middle of launching an IPO, which I had JUST interviewed the Chins about when the news broke.

They were planning to raise J$2 billion from the IPO, but of course, with the reputational hit, that had to be cancelled.

In 2022, Alliance eventually sold its business to Sagicor Jamaica. But on April 4, 2024, a judge upheld a no-case submission by Alliance’s defence attorneys, King’s Counsel Tom Tavares-Finson and Sean-Christopher Castle.

The judge said that the case did not pass the threshold for going to trial.

According to Nationwide News, the attorneys had submitted evidence that the institution and the Chin brothers had complied with the law and did report the transactions in question. KC Tavares Finson told the media that the FID was incompetent. He also said the case destroyed the Chins’ business, reputation and careers.

Well those sound like fighting words to me.  Sounds like they’re laying the grounds for a massive lawsuit. It’s certainly a gross embarrassment for the FID at the very least.  And a blow to Jamaica’s entire financial regulatory system.

But publicly, the FID is still pushing ahead with forfeiture proceedings against Alliance Investment’s sister company, Alliance Financial.

In 2022, Alliance Financial was fined over J$20 million after pleading guilty to several financial crimes.

That case is currently before the Supreme Court. But according to Tavares-Finson, the FID is trying to conflate the two issues.  He claims that Alliance Financial pleaded guilty to minor regulatory breaches as part of a plea arrangement. And he told the Gleaner newspaper that, “the entity’s founders reserve the right to take legal action to recoup losses incurred.”

And that’s the bottom line.