Forfeiture case against convicted former NESol official set for June 20

 

Lawrence Pommels, the convicted former official at National Energy Solutions (NESol), is to appear in the St. Catherine Circuit Court on June 20 for hearing of his forfeiture case.

 

Pommels was sentenced to nine months in prison under a plea deal that also requires him to forfeit "over 80 per cent" of the total value of the four high-end luxury vehicles and $30 million in cash which were seized by law enforcement authorities during his 2018 arrest and frozen by court order.

 

His co-accused - Rayon Hamilton, Ricardo Harris, Horace Stewart and Kimberly Nelson - were freed of the charges.

 

Prior to sentencing, the Assets Recovery Agency filed a Notice of Request for Committal to the St. Catherine Circuit Court.

 

FID's Principal Director of Investigations Keith Darien said the entity will aggressively pursue perpetrators of financial crimes, including corrupt officials, whose criminal and selfish activities place undue burden on government finances, and deprive taxpayers of essential services.

 

He lamented that Pommels "corruptly helped himself to taxpayers' money" when he "deprived many rural schools, students and communities of needed electricity and internet services by fraudulently causing NESol to pay out millions of dollars to his associates for work which was never done; these monies were eventually paid over to him". 

 

The FID said based on intelligence received about the operations at NESoL, it initiated surveillance and financial assessments of Pommels' activities in 2018.

 

It said the findings from the assessments and surveillance justified search operations at his Old Harbour, St. Catherine home where over $20 million in cash was found hidden in a crib.

 

Further search operations at the company's offices led to the confiscation of records and accounts.

 

The FID said that's when it discovered that "verbal contracts" worth $60 million were issued to associates of Pommels as well as a connected company without following proper procurement processes.