Former NESol executive to forfeit more than $40m in assets

   

The Supreme Court has given the Financial Investigations Division the green light to forfeit more than $40 million in cash and millions of dollars in assets from former National Energy Solutions Limited (NESol) executive, Lawrence Pommels.

 

The decision comes more than a month after Pommels, the former Chief Engineer at the National Energy Solutions, a government agency, was sent to prison.

 

Mr. Pommels was in May sentenced to nine months imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to two counts of corruption and six counts of possession of criminal property before the St. Catherine Parish Court.

 

He was charged in 2018 after the cops raided his St. Catherine home and seized more than $40 million in cash as part of a corruption investigation.

 

Some $20 million was found hidden in a crib.

 

Three high-end vehicles were also seized in the investigations.

 

Pommels was also charged for bribery after he recorded attempting to bribe a senior investigator.

 

Two other men have been charged in the case.

 

On Tuesday, the FID announced that it secured a forfeiture order from the Supreme Court.

 

The forfeiture order, obtained Under Section 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2007, on June 20, directed the Financial Investigations Division to take the following:

 

Cash totalling $36.29 million and US$4,800; just over $3 million held in a savings account with a local commercial bank; and just under $1 million held in a local credit union from the sale of a 2014 Mercedes Benz CLA 250.

 

The High Court also ordered the forfeiture of three high-end motor vehicles, a 2009 Honda Accord, a 2014 Audi Q7 and a 2016 BMW X6.

 

In commenting on the ruling, Principal Director of Investigations at the FID, Keith Darien, said the conviction of Pommels was the culmination of years of dedicated investigations by the FID in collaboration with the Jamaica Constabulary Force's Constabulary Financial Unit, Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (CTOC) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

 

He said the case demonstrates FID's commitment to hold perpetrators accountable as well as send the message is that "crime does not pay".

 

Mr. Darien vowed that the division will rigorously enforce the Proceeds of Crime Act to ensure that lawbreakers do not benefit from their ill-gotten gains.