Posted: 08/10/2010 - 11:01 AM

http://www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id=10406

Prosecutors Antoinette Moore, SC, Tricia Pitts-Anderson and Mikhail Arguelles are winding down their case this week against the seven persons accused of laundering over $1.5 million dollars in 2008.

On Tuesday of this week Detective Sergeant Bernard Reyes of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) finished his testimony by detailing his errand to retired Senior Superintendent of Police George Heusner, Belize’s sole handwriting expert, for assistance in handwriting comparison in the case and receipt of computers and CD’s from Sgt. Kenrick Lewis of the Police IT Unit.

In cross-examination, Sgt. Reyes told Arthur Saldivar that there were no transaction forms found during the search of the Coye home on Johnson Street, that no photos were taken of the money allegedly found inside the various containers in the home, and that most of the money was wrapped in wrappers bearing the insignia of major local banks. He admitted that no canvass was made of the banks and tellers who may have handled the money and could not ascertain just how much of the counted money actually came from these banks.

But a number of the pieces of evidence tendered by Reyes during his testimony were not mentioned in his statements given prior to the case, he admitted on the stand to the defense counsel.

Following some submissions from the defense, testimony resumed Tuesday afternoon with Dean Joseph of Dangriga, who operated a Moneygram sub-agent office from his photography business, Dangriga Photo Plus, between 2006 and 2008 and claimed to have worked with the Coyes, particularly Melonie Coye and her husband James Gerou, from May of 2008 to the time of the discoveries.

Joseph said he agreed to a “float”, the start-up money from which monies received are paid, of $10,000, deposited into his bank account, plus $1,000 per month personal salary. When he asked for an increase a few months into the arrangement, he said Melonie told him that she would appear in Dangriga to teach him “international money transactions” and other facets of the business, but never showed.

In August, 2008, during a conversation with Melonie Coye, she allegedly reported that she would have to reduce the float from $10,000 to $9,000 due to alleged bank problems with deposits.

The FIU visited Joseph in November of 2008. When he told her about it, Joseph said, Melonie Coye told him they should have checked with her as head of the operation, a perhaps prescient statement as when in late December Joseph checked with the City office again he was allegedly told by James Gerou that they “can’t do a thing at this point” as his wife and family were locked up and that he would have to watch ‘the 6:30 news’ for details.

Joseph then explained the process of sending and receiving money transfers. In cross-examination, he admitted that what he had done was not illegal and that his initial approval was granted through Omni Networks’ Dean Fuller, also accused of money laundering last year, who had his charges dropped.

Assessor of Income Tax Denise Staine was last called to the stand on Tuesday evening and reported that following a records search related to the company asked for by the FIU in September 2010, it was found that the company had not filed receipts for business tax purposes between 2008 and 2009 and that there were no submissions for employees’ PAYE from 2007 to 2009 for five of the seven named defendants in the case.

Testifying on Wednesday was records supervisor at the City Council Traffic Department office, Enid Dakers. She described a visit from Reyes in May of 2010 regarding information he wanted on a white four-door Ford Escort registered in the traffic database to Melonie Coye of Johnson Street with no license plate number (the Council had not had any at the time of registration), as well as drivers’ licenses and application forms for Atlee Matute and Dietrich Kingston.

There was much confusion over what Dakers called the “original” documents printed and given to Reyes, and an attempt to tender the items as evidence was initially resisted by the defense. In the afternoon, on cross-examination, Saldivar got Dakers to admit that the tendered application forms were not “original” after all, given that some of the information that was left off was already in the traffic database.

Former Traffic processing officer Veronica Bevans, examined by Mikhail Arguelles, explained the processing of drivers’ licenses and took pains to point out that the forms are checked and re-checked for authenticity.

George Heusner was called to the stand last on Wednesday. His experience in handwriting comparison, he told the court, derived from a 1961 correspondence course with an institute in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., and a two-week secondment to a constabulary office in Wakefield, England, U.K., during training for fingerprinting. Nonetheless, he served the Police in this role for over 30 years, even after his retirement as a senior superintendent 12 years ago, and has previously testified in court in similar circumstances.

After studying the signatures on various Moneygram receipt forms and comparing them with specimen signatures collected from their subjects and the drivers’ licenses and applications for Kingston and Matute, he found that Kingston’s and Matute’s signatures on the forms, licenses and Moneygram forms all corresponded.

But in cross-examination, it came out that there were only initials on the Moneygram forms rather than the full name, but according to Heusner the lettering and style indicated that they were made by the same person. This was apparently left out of his report, however.

There were submissions made in court this morning and testimony continued this afternoon.

The trial continues tomorrow morning.