Published Apr 16, 2011 at 8:33 am

http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20110416/NEWS02/704169970/-1/news02

A man guilty of the largest money-laundering enterprise ever prosecuted in Bermuda should get six to eight years in jail, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Roger Cox used a network of 33 people to help him launder $2.2 million, which he says he got from running illegal gambling dens.

“Cox was clearly the mastermind of the operation,” prosecutor Kirsty-Ann Kiellor told Supreme Court of the crime, which spanned a five-year period from 2004 onwards.

Chief Justice Richard Ground is now mulling the appropriate sentences for Cox, 38, and a woman who assisted his laundering enterprise, and will announce his decision on Tuesday.

During yesterday’s hearing, Ms Kiellor explained that when police searched Cox’s St George’s home, which was fitted out using his illegal funds, they found $338,920 cash stashed away.

Some was found in bags and envelopes in a bedroom closet, some was tucked between clothing and some was hidden in the pump cupboard for Cox’s jacuzzi.

What Ms Kiellor described as “high value” jewellery was also seized during the search, and Cox was arrested on suspicion of money laundering.

Police then visited a bank deposit box he rented at the HSBC Compass Point branch. They found $369,640 inside.

Cox, who is married with three young children, told police the cash was given to him by a man who has since passed away.

However, his lawyer John Perry QC said Cox now admits it came from illegal gambling dens which he ran in addition to his legitimate air conditioning business.

Cox pleaded guilty in March to two charges of money laundering relating to the sums found at his home and bank box. He also admitted a third charge of transferring or removing $1,579,296 from Bermuda, which was the proceeds of crime, to help him avoid prosecution.

Ms Kiellor said Cox roped in other people to help launder the cash through methods including bank drafts, Western Union transfers, foreign currency purchases and carrying cash out of Bermuda.

She said many of them were arrested and questioned and found to be “unwitting participants” who had no idea they were assisting in a criminal enterprise. However, one of them was 49-year-old book-keeper Michelle Lindsay, who admits laundering $24,950 for Cox.

Ms Kiellor explained Lindsay received the money into her bank accounts from another woman, who used a series of convoluted transactions to get it there.

Lindsay, who is single and worked as a bookkeeper at Gibbons Financial Services, then returned the cash to Cox two months later. She was traced to the crime via her banking documents and arrested at her one-bedroom apartment in Devonshire.

Ms Kiellor said Lindsay was involved in “an elaborate attempt to disguise the evidence”, and knew what she was doing as she’d received training about money laundering through her job.

Lindsay told police she believed the banking activity was a series of loans.

Her lawyer, Larry Mussenden, said his client now admits suspecting the money might be the proceeds of criminal conduct.

He said she had no idea Cox ran an illegal gaming den and received no financial benefit from her role. He told the court Lindsay lost her job, credibility and reputation as a result.

Ms Kiellor suggested Lindsay should be jailed for three to six months.

Both defendants apologised to the court and their families.

Mr Perry said Cox should receive a reduced sentence because he pleaded guilty on the day his complicated four to six-week trial was due to begin, thus saving the state money.

Mr Justice Ground said he needed to consider the law and submissions from the prosecution and defence, and will deliver the sentences on Tuesday morning. Cox and Lindsay were bailed until then.

When he pleaded guilty in March, Cox signed an order allowing the courts to confiscate $1.47 million in assets including the cash found in his home and bank box, jewellery and the contents of his bank accounts.

A third person charged in the case, Sumaya Lambe, from St George’s, saw the charges dropped during the March hearing. None of the other people said to have assisted Cox in his money-laundering scheme have been brought before the courts.