Jun.18, 2010, 10:29 AM

The case of money laundering against the Coye family and two of their workers was called at the beginning of the third session of the Supreme Court for 2010, on Tuesday, June 15.

This was the first time that pleas were taken from the alleged perpetrators, and all five of the money laundering count charges met a not guilty plea by each of the seven accused: Michael Coye, 62; Marlene Coye, 55; Melonie Coye, 33; Jude Coye, 32; and James Gerou, 37 – all owners of MoneyGram, situated on the corner Central American Boulevard and Mahogany Street – and two employees: Dietrich Kingston, 25, and Athlee Matute, 24.

While this case is not new to the courts or the public, the attorneys for the accused, Arthur Saldivar and Richard “Dickie” Bradley, stated that the extra four counts are. They also contend that it is not illegal to keep legally-obtained money, of any amount, in your home.

The arraignment for these individuals was heard in the courtroom of Supreme Court Justice John “Troadio” Gonzalez, but he explained that the money laundering trial will play out in the courtroom of Justice Adolph Lucas.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and police carried out a search of the Coye’s family home, located at # 12 Johnson Street, Belize City, on December 31, 2008, and discovered $1,557,789 stashed inside their home, in bags and suitcases.

The FIU, which was represented in court today by attorney Antoinette Moore, claimed that the money transactions had been conducted between October 9, 2007, and December 31, 2008.

Money transactions were made through the former MoneyGram agent, ran by the Coyes, using hundreds of different persons’ personal information, obtained from the Traffic Department drivers’ license database in Belize City.

The former master agent for MoneyGram in Belize, OMNI Networks, being run also by manager of Fultec Systems, Dean Fuller, was also pursued by the FIU. Fuller was freed of all money laundering charges yesterday. (See story in this issue of Amandala)

Citizens’ concerns arose when it was discovered that many well-known citizens, from the Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. Dean Barrow, Amandala’s Adele Ramos, to the ordinary man and woman on the street, had had their identities stolen in the scam, as their personal information was discovered to have been on money transaction documents at MoneyGram of which the persons really had no knowledge.

Investigations into the identity scam revealed that the Coyes’ business, MoneyGram, was a sub-agent of Money Exchange International.

It has been reported that the transactions were a front for an online gambling company, Instadollar, which allowed gamblers from the United States of America to participate even where it was illegal in the US for them to do so.

The Coyes – mother, father, daughter, son and son-in-law, along with their two employees, Kingston and Matute, are set to appear in Justice Lucas’ courtroom on July 30, 2010.