Cayman Islands fraudsters may have moved $450 million to Cuba

Cayman Islands fraudsters may have moved $450 million to Cuba
Published on December 7, 2015
By Kenneth Rijock

MIAMI, USA -- The first civil suit has been filed by one of the victims
against the Cayman "Gang of Four", Sharon Lexa Lamb and Dundee Merchant
Bank, where Lamb was the senior vice president and director. One source,
who is familiar with Caribbean fraud, has stated that most of the
estimated $450 million to $500 million in stolen client money was
probably moved to Cuba and that it was deposited in several of the
government-controlled banks there.

In the absence of direct evidence to support such an allegation, the
reasoning behind such a statement is based up these known facts:

(1) The Gang of Four's maritime courier, the Cuban national José
Fernandez Santana, has the ability to travel freely in and out of Cuban
ports, to Grand Cayman, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and a number of
other Caribbean financial centres. Unimpeded international travel by
Cubans, especially in a multi-million dollar yacht, can only occur if
the individual has governmental approval. If Santana is not an agent of
Cuban intelligence, his yacht would certainly be seized, and he arrested
and imprisoned.

(2) Sharon Lexa Lamb, the apparent ringleader of the Gang of Four, and
who married Santana through a purely business arrangement that gives her
Cuban residency as well as the right to purchase real property there, is
frequent visitor to Cuba. As previously reported, Lamb fled to Cuba
twice; first, when the trading scandal first broke, and later, when a
civil suit was filed, and she was being sought for service of process.

(3) Other members of the Gang of Four are known to have visited Cuba for
the purpose of conducting business transactions, possibly setting up
accounts so that wire transfers from the Cayman Islands could be set up,
or bulk cash shipments orchestrated by Santana, or payments from other
offshore tax havens could be accomplished.

(4) Rumours have abounded that certain Cuban government agencies, in
need of hard currency for activities that they wish to conduct, actively
participate in financial crimes in the tax havens, the object of which
is to fund subsequent covert operations.

(5) Admissions made by Sharon Lexa Lamb to witnesses to the effect that
the victims would never recover their money unless they granted her
total immunity from prosecution, gives rise to the conclusion that the
money is being held in a jurisdiction where it cannot be accessed or
frozen. Cuba is one of the very few places that fits the description.

Kenneth Rijock is a banking lawyer turned-career money launderer (10
years), turned-compliance officer specialising in enhanced due
diligence, and a financial crime consultant who publishes a Financial
Crime Blog. The Laundry Man, his autobiography, was published in the UK
on 5 July 2012.

Source: Cayman Islands fraudsters may have moved $450 million to Cuba |
Caribbean News Now -
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Cayman-Islands-fraudsters-may-have-moved-$450-million-to-Cuba-28597.html