The Financial Investigations Division (FID) is pressing forward with its forfeiture proceedings against Alliance Finance Limited (AFL) despite a recent court ruling. AFL was fined $21.4 million in March 2022 for breaches of the Bank of Jamaica and Banking Services acts, to which the company had pleaded guilty earlier that year.
The FID conducted a criminal forfeiture investigation against AFL to recover the benefits obtained from the offenses for which it was convicted. The case is now before the Supreme Court for a forfeiture hearing scheduled for later in 2024.
In a related development, Alliance Investment Management Limited (AIML) faced 17 counts of failure to file threshold transaction reports, but a recent court ruling upheld a no-case submission in relation to those charges.
In response to the FID’s continued pursuit of AFL, AIML’s attorney, Tom Tavares Finson, suggested that legal action could be taken against the FID by AIML’s founders. He criticized the FID for allegedly unfairly targeting AIML and accused them of overlooking similar regulatory breaches by other entities.
Tavares Finson emphasized that AFL and AIML are separate entities and argued that the collapse of the case against AIML was due to unreasonable overreach by the FID, Financial Services Commission (FSC), and Bank of Jamaica (BOJ). He stated that AIML’s founders reserve the right to seek compensation for losses incurred as a result of the case.
The ongoing legal battle between the FID, AFL, and AIML highlights the complexities and challenges of financial investigations and regulatory compliance in Jamaica’s banking sector. Stay tuned for further updates on this developing story.