A report in the Guardian newspaper on Sunday said investigators believe a former employee Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) employee was the mastermind in an attempt to defraud the state enterprise of $39.6 million one year ago.
The report cited Udecott officials and police. It said detectives have said they believe they have made a breakthrough following statements from senior Udecott employees—financial accounting officer Sherma Ramoutar-Boodhoo and senior manager, business development Winston Chin Fong.
The Guardian said officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau interviewed both Ramoutar-Boodhoo and Chin Fong last week.
It said a 15-page statement by Ramoutar-Boodhoo stated that she was “suspicious” and “uncomfortable” after learning of a $39 million wire transfer for which she could not find evidence of who authorised the transaction.
The wire transfer of US$6.23 million was earmarked for a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of HSBC on September 2, 2010. When authorisation letters failed to correspond, Udecott's local bank, First Citizens, called in the authorities.
The Guardian said its investigation has revealed that the suspect is also being questioned about using the job title of corporate secretary without board approval as well as breach of a confidentiality clause relating to the disclosure of documents.
"Investigators revealed that all documents seized bore the authorised signature of the suspect. Police are also probing the link between the suspect and a female employee after a series of e-mails revealed information relating to the multi-million-dollar wire transfer," the paper reported.
The wire transfer was the second attempt to defraud Udecott in the space of two months.
The Guardian said in October, the Park Street, Port-of-Spain branch of Citibank was also stopped from transferring $1,563,379.21 from the company projects accounts after officials found that the authorisation letter was fraudulent.
The paper quoted from Ramoutar-Boodhoo's statement.
“There is a secure fax line at Citibank which Udecott uses. At that time, I was the only person authorised to do this in the finance department. As I proceeded to read the letter (the first line of the wire instructions) to the customer service representative in Citibank she indicated to me that it was not the letter she had in front of her which was faxed from Udecott.
“I asked her what letter she was referring to and she indicated a letter for $1 million to be transferred from our 107003-002 account. I instructed the customer service representative to hold the line for a brief moment during which time I inquired if any other letter was prepared without my knowledge.
“I was told no other letter was prepared. I asked the customer service representative the exact amount of the transaction and where the money was being sent and was told $1,563,379.21 was being sent to Republic Bank Ltd.
“I again asked the customer service representative if it was coming from our account and she informed me of the bank account number 107003-002 which is Udecott’s Citibanks Projects Account.
"I asked if there were any transaction details and she said that no details were stated. This was suspicious since this information is mandatory. I informed the customer service representative that we did not issue that letter and she gave me a cancellation reference number of 1504 for our records.”
Read the full report in the SUNDAY GUARDIAN
The report cited Udecott officials and police. It said detectives have said they believe they have made a breakthrough following statements from senior Udecott employees—financial accounting officer Sherma Ramoutar-Boodhoo and senior manager, business development Winston Chin Fong.
The Guardian said officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau interviewed both Ramoutar-Boodhoo and Chin Fong last week.
It said a 15-page statement by Ramoutar-Boodhoo stated that she was “suspicious” and “uncomfortable” after learning of a $39 million wire transfer for which she could not find evidence of who authorised the transaction.
The wire transfer of US$6.23 million was earmarked for a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of HSBC on September 2, 2010. When authorisation letters failed to correspond, Udecott's local bank, First Citizens, called in the authorities.
The Guardian said its investigation has revealed that the suspect is also being questioned about using the job title of corporate secretary without board approval as well as breach of a confidentiality clause relating to the disclosure of documents.
"Investigators revealed that all documents seized bore the authorised signature of the suspect. Police are also probing the link between the suspect and a female employee after a series of e-mails revealed information relating to the multi-million-dollar wire transfer," the paper reported.
The wire transfer was the second attempt to defraud Udecott in the space of two months.
The Guardian said in October, the Park Street, Port-of-Spain branch of Citibank was also stopped from transferring $1,563,379.21 from the company projects accounts after officials found that the authorisation letter was fraudulent.
The paper quoted from Ramoutar-Boodhoo's statement.
“There is a secure fax line at Citibank which Udecott uses. At that time, I was the only person authorised to do this in the finance department. As I proceeded to read the letter (the first line of the wire instructions) to the customer service representative in Citibank she indicated to me that it was not the letter she had in front of her which was faxed from Udecott.
“I asked her what letter she was referring to and she indicated a letter for $1 million to be transferred from our 107003-002 account. I instructed the customer service representative to hold the line for a brief moment during which time I inquired if any other letter was prepared without my knowledge.
“I was told no other letter was prepared. I asked the customer service representative the exact amount of the transaction and where the money was being sent and was told $1,563,379.21 was being sent to Republic Bank Ltd.
“I again asked the customer service representative if it was coming from our account and she informed me of the bank account number 107003-002 which is Udecott’s Citibanks Projects Account.
"I asked if there were any transaction details and she said that no details were stated. This was suspicious since this information is mandatory. I informed the customer service representative that we did not issue that letter and she gave me a cancellation reference number of 1504 for our records.”
Read the full report in the SUNDAY GUARDIAN
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