The Securities Commission of the Bahamas moved to give an assurance yesterday that it acted with due diligence in the matter of Dominion Investments Ltd. – the Bahamas based company caught in a whirlwind of scandal over money laundering allegations.
The president of the company Martin Tremblay was indicted in a U.S. federal court earlier this month accused of laundering $1 billion for drug dealers, tax cheats and swindlers. Tremblay transferred the ill-gotten gains to bank accounts in The Bahamas, the U.S. Canada and elsewhere, according to federal prosecutors.
Bahamian securities regulators maintained yesterday that they acted swiftly on this end, taking their lead from U.S. authorities.
“Immediately after the US authorities acted against Mr. Tremblay, the [Financial Intelligence Unit] FIU moved swiftly to freeze a large number of bank and securities accounts in The Bahamas asociated with Mr. Tremblay and Dominion,” the Commission noted in a press statement.
The Commission also insisted that it acted quickly in conjunction with the police to ensure that the books and the records of the company were secured and to prevent any further business transactions. Searches were conducted of the company’s premesis and other locations.
Currently, the Commission is continuing to monitor the company, located on East Hill Street near to downtown Nassau.
Tremblay, 43, resigned as the managing director of Dominion and surrendered his Principal License on March 4, 2005, but he remains the sole beneficial owner of the company. Esther Weir succeeded him as managing director days later.
Even before then, inspections had revealed certain “operational deficiencies,” the Securities Commission confirmed.
Tremblay faces a 20 year prison term if found guilty. He pleaded not guilty at a brief hearing in a Manhattan federal court.
U.S. prosecutors said in their case that in return for large commissions, Dominion Investments took in cash from drug dealers, tax evaders and other clients seeking to hide the illicit source of their money and transferred the funds to various other bank accounts.
Tremblay laundered $50 million from a tax evasion and wire fraud scheme and helped hide $3 million in proceeds from the sale of so-called date-rape drug kits, according to the indictment.
The period under investigation is from 1988 through last December. The DEA said Tremblay was arrested during an undercover sting operation in which he allegedly agreed to launder large amounts of money from illegal drug sales.
Officials at the Bahamas Securities Commision said they are very concerned about ensuring that the assets of legitimate investors of Dominion are protected and the competing interests of other parties are addressed in an appropriate manner.
The Commission also suggested that the Dominion Investments debacle is no indictment on the anti-money laundering regime of The Bahamas, seeking to head off any potential criticism about the procedures that are in place.
“Anti-money laundering procedures in The Bahamas are rigorous and are enforced,” said the Commission. “No jurisdiction is immune to the risk of criminal activity. Our task is then to limit the damage from any such activity when discovered and to establish if there are wider lesons for the future.”
The Government of The Bahamas enacted a compendium of legislation to strengthen the financial services sector in December 2000 after the Financial Action Task Force [FATF] blacklisted it as a non-cooperative jurisdiction in the global fight against money laundering.
The Bahamas was eventually de-listed in 2001, with the FATF finally dropping its monitoring of this country last year.
Tremblay was being held at a federal detention center in New York.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
