Yes friends, Kern Spencer, former PNP Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, and his Personal Assistant, Coleen Wright, have been released on $10 million and $5 million bail, respectively.
Both spent three (3) nights in prison following their (and business man, Rodney Chin's) arrest on Monday on charges of Fraud, Corruption Receiving Criminal Property and Money Laundering, as related to the Cuban Light Bulb Scandal.
There is still no affirmative word from the Opposition People's National Party (PNP), as to the future of Mr. Spencer within the Party and as Member of Parliament for North East St. Elizabeth.
As usual, we will keep you updated re this.
[Please see our previous posts for this week (from February 26,2008), for background information to this post.]
Sources Include:
1) Power 106 FM News at 3:00 p.m., February 29, 2008
Kern Spencer, former PNP Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, spent another night in prison, last night.
The Deputy Bail Clerk decided to stick to her guns, yesterday, and not work a minute after the time designated for her to stop working (3:30 p.m.).
(However, a prominent lawyer stated that Bail Clerks have such a huge workload to complete for at least two (2) hours following their designated work, stop time, that there is no way for them to accommodate bail processing after 3:30 p.m.)
As a result, Mr. Patrick Roberts, Mr. Spencer's surety, could not post bail on Mr. Spencer's behalf.
[The bail-posting process proved to be a very tedious one for Mr. Roberts (PNP Caretaker for West Central St. Andrew, who put up his property for the bail amount), yesterday.
He tried to post bail at 10:00 a.m., having gone to court with the relevant papers. This was when he found out that in order to post bail, the property Title had to be notified by a Justice of the Peace and the property be recently valuated.
Mr Roberts had to get all of this done, yesterday and thus was not able to meet the 3:30 p.m. deadline, yesterday.]
Mr. Rodney Chin, on the other hand, was able to post bail.
(His attorney, Mrs. Valerie Neita-Robertson told Television Jamaica News that Mr. Spencer's and Miss Wright's attorneys could not be found, as they were out of office. She had been asked to intervene in offering guidance to the process for the posting bail on behalf of Mr. Spencer and Miss Wright.)
As a part of their continued investigations, the police searched the present and former homes of Mr. Spencer's parents and the business place of Mr. Spencer's stepfather.
Meanwhile, the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, the government agency reportedly responsible for oversight of the Cuban Light Bulb Project , is reporting that Coleen Wright, one of Mr. Spencer's co-accused, was not employed by them, but was assigned to Mr.Spencer on his own accord.
[Girl With a Purpose (GWAP) Blog previously reported (based on media reports) that Ms. Wright was a supervisor in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, but as it stands, no one is quite sure as to which government agency/Ministry, Ms. Wright was assigned.]
The Opposition People's National Party (PNP) has yet to make any public statement concerning Mr. Spencer's imprisonment and his future with the Party and his constituency of North East St. Elizabeth.
(Mr. Spencer, who is the Member of Parliament for North Eastern St. Elizabeth, had offered to not attend Parliament, until investigations into the Cuban Light Bulb Project were completed.)
We will keep you informed re updates re this case.
Gillian
Sources Include
1) Television Jamaica Nightly News at 7:00 p.m, February 28, 2008.
2) Programme, "Cover Story", Nationwide News Radio, February 28, 2008
3) Programme, "This Morning", Nationwide News Radio, February 29,2008
Kern Spencer, former PNP State Minister in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, in Jamaica, is expected to post bail of JMD $10, million today.
Mr. Spencer, Rodney Chin and Coleen Wright were offered bail in the sums of JMD $10 million, JMD $10 million and JMD $5 million respectively, yesterday.
Their travel documents were also seized.
Both Mr.Spencer and Ms. Wright were offered bail with three sureties and Mr. Chin, 4 sureties.
(According to www.YourRights.co.uk, a surety is one someone who knows you personally and offers the court a sum of money to guarantee you will attend court when required. They do not have to pay the money in court, but have to show that they have it available. If you then do not turn up at court on time, they may have to pay the money or even go to prison themselves if unable to do so.)
But since they were seen late yesterday evening in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate's Court, they were not able to post bail, as the Bail Court closed at 4:00 p.m.
Their court hearing is set for March 26,2008.
----------------------------------
Since we posted on Tuesday:
1) Mr. Spencer's four (4) counts/charges of Money Laundering were increased to six (6) and the police raided the residences of all three accused, as a part of their investigations.
2) All three (3) spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights in prisons in Kingston (one of the capitals cities in Jamaica).
3) The People's National Party (PNP) Executive should be meeting, today, to ascertain Mr. Spencer's future with the Party. (Some of them met with the lawyers of the accused, yesterday, in a status meeting at PNP Headquarters.)
Will keep you updated!
Gillian
Sources Include:
1) Nationwide News Radio, February 27-28,2008
2) TVJ Evening News at 7:00, February 27,2008
Former PNP State Minister in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, Kern Spencer, who has been at the centre of the Cuban Light Bulb Scandal, here in Jamaica, was charged by the police, today.
He was charged along with his Personal Assistant Coleen Wright (also supervisor in the former Ministry) and Rodney Chin, Managing Director of Universal Management and Development Company and Caribbean Media Communication Network Ltd., two companies that provided services under the Project.
Today represents day three (3) of Mr. Spencer's questioning by members of the Organized Crime Investigation Division (OCID) of the Jamaican Police Force.
[This is big news in Jamaica, as this is the first time in eighteen(18) years, that a Minister of Government has been charged by the police. (The last person to be charged was former JLP-Minister, J.A.G. Smith, in 1990.)]
Mr. Spencer was charged for seven(7) offenses namely:
1) Conspiracy to Defraud
2) Offenses under The Proceeds of Crime Act
3) Offense under The Corruption Prevention Act, specifically:
a) Receiving 3.1 million from Rodney Chin
4) Three(3) Charges under The Money Laundering Act
Rodney Chin was charged for:
1) Two counts of Conspiracy to Defraud
2) One charge under The Corruption Prevention Act
3) An Offense under the Money Laundering Act
4) Engaging in Transactions with Criminal Property
While,Coleen Wright was charged for seven (7) offenses:
1)Two charges of Conspiracy to Defraud
2) Offenses under The Corruption Prevention Act
3) Money Laundering
All three will be held in police custody until their appearance in court on Thursday.
Short Background:
On October 23, 2007 present Minister of Mining, Energy and Telecommunications, Clive Mullings, ordered a probe into the Cuban Light Bulb Project which had gone awry and which cost Jamaican taxpayers JMD $277 million.
[The Cuban Light Bulb Project which should have seen the installation of four (4) million energy-efficient light bulbs in Jamaican homes for free (as a gift from the Cuban government) suddenly racked up a JMD $277 million dollar bill.]
On January 16, 2008, as a result of the probe, Jamaica's then Auditor General, Adrian Strachan, gave a damming report on the Project.
He told of a project which was obviously mismanaged and of nepotism by Kern Spencer, State Minister responsible for oversight of the project. (Mr. Spencer had hired his baby mother as project manager, a woman who reportedly had no project management experience.)
According to article, "No new light - Auditor General's report confirms bulb breaches, Mr. Strachan went on to describe, wide-scale breaches of Government's procurement rules in relation to registration with the National Contracts Commission (NCC), production of Tax Compliance Certificates, recommendation of NCC, Cabinet approval or use of competitive tenders.
He the reported a general failure to comply with Government's disbursement rules in connection with the need for independent certification that goods and services paid for were properly provided. No supporting bills and invoices acknowledging receipt of funds by payees. This prevented verification that many payments made were authentic.
The Jamaican Police Fraud Squad and Department of Public Prosecution were called in to conduct further investigations.
There are 160,000 undistributed light bulbs, worth JMD $93 million, still unaccounted for.
Please see the inset YouTube Video, above, for a background to this Scandal.(We wish to acknowledge Brianmax4438, who uploaded the above video to YouTube.com.)
We at Girl With a Purpose (GWAP) Blog, will keep you informed of updates re this matter.
Sources Include:
1) Nationwide Radio: February 26, 2008
2) Television Jamaica (TVJ) Nightly News at 7:00 p.m., February 26, 2008
Three(3) Cash Plus clients sued the company for breach of contract, in the Jamaican Supreme Court, yesterday.
(Cash Plus is the Alternative Investment Scheme whose accounts were closed by their bank, National Commercial Bank, on February 2, 2008. Please read our post, "All Cash Plus Accounts with NCB Closed!", for more information.)
The suit was for nearly JMD $7 million.
They sued for not being able to access their principal and interest on same.
Well this is certainly a new development in the Cash Plus saga.
We will see if other clients will follow suit, bearing in mind the March 2008 deadline that Cash Plus has requested that clients wait, to receive their monies.
Will keep you posted re this and other occurrences re Cash Cash Plus!
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Yes friends, Kern Spencer, former PNP Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, and his Personal Assistant, Coleen Wright, have been released on $10 million and $5 million bail, respectively.
Kern Spencer, former PNP Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, spent another night in prison, last night.
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