We'll seize all your dirty cash

Yesterday the boss of the Financial Crime Unit said his officers were committed to taking the profit out of crime. Detective Inspector Grant Tomkins revealed that cars and boats had been confiscated as well as huge sums of cash, which had been raked in by drug dealers and other criminals.

A recent money laundering case, explained in detail for the first time in today’s Bermuda Sun, provides a stark example of what criminals stand to lose. Roger Cox was jailed for five years for masterminding a multi-million dollar money laundering operation. He has been ordered to pay back nearly $1.5 million and had more than $130,000 worth of jewellery forfeited.

DI Tompkins said others would face similarly tough measures: “The purpose of the legislation is very straightforward — when these people are released from prison they start afresh having had their proceeds of crime confiscated.

“We will go after everything we believe is linked to their life of crime.

“That can be their homes, their cars, their homes, their cars, their boats, their jet skis or as in Roger Cox’s case their jewellery too.

“Our partnership with the Department for Public Prosecutions has meant we have obtained confiscation orders which amount to well over $3 million in the past few years.

“People who benefit from a life of crime need to realize that our legislation allows the courts upon conviction to confiscate assets equal to the value of their criminal activity.”

DI Tomkins said the Cox case showed that the criminal masterminds pulling the strings who see themselves as “untouchable” could be caught.

He said that if Cox failed to settle his $1.5 million debt by March next year he faced a further 10 years behind bars.

He added: “The debt does not go away or disappear. It is there until it is paid and even then that person will be under intense scrutiny. It is possible that he may have to sell his house in order to pay the debt and other assets but that is the way it works.

Assets

“You hurt a person more by taking their assets.

“We have had seven convictions in Bermuda now ranging from people involved at the top level of criminal operations to the people on the street being used to launder a couple of hundreds for a 10 per cent cut.

“The numbers of cases we are investigating are on the increase.

“When we deal with members of the criminal fraternity and gangs we will always look at every avenue to prosecute them which includes financial crime.

“You can expect a lot more people to be appearing before the courts for money laundering.”

Cox used dozens of “smurfs” or helpers to launder the cash he earned from running illegal gambling dens and distance himself from the operation.

One such helper was 49-year-old bookkeeper Michelle Lindsay. She was jailed for four months for holding just under $25,000 in her account when she knew it was the proceeds of crime.

DI Tomkins said: “If you are approached to launder money you are getting yourself involved in something very serious.

“You are likely to get caught and you are likely to go to prison.

“Getting guns and drugs into Bermuda relies on people laundering money or physically taking the cash out.

“Without the work of the people down the chain this would not happen. There are vulnerable people like this in Bermuda who are being used by the criminals and being put at risk by these predators.

“They need to realize this is not a way of making easy money and they are fueling the problems we have here.”