MAJOR MOCA VICTORY

The Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) has hailed Thursday’s ruling by the Privy Council, granting investigators access to material that predates the enactment of the Proceeds of Crime Act, as a major victory for law enforcement.

“We view it as precedent setting in that will guide future investigations, and its application is not restricted to Proceeds of Crime Act investigations, but it is also relevant to other investigations ... . For this critical reason, among others, we view it as being important to law enforcement generally,” Nigel Parke, head of MOCA’s Legal Department, said in welcoming the landmark ruling.

“In the round, it represents a win for law enforcement and provides significant guidance for future investigation,” Parke added.

MOCA was forced to invoke the legal guidance of the London-based appellate court after the agency encountered challenges in unsealing several files and documents seized from Dawn Satterswaite’s office and home as part of a multimillion-dollar money-laundering probe tied to admitted Jamaican drug dealer Andrew Hamilton.

Satterswaite, who initially claimed legal professional privilege in blocking the seizure, along with her co-respondents, had appealed a Supreme Court ruling authorising the unsealing and examination of the documents whether they predated the May 30, 2007, existence of POCA.

The respondents were successful in getting the Court of Appeal to overrule the high court judge’s decision while advancing that any documents that predated the POCA enactment could not be lawfully seized on a search and seizure warrant issued under Section 115 of the act. The court had also ordered that any documents seized from Satterswaite prior to that date should be returned.

However, the investigator in the case, Sergeant Bibbette Smalling, successfully appealed the Court of Appeal ruling, which ended with the Privy Council overturning the 2019 decision.

The Privy Council held that the public interest condition was satisfied “as there are reasonable grounds for believing that it is in the public interest for the information or material to be obtained having regard to the benefit likely to accrue to the investigation if the information or material is obtained.

“There is no restriction either on the investigatory power in POCA or on that power’s application to the facts of this case to prevent the search for, and the seizure of, information or material which came into existence prior to May 30, 2007.”

Hamilton, who was convicted of trafficking offences in the US, was being investigated by MOCA, the Financial Investigations Division (FID), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the US for money laundering and civil recovery.

The investigation found that Hamilton had been sending back millions of dollars to Jamaica to purchase various assets in breach of POCA and that he was being enabled in the purchase and concealment of assets by his relatives and associates, including Satterswaite.

The Government-owned Assets Recovery Agency, however, recently seized more than $500 million in assets from Hamilton, who appealed and lost.

In the meantime, the ruling has now paved the way for the Supreme Court to decide on what files, if any, which were seized can be unsealed and retained by MOCA.

Satterswaite, her two co-respondents, her husband, and Hamilton’s son, Andre Hamilton, who are also facing money-laundering charges, will return to the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on January 16 to continue their trial.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com