Money sent to California bank

The US$15,000 paid to Manatt, Phelps & Phillips on March 19 was from the account of Harold Brady & Company, The Gleaner has confirmed.

The money was wire-transferred from a local commercial bank to the Comerica Bank-California and credited to the account of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

In instructions to the local bank, Brady said the payment covered attorney fees.

But there is no indication in the correspondence if Brady was acting on behalf of a third party or if the payment was directly related to the law firm.

Brady has since claimed that the money was "a final payment under the commercial arrangements between the two law firms to terminate the contract in February 2010".

Harold Brady & Company was the contact for the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in its engagement with Manatt and handed over the US$50,000 which the party admitted it paid to the US law firm.

In admitting the relationship, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said on May 17 that the US firm was engaged by the JLP, through Brady, to secure assistance in resolving the stalemate caused by the extradition request for Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

At that time, Golding said he sanctioned the initiative, but claimed he had made it clear that it was to be kept completely separate from the Government.

"As I later discovered, those instructions were not followed," Golding said, while seeming to point the finger at Brady.

But even as the Government hinted that it could take action against Brady, no move was made, and the issue appeared dead until the disclosure on Wednesday.