When investigators approached Portia Simpson Miller about her ‘signature’ on a waiver instrument purporting to write off millions of dollars in levy owed by a telecoms company, she promptly denied signing the instrument.
Simpson Miller, who was prime minister at the time the waiver obtained by politician and businessman Peter Sangster was purportedly signed January 9 2013, was strident in her denial.
MOCA investigators — who were putting together a case against Sangster — wanted to further bolster their evidence and called in a handwriting expert.
Mixx102/Loop News has been informed that the expert’s conclusion was that Simpson Miller didn’t sign the document made out to JAMUS Communications Ltd purporting to waive the levy due to the Universal Service Fund.
Still, other discrepancies were detected with the ‘waiver’ for which Sangster was allegedly paid a total of US $500,000 (J $60M) to obtain on behalf of the company.
Mixx102/Loop News understands that these discrepancies include inconsistences with structure, form and substance of documents emanating from the Office of the Prime Minister under the signature of the prime minister.
What further sunk the plot was that the Telecommunications Act doesn’t make provision for the granting of waivers for payment of Universal Service Fund levy.
Sangster, who was managing director of Jamus Communications Ltd, allegedly provided the ‘waiver’ to Ricardo Cruz, who as the company CEO, paid over the funds to Sangster over a period of time.
Sangster — who vied for the East Kingston Constituency on a Jamaica Labour Party ticket in the 2011 General Election — was taken into custody Tuesday.
He was charged Friday with obtaining property by false pretence and uttering forged document. He’ll appear in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court this week.
MOCA last year obtained a court order in the US to search for Sangster’s assets in that country and to secure the banking records of Peter and Tania Sangster and Sangster Group LLC.
It is believed that LIME — as the company was then called — terminated Jamus Communications’ services due to the overdue levy which was about US $570,000 at the time.
