VZCZCXRO4665
PP RUEHGR
DE RUEHKG #0123/01 0481911
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 171911Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7299
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINGSTON 000123 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR (BPREMONT/ACADIEUX, VDEPIRRO, WSMITH) 
WHA/EPSC (MROONEY, FCORNEILLE) 
EEB/ESC/IFD/EPC (MMcMANUS) 
 
SANTO DOMINGO FOR FCS AND FAS 
TREASURY FOR ERIN NEPHEW 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ECON TRYS ENRG EFIN EINV ETRD EAIR IADB
IBRD, IMF, KCOR, KIPR, XL, JM 
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: OLINT?S BOSS ARRESTED IN TURKS AND 
CAICOS 
 
Ref: (A) KINGSTON 91 (021918Z FEB 09) 
(B) 08 KINGSTON 704 (042015Z AUG 08) 
(C) 08 KINGSTON 648 (221203Z JUL 08) 
(D) 07 KINGSTON 1336 (042044Z SEP 07) 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  After months of investigations, David 
Smith, head of the alternative investment scheme OLINT, 
has been arrested by the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) 
police.  Charged on eight different counts, he has been 
released on USD 1 million bail and is expected to return 
to court in August.  This action was the latest setback 
for Smith and his beleaguered scheme, as only three weeks 
ago the TCI High Court refused to lift a freeze order on 
his assets.  The UK Privy Council also handed down a 
ruling allowing Smith?s account at National Commercial 
Bank to be closed.  Matters are expected to become even 
more interesting, given the dissemination of an e-mail 
purporting to include a list of OLINT investors as well 
as written dialogue involving a number of influential 
Jamaicans, including government members.  End summary. 
 
Smith?s Woes Deepen 
------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Following months of criminal investigations, 
reputed financial genius and head of the failed 
alternative investment scheme OLINT Corporation (reftels 
A,B,C), David Smith, was arrested by the Turks and Caicos 
Islands (TCI) police on February 6.  He has been charged 
with: (1) two counts of uttering forged documents; (2) 
four counts of false accounting; and, (3) two counts of 
theft.  Smith has been released on USD 1 million bail. 
This latest development comes less than a month after the 
TCI High court refused to lift a freeze order on his 
assets.  The court had ruled that the application could 
be renewed after March 11, but ordered that details of 
the judgment should not be released to the public.  Just 
last month the embattled investment scheme suffered a 
setback to its legitimacy, when the UK-based Privy 
Council gave National Commercial Bank (NCB) the green 
light to close the scheme?s accounts (reftel A).  A 
spokesman for the TCI police also suggested that they 
might seek assistance from other jurisdictions, including 
Jamaica.  However, local police have reiterated that they 
have not yet received any formal complaints of fraud from 
Jamaica against the OLINT boss. 
 
Investors Losing Hope 
--------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) After the latest developments, even some of 
Smith?s most faithful followers are beginning to accept 
that their investments might well be lost.  This in spite 
Smith?s messianic overtures on a radio program last week, 
when he again called on Jamaicans to pray for a 
successful outcome to his legal woes.  Smith went on to 
liken his current situation to the biblical story of 
Jonah and the whale.  Asked to comment on what Smith 
meant by this latest characterization, one analyst opined 
that perhaps he needed a period to contemplate, while 
another said he knew people were praying and keeping hope 
alive.  One businessman, who admitted that he took a 
heavy loss, said it was easy for him to move on, as 
unlike a number of investors he had not mortgaged his 
properties to invest in the faltering scheme.  Another 
US-based investor, Dr. Garth Walker, who claims to have 
invested USD 2.4 million, failed in his bid to have the 
Supreme Court bar NCB from paying over the money it was 
holding in accounts maintained by OLINT.  Walker told the 
court he feared that if the money were paid over to OLINT 
it could dissipate. 
 
JLP-OLINT Nexus? 
---------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The OLINT saga is set to take another 
interesting twist, as a series of e-mails have emerged 
linking the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) with the 
floundering investment scheme.  The e-mails ostensibly 
include conversations between now prominent government 
officials, JLP financiers, and OLINT functionaries during 
the period leading up to and following the closely 
 
KINGSTON 00000123  002 OF 002 
 
 
contested 2007 general elections (reftel D).  The e-mail 
chain also contains a list of investors which includes 
some of the most influential Jamaicans.  More surprising 
though, is the list of financial institutions purporting 
to be either directly maintaining accounts with the high 
paying investment scheme or investing funds on behalf of 
their clients.  Ironically, one of the listed companies 
was, and continues to be, the main critic of alternative 
investment schemes. Post will provide further reporting 
and analysis via septel. 
 
HEG