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FIU Wants To Freeze Titan’s Cash
Tue, October 21, 2014
For about 6 weeks now, we've been telling you about the 1 billion Belize dollar securities and penny stock fraud case. In this case, the Federal Court in Brooklyn New York has indicted 6 men and 6 companies tied to Belize for allegedly participating in a scam which hid that money from the US through tax evasion.

Those 6 individuals include Belizean Andrew Godfrey, Bahamians, Kelvin Leach and Rohn Knowles, Canadians Brian De Wit and Cem "Jim" Can, and American Robert Bandfield. Among the accused corporate defendants are IPC Management Services, LLC; IPC Corporate Services Inc.; IPC Corporate Services LLC; Titan International Securities, Inc; Legacy Global Markets S.A; and Unicorn International Securities LLC (Unicorn).

Robert Bandfield is already in the US on bail while he awaits trial, and the US is seeking to extradite 5 other defendants, including Kelvin Leach and Rohn Knowles. Viewers may remember that both Bahamians are out on bail after being charged and arraigned on financial offences when they tried to leave the country through the PGIA. The other 3 defendants are still at large.

The case was being dealt with by the Magistrate's Court, where Knowles and Leach are facing imminent extradition proceedings. That's until today, when the Financial Intelligence Unit took the case up to the Supreme Court in an attempt to freeze all local finances of the defendants, which are being held in banks in Belize.

Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin's Court room had quite a number of attorneys representing the defendants in Belize for a preliminary hearing, which was held in chambers. This meant that the media was not privy to the details of the case. After a 2 hour closed door hearing, we got a chance to speak with 2 of the attorneys about the case. They were very reserved in the details they released to the press:

Michael Young, SC - Attorney for Unicorn Securities Int'l LLC
"What has happened is that there have been freezing orders which have been granted by the court on the application of the FIU and in respect of the respondents, various attorneys who represent the respondents have made applications for these freezing orders to be discharged. There have been a flurry of applications between the FIU, on the one hand, and the respondents on the other and what we dealt with this morning on the part of the court was what we would call housekeeping. These applications are going to be heard, of course the respondents say that the freezing orders should not have been granted, should be discharged and the court has set October 27th to hear the applications."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, where are these monies located?"

Michael Young
"Various banks in Belize."

Daniel Ortiz
"And what kind of sums are we talking about?"

Michael Young
"I prefer not to talk about that."

Geovannie Brackett, reporter
"Is there any liabilities for those banks that are holding the monies?"

Michael Young
"I would not want to comment about that either."

Marilyn Williams, Attorney for Robert Bandfield/Andrew Godfrey
"You know I am always reticent to discuss matters that are before the courts because I don't that that it's appropriate. The matter was actually held in an in-chamber matter which means that it's not something that ought to be discussed."

Geovannie Brackett, reporter
"And there is nothing that you can comment without prejudicing the case?"

Marilyn Williams
"No, there is really nothing. There is a reason why the judge cleared out the court room of anybody else but the counsels, so I would be..."

Geovannie Brackett, reporter
"The banks that these monies are in, in Belize, are they subject to investigation as well, at the very least?"

Marilyn Williams
"That you would have to ask the FIU because I am not sure who they are investigating."

The case continues on October 27, next week Monday, and we'll tell you more about it in that night's newscast.

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