The Supreme Court has ordered that the bank accounts frozen when the Coye Family was charged with money laundering, should be unfrozen. That's the decision that Justice Shona Griffith ordered today after an in-chamber's hearing this morning.
The Coye family has not enjoyed access to that money since it was frozen when they were initially charged. So, their attorneys Dickie Bradley and Arthur Saldivar, made an application before Justice Griffith which was heard today. After hearing all the arguments, the judge agreed that since the criminal matter has been fully dealt with, the Coyes should have full access to their money.
The Attorney for the Financial Intelligence Unit explained after the hearing about the current status of the Coye Family's finances:
Trecia Pitts-Anderson, Counsel for the FIU
"There was the hearing of an application for the unfreezing of accounts belonging to the Coyes. As you know, those funds have been frozen for quite some time. But contrary to what has been leaked to the media or said on TV that, the Coyes have been having access to these monies over a period of time. In fact, I think they have been getting close to fifty thousand dollars on four month intervals. So they were not quite without funds for the entire period of time. But this morning, I am a little out of breath coming up the stairs, but this morning, the matter effectively came to an end. The court discharged the order and so their funds are released and that's the end of it."
Mike Reporter, reporter Ch5
"How does that hold with the order that they must pay some tax I believe they owe?"
Trecia Pitts-Anderson, Counsel for the FIU
"That's a separate matter from the FIU. The FIU was simply served with a 3rd party demand for funds it was holding on behalf of the FIU for taxes, so any dispute they may have with their funds being taxable they are to take up with the commissioner of Income Tax."
Mike Reporter, reporter Ch5
"But when those funds are unfrozen (so to speak) the money would have been taken out to pay the tax."
Trecia Pitts-Anderson, Counsel for the FIU
"What I can inform you is that funds that were held by the FIU were already paid over to income tax pursuant to those demands, so whatever they are getting unfrozen, are as a result after that was paid over."
Mike Reporter, reporter Ch5
"Is this the end of the matter between the FIU and Coyes?"
Trecia Pitts-Anderson, Counsel for the FIU
"I believe it is the end of a very interesting matter. It is the end because the criminal matter concluded with the appeal and the time period to put in an appeal to the CCJ has since expired and the FIU will not appeal further."
Mike Reporter, reporter Ch5
"In terms of the clients getting back the money, when will that happen?"
Dickie Bradley, Attorney for the Coyes
"In the battle between Islam and the western civilization they have a word that they say "All?hu Akbar" that God is great and if it be the wishes of the Lord before the day is out they will get back their monies."
But not so fast, while that was this morning, reliable reports to 7News tonight are that an emergency injunction was granted against the Coye's in the Supreme Court to block them from accessing the unfrozen bank accounts. We've been trying to confirm with attorneys for the Coye Family Dickie Bradley and Arthur Saldivar. At news time, we had been unable to get through any of them for comment on this credible report.
That amount in the bank under lock and key, we are told, only accounts for a little under a million dollars. The Coyes are also due 1.557 million dollars that the Court of Appeal ordered that the state must hand over, since their appeal was allowed last year.
Additionally, there is still 3.2 million dollars which the Income Tax Department is claiming as arrears. In total, the entire estate of the Coye Family before they were charged was estimated at just under 6 million dollars.
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