A woman who spent over 25 years working for a Jamaican financial services firm says she regrets participating in a scandal that allegedly defrauded clients out of $3 billion.
While she originally confessed to her involvement in the high-level scam, she now says she only admitted to the crime because her former boss and company founder promised her something to take the fall.
Jean-Ann Panton and nine others are being sued by Jean Forde, an 80-year-old investor, who alleges that Stocks and Securities Limited stole $830,000 out of her portfolio. However, this complaint is one of a much larger web of deceit, costing hundreds of people much or all of their retirement savings, including Olympic athlete Usain Bolt.
Panton now says she is sorry for her role in the embezzlement but wants on the record that she was persuaded to confess by her old boss, Hugh Croskery, according to the Jamaican Gleaner.
In the document filed in the Supreme Court in Kingston on May 25, she explained how Croskery, the third defendant in the case, made her promises if she confessed.
“In trepidation, the second defendant (Panton) says that the background of the alleged confession was premised, on an offer made by the third defendant (Croskery) on behalf of the first defendant (SSL). The said offer was an inducement and the statement would not have been made otherwise,” her lawyers wrote in the filing.
“The second defendant (Panton) therefore puts the claimant to strictly prove the validity of the alleged confession statement and allegations according to law,” the legal team continued.
Panton is the first and only person named in the lawsuit that has signed a confession statement.
On Jan. 7 Panton said in her statement that she knowingly stole the money “over the course of several years.”
At the top of the year, the former client relationship manager also said “she “used various mechanisms to take money from clients” and “created false…
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