Sagicor Bank ex-employees face 22-count indictment as Crown seeks banking records

The Crown is seeking to have banking records admitted in the case against four former Sagicor Bank employees who are before the court on a 22-count indictment involving transactions said to total $65 million.

The accused are Tricia Moulton, her sister Alicia Moulton-White, Malaika McCloud, a former personal banking officer, and Tishan Samuels, a former client care officer. The court was told that the prosecution is dealing with records connected to the transactions forming the basis of the charges, with individual account holders expected to give evidence next.

According to Alicia Moulton-White's attorney, the material being processed includes bank statements, debit advice or debit vouchers, and wire transfer receipts. The court heard that some of the documents were prepared by McCloud, authorised by Tricia Moulton, and processed by Samuels.

A witness testified that user transaction reports, known as UTRs, were retrieved for July, August and September 2022. The court was told that UTRs are mandatory records for employees. Although the defence objected on Tuesday that the T24 system was the only record-keeping platform introduced by the prosecution, the judge allowed the witness to continue, after testimony that the records came from the bank's internal system and not its storage system. The UTRs were entered as exhibits 27 to 30.

Samuels' attorney asked for the number of pages in each monthly report to be identified, and the witness did so. The witness also said transactions could be traced through the inputter number assigned to each teller, which corresponds with the teller's till and appears on the crossing stamp.

The defence again objected when debit advice was being tendered, saying it was unclear which section of the evidence the document fell under. The prosecution then had the witness explain that debit advice is an internal bank document used by staff to debit or withdraw funds from a customer's account, based on client instructions or internal processing such as loan payments. The witness said the document may involve a teller or customer service representative, an authoriser with delegated limit authority, another team member, an assistant manager, or a personal banking officer.

Samuels' counsel also complained that files were sent on Sunday for this week's trial continuation, but that she had difficulty accessing them and had told the prosecution. She said the defence was not told exactly which documents were being relied on, and that statements for other persons were included.

The prosecution responded that the documents had been disclosed physically from about 2024 and that copies were also provided. The prosecutor said, "I understood her complaint and immediately copied them and sent them via email. I imagine she would have confirmed receipt. I also had the drive submitted to them this morning. These are not strange new undisclosed documents."

Before the recess, the judge addressed the issue of admissibility, saying, "If they were itemized via email, you should be able to find them. Once it is disclosed and in the course of business, they are admissible." The judge later noted that more time was needed to review the material. After the break, the court continued examining the banking transactions allegedly carried out by the defendants.