KINGSTON, Jamaica — Member of Parliament for Western St Andrew, Anthony Hylton, has released a statement which he describes as full disclosure related to the Integrity Commission’s filing following a newspaper article published yesterday.

“This is a matter that has been settled from 2015 as there was no evidence to support the claim,” Hylton said in a release today. He further noted that he was not convicted, did not plead guilty and disclosed in full as was required under the law in his filings.

“A guilty plea was entered on my behalf improperly and without my instruction. I insisted on my innocence at all times and the matter went to trial on my insistence,” Hylton continued.

He noted that he has maintained from day one and made public from day one that the issue that was under review in the courts was not one of non-disclosure of assets, as he made full and timely disclosure to the Parliament’s Integrity Commission on all accounts belonging to himself and his wife.

He indicated that the facts surrounding his wife’s account are that she had the US account long before they met, the existence of the account was disclosed, including the sums of money in the account.

“The matter went before the court because the Parliament’s Integrity Commission insisted that the electronic statement presented for my wife’s overseas account would not be accepted and a physical statement be mailed to them directly from the US bank. This would have required her to travel to the US to get a statement. Having presided over the crafting of the Integrity Commissions act, it was never intended to be burdensome in requiring that one would have to take measures in a form that is deemed acceptable,” Hylton explained.

However, Hylton also noted that the matter on the format of the statement was settled later with the commission and they acknowledged and accepted receipt for the electronic statement to be submitted monthly and that this agreement was made in keeping with the timeframe of the submission. However, he said the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) decided to proceed with prosecuting him.

“When the case was brought to trial the Judge in 2015 indicated that the case was a waste of resources and no evidence showed that I was unwilling to file or to disclose.”

Hylton also stated that the non-disclosure about a company that he is the sole director is false and inaccurately stated.

“The second matter surrounding the disclosure of a company for which I am the sole director was in fact disclosed and it was also disclosed that the company was a non-trading company and therefore has no financials. The company in question was formed in the 90s and has since been abandoned due to the financial meltdown during that time. No banking account was ever established for the company and as such, I would not have disclosed something that does not exist.”

He outlined the following sequence of events:

[naviga:ul]

[naviga:li]A discussion was entered with the Integrity Commission about the format of the information should take in relation to an overseas account in my wife’s name.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]It was agreed that more time would be given to file while the format was being settled[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]The format was settled for which the commission received and acknowledged receipt.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]The matter was brought before the courts on November 18, 2011, for alleged breaches of the anti-corruption law[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]A guilty plea was entered on my behalf in my absence while I was on my way to court, however I gave no such instructions and the matter went to trial on my insistence.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]I insisted that I was innocent and that I had my day in court as I was not guilty of anything.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]The case was first placed before the Kingston and St. Andrew Resident Magistrate Court in 2012[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]The trial was set for January 17, 2012.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Last mention in court on March 13, 2015, when the Crown filed a “Noelle prosequi entered, matter to commence de novo” March 13, 2015- meaning prosecutors were abandoning the current matter.[/naviga:li]

[/naviga:ul]

“This was done because there was no evidence. It is not just that the Crown has no evidence at this time, but there is no evidence. The information was disclosed in full from the beginning,” Hylton said.

He indicated that the matter that has been brought to the public space asserting that the case is still going through the court system, however the Crown has ceased pursuing the matter filing a ‘nolle prosequi’ on the basis of lack of evidence back in March 2015.

“There was and still is no evidence to support wrong doing on my part,” he pointed out.

Hylton noted that the court had raised the issue with the DPP on the basis for which he was being prosecuted as they had seen no clear evidence of any wrongdoing. The DPP later decided not to proceed any further, he said.

“It is strange that this is now coming back to the public space for discussion at this time when the court made it very clear that the case should have never been brought for prosecution,” Hylton added.