TWO employees of Sagicor Bank are to appear before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on December 9 to answer six charges related to fraudulent activities on customers’ accounts.

The two employees, Tricia Monique Moulton, 42, bank manager of Sagicor Bank Liguanea, and Malika McLeod, also 42, personal banker at Sagicor Bank Liguanea, were arrested by the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) on Friday. They have since been released on bail in the sum of $1 million each.

They were charged with the offences of conspiracy to defraud, access with intent to commit or facilitate an offence, unlawfully making available device or data for the commission of an offence, computer-related fraud, breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act, and larceny as a servant.

The allegations are that between August 2022 and October 2022, Moulton and McLeod, in their capacities as manager and personal banker, respectively, conspired and defrauded about six Sagicor customers’ US currency accounts of an undetermined sum of money.

One of the accounts has been fully verified to have been defrauded of a total of $2.5 million. The fraud was discovered during a routine internal audit which is still ongoing to establish the final figure. A police source says the figure could rise to as much as $60 million.

It is alleged that the accused women created fraudulent accounts in the customers’ names then transferred funds from the legitimate accounts to the fake accounts, and thereafter stole the funds.

Sagicor, in response to media queries on the matter, said the fraudulent activities were uncovered through its internal security systems.

“We wish to assure our clients that we take the security and protection of their assets very seriously. We constantly review our operations rigorously in order to promptly detect anomalies, and liaise with the authorities to ensure that those responsible face the full legal ramifications,” the bank said in a release.

It said after its investigations discovered the fraud the matter was handed over to the police and the implicated employees have been suspended to facilitate the progress of the investigation.

The bank added: “In an effort to ensure that the legal and ethical processes of the case are upheld, we will not be making any further comment on this matter.”