IN an effort to stay off the police radar, some criminals are increasingly parking their flashy cars until nightfall and slowly spending cash that they keep at home, according to a senior investigator.

“They’re staying away from those vehicles, jumping into their Probox in the days and probably step out in their expensive vehicle in the nights when not much police are there to observe what is taking place. They’re getting smart, to be honest with you,” Financial Investigations Division (FID) Principal Director of Investigations Keith Darien told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

He said the Toyota Mark X and other “big-bottom, fat-looking cars” popular among lottery scammers are now being kept under wraps during the day.

However, he said the FID is still having significant success, especially in collaring those involved in helping to launder ill-gotten gains from a growing number of crimes against banks and their clients.

“In order to be successful with these criminal activities they have to use a third party. What they use is what we call a beneficiary account — an associate of theirs who is willing to allow them to use their account for a fee — in order to transfer money from the victim’s account. We have targeted those persons, and quite a number of them have been arrested and are currently before the court,” Darien said. “We have three that have currently indicated to us that they’re willing to enter a guilty plea, but we have arrested multiple, I think close to 20 persons now, who have used their accounts as beneficiary accounts to facilitate the movement of money from victims’ accounts.”

Among those arrested are Javina Baker and Daniel McNaughton, who were nabbed on March 14 this year during a pre-dawn, 18-member joint operation involving the FID and the Counter-Terrorism and Organized Crime Investigation (C-TOC) Branch, with support from the St Andrew South Police Division. Two residences on Delmonte Avenue and Calladium Crescent in the Kingston 11 area were searched and, based on the items found, several charges were laid against Baker and McNaughton.

At the time, the FID noted that it had “identified and received multiple reports of a disturbing surge in fraudulent schemes targeting banking institutions and their clientèle over the past 12 months”.
The division also noted that resources had been allocated to address the worrying trend.

On Wednesday, Darien noted that those engaged in illegal activity sometimes keep the money at home in an effort to avoid detection.

“We’ll still see a number of individuals getting lottery scamming proceeds or [funds from] drug trafficking activity or other crimes and what they do is to stockpile the cash somewhere — most times at their home — and gradually spend it on a day-to-day basis,” he explained.

In other cases people have been caught transporting large sums. For example, on March 25 this year the Manchester Parish Court ruled that Wayne Afflick, a St Andrew businessman, has to forfeit more than $4.5 million to the Crown in accordance with Section 79 of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). The Jamaican currency, plus US$9,100, was found concealed in three bags in his car. Afflick initially claimed the cash was for foreign currency trade purposes but could not provide any supporting documentation, despite claims that he was a businessman engaged in foreign currency trading and the resale of auto parts.

Established in December 2002, FID is set up within the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. It focuses on curbing money laundering and other financial crimes.

According to FID data on confiscation and asset-forfeiture investigations, 49 cases were completed between 2020 and 2022; the value of the assets seized was $2.45 billion and US$2.03 million, with an average value per case of $50 million and US$41,000. During that time, 12 cases were brought before the Supreme Court, but in none of those was a defence successfully mounted.