EXTRADITION proceedings have been set in motion for three people living in the United States who Jamaican law enforcement officials say were key players in the ring which bilked Government agency Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The three, said to be closely aligned to former INSPORTS financial controller and party promoter Andrew “French” Wright — who was on Friday sentenced to 10 years and seven months at hard labour alongside two other accused — are permanent legal residents of the United States, according to a highly placed police source.

According to a Jamaica Observer source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the three were suspects from the onset of the investigations in 2017 into the $222-million fraud, but had not been charged.

The source said the Financial Investigations Division (FID) will be taking steps to seize any assets of Wright and his co-convicts O’Neil Hope and Rudolph Barnes, acquired through their criminal conduct.

Multiple witnesses called during the trial testified that they did not work for INSPORTS but said they were given cheques drawn on the State agency’s account, signed by Wright and another individual in authority who was not convicted. They further said the three individuals now facing extradition played key roles.

According to the source, the witnesses would encash the cheques and give the money to a female employee of INSPORTS who is believed to be among the three people now facing extradition proceedings.

If the cheque was written for under $500,000 the witnesses were given $10,000, but if the cheque was for more than $500,000 they received $15,000 for each one they encashed.

“Persons gave statements to say that sometimes when they got the cheques it would be the [other two individuals who are to be extradited] who would take the cheques to them,” the source disclosed.

“One witness said she worked at Wright’s private residence and she was paid cheques drawn on INSPORTS’s account and she did no work for INSPORTS. The investigation would have unearthed that he used INSPORTS’s funds for his personal business,” the Observer was told.

Last Friday Wright, the promoter of popular entertainment events French Connection and Chug It, was sentenced to 10 years and seven months at hard labour. His co-convicts Hope and Barnes were sentenced to five years and nine months and three years, respectively.

Wright, Hope and Barnes were in September found guilty of conspiracy to defraud; acquisition, use, and possession of criminal property; engaging in transactions involving criminal property; and larceny as a servant.

These charges arose after an internal audit led to an investigation by the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency which found that INSPORTS was defrauded a total of $222 million between 2010 and 2017.

Wright, who had been arrested in 2013 while challenging INSPORTS on the grounds that he had been wrongfully dismissed, was found guilty on 13 counts of fraud by Justice Ann-Marie Lawrence-Grainger in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston, while Barnes was found guilty on 11 and Hope on eight counts.

Although Wright, through his legal team, argued that Chug It was responsible for his profits, which Grainger described as “substantial”, the court rejected this claim, saying that while profits might have been earned from Chug It, the funding became “tainted” because of INSPORTS’s money being “so intertwined” with Chug It affairs.

Grainger mentioned testimony given by one witness, Jacqueline Evans, who said she had been employed by Wright to work during Chug It, which included cleaning and food preparation duties. While Evans officially earned a salary of $30,000, she was also made to cash INSPORTS cheques.

The money cashed from these cheques, Evans said, went to pay herself and five of Wright’s other workers in Wright’s private capacity, while some of the funding was returned to an employee of INSPORTS Grainger shared that these cheques totalled $13 million.

According to the trial judge, there is a strong and inescapable inference to be drawn that Wright purchased property in Jack’s Hill, St Andrew, and a 2013-model-year Audi vehicle in 2013 using, at least in part, benefits from the fraud carried out against INSPORTS, which caused the court to treat both items as criminal property.

The court also found that money was deposited into Wright’s credit union account to obtain a loan to purchase the vehicle. This was evidenced by a witness from the credit union who stated that the loan was not repaid, and the bank forfeited the sums from Wright’s account to cover the loans.

Wright argued that the money lodged to the credit union was from Chug It, but an examination of the transactions showed that there were deposits made in April and May of 2012, but none in several other months.

About $10 million was deposited by the INSPORTS employee, and $5 million by Wright. The court found that there was a surge in deposits between 2012 and 2013, as opposed to those made amounting to $13 million lodged between 2008 and 2011, when Wright said he was operating what he described as a “thriving business” not limited to parties but also other engagements. This was $21 million less than between 2012 and 2014, the period of the indictment, when the INSPORTS received cash proceeds.

According to the judge, Wright, Barnes, and Hope were aware of the fraudulent activity and aware that there were parties fraudulently benefiting from INSPORTS’s money.

Grainger said the court had also found that Barnes authorised fraudulent invoices for individuals who claimed to have done work and were entitled to be paid, though no proof of work was found. These invoices were used to generate cheques which the court said were then cashed and resulted in the loss of several million dollars from INSPORTS.

The court also found that Wright approved and signed off on several payment vouchers in the capacity of a payment officer, and approved payment of cheques in the names of persons who did no work on behalf of INSPORTS.

Attorneys who represented the men have indicated plans to appeal the judge’s decisions, acting on the instructions of their clients. Attorneys-at-law Isat Buchanan and Alessandra LaBeach represented Wright.

The prosecution was led by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Alexia McDonald and Crown Counsel Dwayne Houston. The matter was investigated by the Jamaica Constabulary’s Detective Corporal Mary Alladyce.

INSPORTS is a State entity responsible for, among other sports-related duties, organising various competitions, youth development clinics, and equipment donations at the grass roots and primary school levels. It, like other local sporting bodies, receives its funding from the Ministry of Sport.

INSPORTS was established in 1978 following the merging of the Sports Development Division and the National Sports Limited.