The Jamaican legend saw the millions of euros he had entrusted to a private investment company volatilizing, also affecting around forty other people.
MO12345LEMOND With AFP
“Where did the money go?”: The question burns the lips of all the Jamaicans and of the most famous of them, Usain Bolt, legend of the world sprint, an olympic gold medalist, victim of a Vast financial fraud that would have destroyed around forty people in total. The case moved the whole Caribbean island.
For two weeks, local authorities have been in surgery of an investment company, Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) based in Kingston, supposed to hold funds placed by Bolt, including the $ 12 million account (11 million euros) is emptied almost in full.
The Minister of Finance, Nigel Clarke, declared that he wanted severe sanctions:
“The gap between sanctions for crime in white collar and other forms of crime must be erased. If you steal those who confide their money or if you defraud investors and put our financial system in danger, Our way of life, Jamaican society wants you to be put in the shade for a long time, for a very long time. “
Usain Bolt is one of the some forty victims of this fraud, among whom are elderly people who are now without the. Clarke said that he would ask the FBI and other foreign organizations to participate in surveys, after having replaced the members of the Council of the Financial Services Commission (FSC). This organization has taken up the temporary management of SSL and appointed a special auditor. The Jamaican police went down to the home of a former employee of this company and entered documents, but no suspect has yet been charged.
In turmoil, the actors of the world of finance hope that confidence in the country’s banking institutions will not be started.
“Disgusted population”
For Abka Fitz-Henley, a media personality in Jamaica, which, on the other hand, is no doubt, is the general disgust that Bolt’s setbacks inspire. “The majority of the population is disgusted by this criminal act, which constitutes an injustice with regard to a man, perceived as extremely kind, who is, moreover, the most popular Jamaican in the world. We hope strongly that he will recover his money. “
From a modest background, born in the parish of Trelawny, in northwestern Jamaica, Bolt has become a global superstar, after having swarmed the world records of the 100 m and 200 m and dominated the Beijing, London and Rio Olympic Games. Usain Bolt retired in 2017, after a decade of unrelated domination over the male sprint.
Bolt expressed himself little on the case, but he assured that she will not lead him to abandon his homeland: “No matter what is happening at the moment, Jamaica is my country, I Like and it will never change. I will always do everything in my power to make it grow. “