36-year-old Jamaican athlete and gold medallist Bolt has ended up losing $12.7 million.
Lawyers for former Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt have given Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) ten days to return the track and field star's million-dollar investments or face "a huge lawsuit."
The law firm Frater, Ennis & Gordon has given SSL 10 days to deliver the money Bolt invested 10 years ago," the notice published in local media said.
The lawyers have warned that if the firm does not return the money "in record time, it will face a huge lawsuit." The winner of eleven worlds and eight Olympic titles as a sprinter indicated through his lawyer that he had a balance of $12.7 million in SSL as of October 31, 2022, but that figure was reduced to $12,000 on January 11.
The legal notice comes on the same day that the chief executive of the Jamaica Financial Services Commission (FSC), Everton McFarlane, pledged to publicly release the outcome of investigations into the alleged multi-million dollar fraud uncovered. in the investment firm.
In addition, he said that the FSC will take steps to help institutions strengthen their mechanisms to detect and prevent fraud. McFarlane noted that the level of fraud discovered in SSL "has never happened before" and is "a despicable act of dishonesty on the part of an employee and possibly with collaborators."
Jamaica's Finance Minister, Nigel Clarke, had already assured that all those involved in the alleged fraud against the former Jamaican sprinter will be sentenced. Last week, SSL revealed that several of its clients had lost millions of dollars in local and foreign currencies that they had invested in the company.
Bolt is one of 30 victims whose SSL investments were allegedly diluted by an employee of the firm. The fraud could have reached 1,200 million dollars. The representative of the world champion, Nugent Walker, explained to the local newspaper of Jamaica that a week ago they noticed "discrepancies" in their balances, which - according to Bolt's team - could be linked to bad practices within SSL.
Faced with this situation, the Jamaican Financial Services Commission (FSC) launched an investigation into the complaints, while the Minister of Finance of that country, Nigel Clarke, described the event as an "alarming and wicked fraud", for which reason they will bring "all perpetrators to justice."
From the company, they suggested that a former worker could be involved in the changes to Bolt's accounts, although they did not give further details, because they are already in contact with "the relevant police authorities."
