Usain Bolt’s lawyer slams Jamaican authorities amid opposed media stories on $6M fraud case

Usain Bolt’s lawyer, Linton Gordon, has condemned makes an attempt to carry the legendary sprinter chargeable for the lack of his $6 million funding with Shares and Securities Restricted (SSL). “There now seems to be an organized effort to shift blame onto the Honorable Usain Bolt for his loss—when he’s responsible of nothing greater than investing within the nation that he loves,” Linton Gordon mentioned in an announcement on Friday.

“This can be a textbook case of victim-blaming, and it seems to be an try and absolve the federal government of its failure to guard the general public and people defrauded by SSL.

“Much more regarding is the obvious try and silence victims and manipulate the narrative about who is really chargeable for this large-scale fraud, which has left a whole bunch of Jamaicans with out their hard-earned cash and no clear path to restoration.”

Gordon says fund transfers from Bolt have been documented

Gordon additionally refuted the claims that there have been irregularities within the funds transferred by Bolt to SSL.

“The allegations being circulated publicly that not all of Usain Bolt’s funds despatched to Shares & Securities Restricted have been acquired by the establishment are false, baseless, and fully with out credibility,” Gordon mentioned.

“All funds lodged at SSL by Bolt’s firm have been transferred by way of financial institution transactions, and each fee was acknowledged by the establishment in writing.”

To help his argument, Gordon referenced courtroom testimony from Ken Tomlinson, the Monetary Companies Fee (FSC)-appointed non permanent supervisor. In line with Tomlinson’s 2024 testimony, Bolt’s preliminary $6.2 million funding was fraudulently withdrawn from SSL’s account. Bolt additionally revealed that his account statements, up till late 2022, mirrored a complete funding of $12.7 million.

The lawyer additionally slammed the solutions that Bolt was negligent half and blamed the Jamaican authorities for failing to safeguard traders towards the monetary fraud that has rocked the nation.

“The notion that Bolt was negligent in making these deposits is solely unfounded,” Gordon mentioned. “The Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Authorities of Jamaica, and a whole bunch of Jamaican residents invested in SSL—an establishment that was authorised and controlled by the federal government.

“To recommend that Bolt was careless or lacked correct monetary administration is to suggest the identical about each Jamaican who has invested in a government-approved monetary establishment.”

On January 12, 2023, stories emerged that thousands and thousands of {dollars} had gone lacking from Usain Bolt’s account at SSL, triggering a multi-agency fraud investigation. To this point, Jean-Ann Panton, a former wealth advisor on the agency, stays the one individual charged in reference to the case.

Bolt has previously criticised the Jamaican authorities for lack of progress within the investigation.