Up Front
2002 Trial ForEuro Bank
Five defendants in the Euro Bank money laundering matter appearedbefore Chief Justice Anthony Smellie in the Grand Court on Wednesday,21 March for a Directions Hearing.Monies, exceeding US$33-million,have been frozen by the Government of the Cayman Islands' at theWiese Bank International, at the request of the Peruvian Government,which is alleging that the monies in the accounts are proceedsfrom criminal activities.
Mr. Andrew Mitchell, QC, appeared on behalfof the prosecution and requested a trial not to be held before2002 as the Crown had various commitments, including a preliminaryinquiry in the 'Cash for Titles' matter.
He felt that should the trial date be setbefore 2002, it could result in lengthy adjournments which wouldbe inconvenient for all the parties involved. He estimated thatthe duration of the trial would be three to four months.
Mr. Alistair Walters of Bruce Campbell &Company, appeared on behalf of Mr. Brian Cunha, the former GeneralManager of Euro Bank, and requested a date later this year or,failing that, then June 2002.
His reason for the alternative dates werethat his lead counsel will be involved in a lengthy trial in theUK that would tie him up for nine months. Mr. Walters also requestedthe remainder of the Bank's files, totaling approximately 400,000pages be made available to the defendants on CD-rom.
The Chief Justice was advised that the evidencepaperwork has all been scanned and loaded onto a CD-rom disc,which is advantageous as it eliminates the need for massive amountsof paperwork.
Mr. Marcus Thompson of the law firm Walkers,who are appearing on behalf of Mr. Don Stewart, the former Chairmanof the Board of Directors of Euro Bank, pointed out that thereis a disadvantage in that none of the defendants' legal counselhave access to the software programmme.
He also noted that they have no access tothat programme to track documents due to the fact its softwareis licensed solely for the Crown's use, citing that this couldbe considered an inequality in the search capabilities for documentsby the Crown and the defense.
Mr. Thompson further added that he wanteda date set by which time, all the Crown's evidence must be served.
Mr. Steve McField on behalf of Mr. MelvinTaves, a client of the bank, advised that there was an enormousamount of paperwork involved and he had been working on littleelse but this matter, and felt it would not be possible to preparefor a trial before January 2002.
Mr. John Furniss, on behalf of Ms. JudiDonegan, a junior administrative officer of the bank, said itwould be more convenient for his lead counsel if the trial wasto be held late in the year or early next year.
Chief Justice Smellie instructed The Crownto look into the matter of the software licensing to enable thedefense teams to have search capabilities and make all effortsto find an equitable solution. He also instructed that the Crownhave all evidence no later than 11 August, and further instructedthat a trial date be set for 11 February, 2002 with a furtherDirections Hearing to be held on 10 September, 2001.
In May 1999, the Cayman Islands Governmentplaced regulators into Euro Bank Corporation following reportsthat one of its clients had been involved in a massive creditcard fraud in the United States. Shortly thereafter, the bankwas placed into voluntary liquidation.
In addition to the above-named defendants,also charged is a former director of the bank, Ms Donald Fraser,however, he remains overseas at large.