Nothing to do with investment scams, says agency
Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) has long been marketed to the Diaspora as a vital resource for doing business with Jamaica, whether organizing exports/imports or exploring investment opportunities in the island. The government agency, however, is wading in hot water of late, after they were connected to the recent ponzi “bridge loan” scheme orchestrated by affiliated investor Mark Jones – who was arrested in Miami last month by U.S. federal authorities.
In a public statement however, JAMPRO denied any collusion with the investor who they had once endorsed and celebrated as a successful Diaspora investment story.
“Allegations that JAMPRO has any direct involvement in fraudulent investment ‘Ponzi’ or ‘bridge loan’ schemes are totally unfounded, detrimental to our good reputation, and must be retracted,” said JAMPRO’s President Diane Edwards in a released press statement.
The statement was in response to a recent report from Caribbean News Now, “JAMPRO or SCAMPRO? The politics of investment funding in Jamaica,” which implied that there may have been more to the JAMPRO/Mark Jones relationship besides an embarrassing connection. The report questions whether JAMPRO was “merely a government-regulated investment facilitator or was it a mechanism for misappropriation of investment funds?”
“Given the agency’s claimed peripheral role in the Jones Ponzi scheme, the current portfolio minister, Karl Samuda…may be asked to explain whether in this instance transparency and accountability may have been replaced by expediency,” said Claudette de la Haye in the Caribbean News Now article. No actually evidence, however, was given in the report to substantiate these suggestions of collusion.
According to U.S. federal charges, Jones has collected US$10 million from American investors to fund “bridge loans” to Jamaican companies looking for extra cash until lucrative bank loans were finalized. Reportedly, $485,000 of the funds went to Plantation, South Florida-based company, Global Gateway Solutions Inc.: a Jamaican-American tech support company, which he co-owned with Jamaican-born tech entrepreneur, Jacqueline Sutherland. (Though just last May, Jones stepped down from the company.)
Their collaboration was supported and endorsed by JAMPRO, who promoted Global Gateway Solutions Inc. as a success story through their website. But Edwards denied any allusions to JAMPRO collaborating with the illegal schemes, reinforcing JAMPRO’s public service goals.
“Our systems and operations are transparent,” said Edwards. “All services to the investor are free. We do not accept cash, checks or bank transfers for any investment that comes into Jamaica. Neither do we manage investment funds, interfere with or benefit from any investment funds that come into the country.”
Edwards, however, did acknowledge the fundamental flaw in JAMPRO’s efforts in finding and supporting legitimate investors, particularly in light of the recent leak of the “Panama Papers,” which documented efforts by the world’s wealthy to dodge governmental access to their financial information.
“We find published information on each investor,” noted Edwards. “Privately held companies with unpublished information cannot be traced and this is part of the challenge. So we can do due diligence on people’s existing holdings which are public, but we cannot find hidden information and we cannot guarantee what people will do.”
