The State has filed a lawsuit against two soldiers seeking to recoup the $1.5 million which they allegedly stole from the Defence Force in a recent payroll scam.
In a press release yesterday evening, the Attorney General’s office said it filed the lawsuit in the Port-of-Spain High Court hours after the Defence Force gave the undertaking to release the lance corporal and private after they spent three weeks detained at the Teteron Barracks in Chaguaramas.
The release said in addition to filing a lawsuit seeking repayment of the alleged embezzled funds, the AG’s office obtained the injunction freezing all their assets in local and foreign financial institutions pending the determination of the case.
The ex-parte injunction was granted by Justice Margaret Mohammed without hearing submissions from the soldiers’ lawyers.
“The order granted inter alia restrains the defendants, whether by themselves, their servants and/or agents or otherwise howsoever, from removing or in any way disposing of, dealing with or diminishing any and all assets located within or outside the jurisdiction,” the release said.
Mohammed also ordered that the soldiers file affidavits detailing their assets before the next hearing of the case next Friday. She also ordered them to pay the AG’s office legal costs for bringing the lawsuit.
While the release named the soldiers, their identities cannot be revealed as they are yet to be charged with a criminal offence as a parallel police probe into the scam is still ongoing.
The soldiers were first detained on July 27 after the scam was discovered. While it was initially reported that almost $2 million was swindled between February and June, the release said it was in fact $1,480,000. Since their arrests, the soldiers had been held under open arrest (confined to the base with freedom to move around under supervision) at Teteron Barracks.
The T&T Guardian understands the soldiers are accused of working with a civilian member of staff to receive inflated payments in their salaries. When they were first confronted the officers reportedly admitted to seeing inflated sums in their accounts and withdrew the money without knowing its source.
Earlier this week, the soldiers filed a habeas corpus questioning their lengthy detention. But moments before High Court Judge Joan Charles was due to rule on the issue on Thursday, the Defence Force’s lawyers indicated their clients were willing to release them as their probe was nearing completion.
Charles gave her opinion on their detention nonetheless, saying the lengthy arrest was unreasonable and unjustified as the Defence Force had ample time to complete its investigation and decide whether it wished to court martial the soldiers within the first few days of discovering the scam.
“Even though the soldiers are subject to military law, the issue of their right to liberty remains. It is an entrenched right and must be given effect,” Charles said in her oral judgement.
However, she did rule that their initial detention was required.
“Given the nature of the alleged misconduct, I think it was important that they be detained to ensure that evidence or witnesses are not tampered with,” Charles said as she noted that the lance corporal was working as a payroll clerk before the investigation and had access to the department’s computer network.