SSL lifeline THE GOVERNMENT is to pay the salaries of restive employees of investment firm Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) to avoid disruptions in the ongoing investigation into the alleged fleecing of more than $4 billion from clients. None of the more than 20 persons who make up the staff turned up for work at the company’s St Andrew offices last Thursday in protest of the non-payment of their August wages. Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said the Government will intervene because“SSL’s income cannot support its operating expenses, much of which are necessary to facilitate the ongoing investigations”. “Consistent with the policy commitment outlined in my Budget presentation of March 2023, where I stated that the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) will make the required resources available to facilitate a thorough investigation of the SSL matter, I wish to advise as follows: The GOJ will ensure, through the FSC, which appointed the temporary manager, that SSL employees are paid for their work,” Clarke told The Gleaner. The total amount of money to be provided, when it will be paid, and for how long the support will run are reportedly being worked on. The Financial Services Commission (FSC), which regulates investment houses, took charge of SSL on January 17, days after the company reported an incident of fraud. In March, the FSC declared that SSL was “insolvent”. The current staff are key to researching for investigators, dealing with clients’ concerns, and helping with the transfer of accounts to yet-to-benamed brokerage firms. “We feel disrespected and neglected. We understand the trauma that is happening with the clients, but there’s also trauma with the staff,” said one of the employees who did not want to be named. Staff took industrial action on Thursday, the same day the Financial Investigations Division (FID) provided an update on the probe that started in January. Reid, Pinnock back in court October 13 FORMER EDUCATION Minister Ruel Reid and former Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) President Fritz Pinnock, along with their three coaccused, are to return to the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on October 13. The mention date was scheduled on Wednesday when the accused appeared in court and had their bails extended. The two men, along with Reid’s wife Sharen, their daughter Sharelle, and Jamaica Labour Party Councillor for the Brown’s Town division Kim Brown, have been charged with a range of offences, including breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, conspiracy to defraud, misconduct in a public office at common law, and breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act. The accused were charged by the Financial Investigation Division (FID) following an investigation into nearly $50 million which was allegedly diverted from the CMU. On Wednesday, when the matter was called up in court, the prosecutor informed that the case file is near completion and that it is preparing to set a date for a plea and case management hearing. However, senior attorney-at-law Oswest Senior-Smith, who was recently retained by Brown, requested disclosure and asked that the plea and case management hearing be deferred until he has received the material. Meanwhile, Reid’s and Pinnock’s lawyer, Hugh Wildman, indicated that he is in the process of appealing the recent Full Court’s ruling in which his clients lost their battle to quash Chief Parish Court Judge Chester Crooks’ ruling that they have a case to answer in the multimillion-dollar fraud matter. Wildman argued that the matter was still under appeal but the prosecution submitted that the matter must proceed as the court had lifted the stay. Man reportedly confesses to murder of five homeless persons in month-long spree A 25-YEAR-OLDWestgate Hills man is believed to have attacked seven homeless people in Montego Bay, St James, killing five of them and injuring two while they slept in the space of less than a month. The dastardly crimes, which claimed the lives of four females and a male, took place in sections of the Second City between July 28 and August 20. The suspected perpetrator, who was held by cops lastWednesday afternoon after reportedly attempting to rape a woman in the Corinaldi Avenue area of Montego Bay, reportedly confessed to the killings after he was taken into custody. He was also on bail for forcible abduction. Highly placed sources in the Jamaica Constabulary Force told The Gleaner that some of the bloody crimes in the murderous rampage were captured on CCTV systems throughout the city. All the victims were stabbed with a sharp instrument while they slept. The suspect reportedly became so brazen that he attacked David Johnson in front of the Barnett Police Station on August 20. Johnson survived the onslaught. Another man, Ken Warren, became the seventh victim. The 25-year-old suspect, who remains in custody, was reportedly posing as a taxi operator onWednesday when an unsuspecting woman boarded his car about 2:30 p.m. He allegedly diverted from the normal route, lying to the passenger that he had another person to pick up along Melvin Hall Avenue, off Corinaldi Avenue. It is further alleged that he then locked the car doors and pulled a knife before demanding that the woman have sex with him. The quick-thinking woman reportedly told him that she would first need to urinate before complying with his demands.When he opened the door and allowed her to exit, she ran and screamed for help. Several cops, who were in the area on a tour with a government minister, came to her rescue. Principals may face sanctions for barring students over grooming infractions PRINCIPALS WHO bar students from school because of grooming infractions may face sanctions under the draft national grooming policy. Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams, said the draft policy is being disseminated to schools and the ministry is considering penalties against schools that breach the guidelines once it has been finalised. “With the draft policy in place as soon as we finalise it, we’re going to have to think about that (sanctions) because you’re putting children in danger when you lock them out. You are denying them education as well,” she said. The draft grooming policy will serve as the benchmark against which school administrations ought to formulate grooming rules. Speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing yesterday, the minister emphasised that it is not a policy of the Ministry of Education to lock out or send home children who show up to school and are not in 100 per cent compliance with school rules. The draft policy, which is the result of a consultative process among education stakeholders, aims to reduce discriminatory practices regarding hairstyles and other grooming rules, while at the same time, addressing the need for discipline and adherence to societal values at the school level. The Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network (JYAN), in urging vigilance of the grooming policy, had called for sanctions to be laid against “rogue” schools who do not adhere. “This policy must go much further than provide guidelines but strict rules of adherence for institutions with stated penalties. The standard in our public-education sector must be of respect for diversity in religious, ethnocultural practices, and expressions,” its executive director, Shannique Bowden, said in a statement. The minister reiterated that schools should utilise other forms of punishment for students who breach schools grooming rules. “We have to change behaviour. You have to ensure as school leaders you are consultative in all that you do, so get the buy-in from parents who can monitor and ensure that their children show up. We have in-school activities that students can do. There may be detention, or something like that. But there are other ways, other than the drastic lock out of students from schools,” she said. THE MONTHLY GLEANER | SEPTEMBER 7 - OCTOBER 7, 2023 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS MISSED 7 [ NEWSYOU MAY HAVE MISSED ] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE OF JAMAICA IN THE CIVIL DIVISION CLAIM NO. SU2022CV03851 BETWEEN LLOYD GEORGE CLAIMANT AND PETER JUNOR (Executor of the Estate 1st DEFENDANT of Laurice Lucilee Junor) AND FRANCIS SEGRE 2nd DEFENDANT TAKE NOTICE THAT the Fixed Date Claim Form filed herein on December 2, 2022 is adjourned for hearing on December 5, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. for One (1) hour. DATED THE 21st DAY OF JULY, 2023 _______________________________ LORENZO J. ECCLESTON CLAIMANT’S ATTORNEY-AT-LAW TO: The Registrar AND TO: The First Defendant Supreme Court PETER JUNOR King Street (Executor of the Estate Kingston of Laurice Lucilee Junor) AND TO: The Second Defendant FRANCIS SEGRE Filed by TEMPLE LAW C/o LORENZO J. ECCLESTON, Attorney-at-Law, of 66-68 Barry Street, Kingston for and on behalf of the Claimant. Tel: (876) 535-8162; (876) 633-6531. Email: Lanzojm@outlook.com or Lanzojm@hotmail.co.uk NOTICE OF ADJOURNED HEARING Government to pay salaries of investment firm’s workers to avoid disruptions to fraud probe Grade five student Rondre Clarke cools himself down by holding his chilled drink bottle near his head during a class at the Farm Primary and Infant School on Monday, September 4, during the first day of the 2023-2024 school year. ASHLEY ANGUIN
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