Four banks, $352m hit

A man, allegedly using a fictitious identity, got a total of $352 million in mortgage loans from four financial institutions over a one-month period in 2024, the proprietors of a privately owned firm have charged in a lawsuit.

The loans were made to ‘Odain Anthony Lawes’ to ‘buy’ properties in upscale St Andrew neighbourhoods that were secretly and “fraudulently” swiped from their legitimate owners and the titles used as collateral for the mortgages, the lawsuit by Steadridge Farms Trade Limited claimed.

The alleged fraudulent titles identified ‘Lawes’ as a “mining and geological engineer”, who resides at “1037 Irving Drive, in Ironshore, Montego Bay, St James”, according to court documents reviewed by The Sunday Gleaner and official records from the National Land Agency (NLA).

But according to multiple law enforcement sources, ‘Lawes’ is believed to be assocated with a complex and elaborate fraudulent scheme that was used to defraud five financial institutions of over $600 million. Three people were charged in this matter recently.

Medical doctor Chloe Douett, who resides in Cherry Gardens, also in St Andrew, and Ivan Campbell, an executive assistant from Portmore, in St Catherine, are the other two persons charged with fraud-related crimes for their alleged roles in the fraudulent scheme.

The lawsuit by the principals of Steadridge Farms Trade Limited was filed in the Supreme Court in December 2024, and named ‘Lawes’ and CIBC Caribbean Bank (Jamaica) Limited as the defendants.

The proprietors claimed, in court documents reviewed by The Sunday Gleaner, that they learnt, via a telephone call on September 24, 2024, that lands they owned in Cherry Gardens in upper St Andrew were sold and transferred to Lawes “by fraudulent means” on February 19 that same year.

The caller, alleged to be an attorney for CIBC Jamaica, disclosed, too, that a mortgage issued by the bank for the purchase of the property was also registered on February 19, 2024, the lawsuit claims.

The mortgage amount was $96 million “with interest”, NLA records show.

New title was issued

The proprietors of Steadridge Farms claimed that a new title was issued for their land – with new folio and volume numbers – arising from a surrender application that was “fraudulently” made to the Registrar of Titles.

“In fact, at all material times the proper title was with the legitimate owner’s attorney-at-law for safekeeping and there was no situation justifying a surrender application”, the lawsuit charged.

Under the Registration of Titles Act, a surrender application or an application to surrender certificate(s) of title is the process used to facilitate changes to a property, including changing ownership or subdividing a lot.

The folio and volume numbers are unique, two-part identifiers assigned by the NLA to every registered parcel of land.

The proprietors of Steadridge Farms claimed that an investigation they conducted revealed that three other parcels of land were “fraudulently” transferred to ‘Lawes’ and mortgaged by separate financial institutions.

Among them, the lawsuit alleges, was a property in Barbican Heights, St Andrew, the title for which was transferred to Lawes on January 26, 2024.

A mortgage was registered the same day to Sagicor Bank Jamaica “to secure J$96,000,000 with interest”, NLA records show.

Titles for two other properties in Barbican, St Andrew, were also transferred to ‘Lawes’ on February 8th and 26th in 2024, according to official records and the owners of Steadridge Farms.

On both dates, mortgages were registered on the titles to National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS) respectively, each in the amount of $80 million, the records and the lawsuit show.

The Registrar of Titles has since lodged caveats on all four titles “to prevent improper dealings”, according to the notation on each document.

NCB, the largest commercial bank in Jamaica, declined to comment on questions submitted by The Sunday Gleaner about the alleged fraud.

“The bank does not comment on the specifics of ongoing legal matters. This matter is now before the court and we will allow the legal process to proceed without further comments at this time,” NCB said in email on Friday.

VMBS previously took a similar position, noting that the investigation is ongoing “so it would be ill-advised for us to issue a statement in the middle of an investigation”.

Invalid mortgage

Steadridge Farms Limited, which is represented by the law firm Hart, Muirhead & Fatta, charged that CIBC “knows that Odain Anthony Lawes is fictitious”, that the transfer of the land was procured by fraud and that the ‘loan’ to him secured by “the invalid mortgage was itself procured by fraud”.

“CIBC failed to fulfil its legal duty, inter alia, to ascertain (1) the existence and identity of the fictitious ‘Odain Anthony Lawes’ and (2) the validity of the invalid mortgage,” the lawsuit charged.

“CIBC also had a duty and failed in its duty to take the steps required to verify the identity of the fictitious ‘Odain Anthony Lawes’ and CIBC also failed to verify whether and to ascertain that ‘Odain Anthony Lawes’ is a fictitious person,” it also claimed.

The proprietors of Steadridge Farms accused CIBC of refusing to discharge the mortgage and surrender the duplicate and requested a court order compelling them to do both.

The Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, which is investigating the alleged $600-million fraudulent scheme, said it operated for nearly 15 months, starting in January 2023 and is “one of the most elaborate, complex and brazen fraud [cases] … we have seen to date”.

Efforts to contact CIBC for comment were unsuccessful.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com