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The Sagicor Thieves and the BCA Fraudster – Ruel Ward and Jefferson Miller Create a WTF Moment

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Ruel Ward
Michael Pooler
Jefferson Miller

The two main culprits in a scam that defrauded $4 million dollars from Sagicor Insurance company received suspended sentences yesterday in $5 Supreme Court. WTF!

For those who have not been following the case, it goes back to 2005 this matter was bouncing around the local courts. Here is further evidence to support the view by ordinary citizens that there is one set of of justice meted out to the Medes and another to the Persians.

How is it conceivable that an insurance company where millions of dollars are deposited to provide financial security to Barbadians and others beyond our shores is compromised by Ruel Ward and his brother in law Michael Pooler and not a day!

To rub salt in the wounds of honest taxpaying Barbadians, Ward was seen continuing to live life normally while awaiting his day in court,  finding time to be a business partner and friend with member of parliament Santia Bradshaw. Did he know something onlookers did not? Roger Smith, the aspiring Barbados Labour Party candidate for St. Philip and Rodney Wilkinson, the former bag man of Owen Arthur  of former CEO of Hotel Resorts Limited must be looking on with glee.

The other angle to this story is the inaccessibility to links in the Nation newspaper archives about the Ward matter going back to the earlier period when the story broke. Here is an example of the message – see Nation newspaper disclaimer link. Migrating files from one application to the other or migrating from one server to another is standard fare in todays world where backup of files is a routine activity. The Nation newspaper should be made to explain this matter. As the leading newspaper it cannot be pressuring the government on the issue of transparency and it own management practices cannot stand scrutiny.

Next we have the CEO of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Jefferson Miller who was flown from the United States to ‘run tings’. The BCA is a closed shop and and a couple thousand Barbadians get to determine how cricket is managed in Barbados.  Never mind the Barbados government had to spend half billion dollars to stage Cricket World Cup 2007. The headlines across the cricket world continues to resonate at the faux pas by the Joel Garner led BCA Board of Directors. And finally nine days after this story broke the Joel Garner led BCA Board released the following statement this evening – full text of BCA statement. To be honest the statement generates more questions.

Two days after the board of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) took a decision to sack Chief Executive Officer Jefferson Miller, lawyers for the two sides today agreed the final terms of the separation – Barbados Today

After hoodwinking the BCA into hiring him as CEO, it was obviously an impressive job interview via SKYPE – What is this mention of separation package. The man lied to get the job!

This incident has added another dent to Bajan pride as if it isn’t bad enough given the prevailing economic climate.  Barbados has been able to garner enormous respect from across the globe when cricket is mentioned. For the sake of transparency let us quickly suture this PR ’injury’ and move on.

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91 responses to “The Sagicor Thieves and the BCA Fraudster – Ruel Ward and Jefferson Miller Create a WTF Moment”

  1. The Sagicor Thieves and the BCA Fraudster – Ruel Ward and Jefferson Miller Create a WTF Moment – Vibe Audio StationVibe Audio Station

    […] The Sagicor Thieves and the BCA Fraudster – Ruel Ward and Jefferson Miller Create a WTF Moment […]

  2. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    So much for fighting white collar crime in Barbados, Mr Commissioner of Police.
    Dodds is not for those who knows, somebody that knows somebody. Its for those who go into Trimart and take up a tin of babyfood or a bottle of Mount Gay or a tube of adhesive from Barbados Hardware when it was in operation.

  3. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    David wrote “The man lied to get the job!” Are you sure ?

    Why did the BCA ask for a certificate of character? Is this standard practice when hiring CEOs?
    Did the new BTMI CEO have to produce a certificate of character?

    “5. When Mr Miller presented for the second round of interviews, upon the BCA’s request, he furnished the BCA with a character certificate issued by the Broward Sherriff’s Office Records Division – Sherriff Office Broward County dated May 15th, 2014.”

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    When he produced the certificate of character Miller knew he had matters before the court.

  5. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ David
    This is NOT the first time. Most times it was covered up. The Boards and executives at both institutions should have been tarred, burnt and fired. Too much steel in Sagicor and the BCA. LOL

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    How do you know who knew what and when?

  7. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Is it standard practice when hiring CEOs in Barbados to request police certificate of character?

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    It is a standard request for work permit application, not aware that it Is a standard request for senior hire. It must be a checklist item for Profiles Caribbean.

  9. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    But if a particular court case is pending at the time of a job application, the police are not at liberty to enter any reference to those charges on the Certificate of Character. And we are aware of how long its takes some of these case to reach trial. If S.Y .Adam’s son had to apply for a Police Certificate of Character right now, he would be given a clean sheet.

  10. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    “A NATION OF THIEVES”!

  11. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Colonel Buggy

    But there certain charges the prevents which one from obtain employment even he or she has been convicted of a crime. For example: a man who has been accused of child molestation wouldn’t be allow to work with children even with a clean Police Certificate of Character. B

  12. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Sorry… wasn’t ….finished… The court would have to decide between the safety of the child and the man’s right to employment and more often than not, the court here rules in favor of the child safety..

  13. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    I have the greatest respect for Madam Justice Crane-Scott and I find that her judgment is usually sound but this time I think that she got it awfully wrong. Why on God’s earth should these thieves not be saluting John Nurse for the next seven years.

    Sentencing of criminals in Barbados has now become a joke. A shoplifter can go to jail but people who steal $4 million get to walk out of court free as a bird. This is one case where the DPP should appeal this overly lenient sentence.

    I hope that we will soon be hearing that these people are made to forfeit the property that they acquired with the stolen loot; but I am not holding my breath.

  14. The Sagicor Thieves and the BCA Fraudster – Ruel Ward and Jefferson Miller Create a WTF Moment – Black Caribbean On-Line

    […] David The two main culprits in a scam that defrauded $4 million dollars from Sagicor Insurance company […]

  15. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Caswell Franklyn | October 11, 2014 at 9:21 PM |
    “I hope that we will soon be hearing that these people are made to forfeit the property that they acquired with the stolen loot; but I am not holding my breath.”

    There might be more in the financial mortar than just a pestle of a bribe.
    You know very well that justice can be bought at the right price and money does indeed make the mare fly high; and the more the money on offer the higher the flight path.

    BTW, Caswell do you know if the “Anti-Money Laundering Act” has any relevance to this situation or is it too early a financial crime against poor honest policyholders?

  16. Clone Avatar
    Clone

    I suspect this sentence is a setup for the big ones to come. What an unfair society to sent men to jail for cock tax but all big up thieves always walk free.SY Adams son case like it gone through without even going to court. Where is the justice with this sentence Justice Crane Scott? What clean record what. They were thiefing all along just that they got caught which means nothing now. They walked free.

  17. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Errol Barrow made in mandatory that any seaport worker or airport worker produce a clean Certificate of Character to the Seaport or Airport
    Authorised Officer before he/she can be hired in ANY position at those facilities.
    Caswell.Is there any truth that the former Minister of International Transport Hutson changed that decision and caused former inmates of HM Prisons to be given jobs at Grantley Adams Airport.Maybe why Madame Justice slap the fellows!Customs officers slap people too.Was not one worth over 4 million dollars and was kicked upstairs and now retired at we expense with a fat pension.Small island banana democracies Caswell.These islands full of Captain Morgan’s descendants.Effing pirates all starting from Pilgrim House to Lady Briggs House Ilaro to Coverley,Warrens,Arthur Seat,Broomefield,Six Mens’,Locust Hall…….

  18. Nostradamus Avatar
    Nostradamus

    @Caswell Franklyn
    “This is one case where the DPP should appeal this overly lenient sentence.
    I hope that we will soon be hearing that these people are made to forfeit the property that they acquired with the stolen loot; but I am not holding my breath.”

    If I as a betting man I would say a deal was struck and some form of restitution (property, assets) have been made.

  19. Waiting Avatar
    Waiting

    Caswell talks a roll of shoite and often but in this case I cannot agree with him more. The Wards and Pooler should be lost way in jail given the magnitude of their crime. As I read the sentence I expected to read that they had paid back the $4 million they stole. If they did I could see where a case maybe made for non custodial sentence. Since they have not repaid they should be in prison with the block boys who are jailed for robbing people of chains worth a couple hundred $.

    On the big score of Miller and the BCA the entire Board should resign in disgrace. They are so many high polluted idiots on the BCA Board of directors its difficult to count them. These bumbling jackasses are big time social climbers. They have embarrassed Barbados in epic proportions and should be made to pay. Don’t expect them to fire themselves so the beat will go on. It will be business as usual. Miller’s deceit will become a nine day wonder and the BCA retards will go back to sipping free big mout drinks and flying first class free.

  20. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Gabriel

    I take serious affront with your characterization of someone who has violated the law of the land. I do believe that if a man has served his debt to society after he has contravened the laws of the state, that he should be given fair and equal opportunity afforded to any others citizen, to resume his life if his intentions are to be a productive member of society.

  21. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Gabriel

    I have an enormous respect and reverence for the legacy the late Prime Minister Errol Barrow has entrusted to the people of Barbados, but I am quite confident that he would have wanted us to be forward thinkers in the year 2014.

  22. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    There are two (2) Barbadoses (Adonijah).
    Just let’s see what happens with the Ebola Quarantine Centre next to the rich white people schools of St IUrsulas, St Angelas, St Michael and St Gabriel’s. I can bet anyone that the Quarantine Centre will be re-located.

    If it were next to Grantley Adams or Princess Margaret with poor black children nothing said would get it re-located.

  23. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    Barbados is suffering from the FEFI syndrome. It has afflicted all Barbadians especially government officials and is now an epidemic in this country.
    Finding Excuses For Incompetence (FEFI).

  24. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Observing

    Who is Adonijah?
    And why should we have to listening to what he has to say?
    You have to be living under a rockstone not to have known that two Barbados exist?
    There is the country side of Barbados and there is the town side of Barbados. I am from the town side of Barbados and based on your resentment, you’re probbably from the country side of Barbados right?

  25. ac Avatar
    ac

    ammmm
    if interested in reading the originall story check barbados today archives.

    by shawn cumberbatch

    About half a million dollars has vanished from insurance company Sagicor and police have been called in to investigate the suspected theft.
    Officials of the company were tight lipped, but head of the Royal Barbados Police Force Fraud Unit, Assistant Superintendent John Maxwell, confirmed today that Sagicor’s management had reported the matter to lawmen and they were in the early stages of their investigation.
    It is believed the money was “electronically moved” and as a result a manager and two other employees have been suspended as investigations continue. They were suspended last week.
    Maxwell said this morning that police would be recording statements from different individuals as they tried to get to the bottom of the missing money.
    “A report has been made by Sagicor. They are asking that we look at a situation that they have drawn to our attention and certainly we are doing that,” he told Barbados TODAY.
    2011-06-06

  26. David Avatar
    David

    @ac

    Sometimes it is good to read if you are unfamiliar with the topic.

  27. erice Avatar
    erice

    nupw council and members
    can any one tell us how the valuation of that duty free car was reduce from $198000 to 68000 over a one year period by a mr Tudor the sales man of the same AUDIE.
    2) is there a government policy that duty free cars having had it for 5yrs cannot be sold for a profit by any organization as indicated by Dennis Clarke and walter maloney ,
    3)but Dennis Clarke wants to buy the car for $10000 -while over the last two years he has had nupw paid for parts that were never put on the car but stock pile at his home ,
    4)where can he earned 4months vocation when he used all his vocation while on sick leave but he wants to be paid 4months vocation from nov to feb 2015–can the so call council see that this crook wants them to pay again for there own car which he is hoping to steal high handed
    5)HAS he decleared and paid the car benefits for the car as yet ?

  28. ac Avatar
    ac

    sometimes it is good to take a comment in the stride it was presented no hard feelings,

  29. HAMILTON A HILL Avatar
    HAMILTON A HILL

    A police officer once told me that this is the type of occurrence that deflates the enthusiasm of crime fighters. To use his words ” it is a slap in the face” to put in so many man hours, making personal sacrifices to get the job done, only to see your efforts disregarded behind some closed door where injustice is green-lighted. This is Barbados—Gem of the Caribbean—for whom? The connected few. We like it so.

  30. David Avatar
    David

    Obviously Ward was given consideration in the sentence because he is rumored to have repaid about a million dollars, his parents anyway.

  31. HAMILTON A HILL Avatar
    HAMILTON A HILL

    @ Waiting…. In relation to making restitution after ill-begotten gains do you believe that there should be an effort made to go after the estate of the late Prime Minister David Thompson? Do you believe that one Leroy Parris should still be walking about Barbados, rather than being restricted to the confines of a jail cell?

  32. Waiting Avatar
    Waiting

    Hill don’t go down the restitution road. Who is going to restitute the $100 million taxpayers saddled with to pay court jester Barrack who should never have gotten that building contract. Who going restitute the $30 million lick out on Greenland? What about the golden shower shite house built in Silver Sands and the ackee tree limb that cost $22,000 to cut down. We haven’t got to GEMS and JAWS. Who restitutes that money the handcuffed Rodney Wilkinson or his bosom pal the vertically challenged imbiber from up north. Don’t get me started A hole Hill.

  33. David Avatar
    David

    Sometimes one has to wonder at the comprehension skills of some commenters. How to compare why some feel Parris should be held liable to Barrack etc is beyond belief. If anything the government should have been sued for not honoring a court order in a timely manner. We make very damn thing political. But a people get what they deserve.

  34. Waiting Avatar
    Waiting

    There is no difference between Barrack and Miller both had supposedly intelligent people believing they were qualified for the jobs they were given. Parris and Rodney Wilkinson fit into the world of hoodwinking. If you cant see that you are simply biased and that would be not surprise given your permanent anti government stance.

  35. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    Waiting | October 12, 2014 at 9:34 AM |

    “…………..and the ackee tree limb that cost $22,000 to cut down.”

    Remember, the ackee tree debacle occurred when Hamilton Lashley was Minister of Social Transformation under the previous BLP administration. But are you going to say Hammy Lah should not make restitution because he is now in the arms of the DLP?

    How on earth can you correlate the situation between Al Barrack and Leroy Parris, a man who preyed on poor people by taking their insurance money and was, just like the two Sagicor thieves, given a “Get out of jail free” card?

  36. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ Caswell
    The DPP what! Is this the same DPP who walked into a court room and brought the prosecution of a big drug dealer to an end by telling the court that his department had no interest in the prosecution so that a man caught with a tonne of drugs could just walked out free? Embarrassing the prosecution Sargent and so on. We don’t know if the accuse was a DEA agent or wha but we never see such before or after. Get real bro!

  37. caribcanadian Avatar
    caribcanadian

    internet pages are archived: wayback machine

    Perhaps links referred to in the article can be found here:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20050201000000*/http://nationnews.com

  38. erice Avatar
    erice

    Caswell did you advise Dennis Clarke on the purchase of that car and how it convert it to himself?

  39. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    So the former CEO of the BCA hoped that his past would not catch up with him and he would be able to serve his probation in Bim?

    The Brain Trust of the BCA bypassed the part of the curriculum that covered “Trust but Verify”, the only redeeming thing about this (if we can use that term) is that the man at the Centre is a “Bajan’ and not a “forriner” who was able to hoodwink the powers that be into accepting bogus qualifications and a dubious past.

    According to the Press the Board met for 8 hours to determine the CEO’s fate, I would hope that this was covered in the first 5 minutes and the rest of the session was confined to throwing eggs at one another because it is all over their faces, suits etc.

  40. HAMILTON A HILL Avatar
    HAMILTON A HILL

    @ Waiting…” I expected to read that they had paid back the four million that they stole”. Your words not mine. Seemingly I didn’t get you started, I just confused you, so let this A Hole simplify. Faget Green Verbs Parris and answer the question . Should the estate of David Thompson pay back de poor people? Oh by the way an A hole has more integrity than a yardfowl.

  41. HAMILTON A HILL Avatar
    HAMILTON A HILL

    @ Waiting….To make restitution is to repay…to pay back. An A hole is the first cousin of a Yardfowl, so lets not fight publicly about this. We can solve our differences over ” A bowl of fish soup.” Sound familiar cous? It is folk like you that keeping this country down. From one family member to another Ya need to change ya jackass way of thinking. Still love ya though!

  42. T J Avatar
    T J

    @ Observing
    There is quite a bit of Black people’s kids attending St Ursulas / Convent, St Angelas, St Michael and St Gabriel’s than you think. I dont know why folk like to inject race so often for. The quarantine centre should not be close to highly populated areas period!

  43. T J Avatar
    T J

    I applaud Sagicor for at least alerting the authorities. Many of these financial institutions try to keep quiet on these types of misappropriations fearing that the public would lose confidence in them and their processes. I know collusion would be a factor to not catching these types of crimes but this brings into question the role of in-house compliance and external auditors.

  44. David Avatar
    David

    @TJ

    The issue is not about Sagicor, it is about exacting justice in the eyes of the people.

    Observing’s point remains relevant, Black children attend the school but the children belonging to the so called ‘elite’attend as well and this is what often times carry the sway.

    The question we need to ask health authority is if there is an abundant requirement to locate the Ebola isolation centre close to the QEH.

  45. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Hamilton Hill

    You must understand “Waiting”; he is a convert to the DLP after having been a rabid Bee for most of his life. He therefore has to show his new found colleagues that he is truly with them. In addition, after he stole his client’s money, he was given government contracts so that he could payback the $750,000. He is really singing for his supper.

    >

  46. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargeant

    According to the Press the Board met for 8 hours to determine the CEO’s fate, I would hope that this was covered in the first 5 minutes and the rest of the session was confined to throwing eggs at one another because it is all over their faces, suits etc.

    BU observed this report as well with interest. One can only imagine there was a lot of finger pointing.

  47. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    They needed 8 hours to make sure they wrote a credible explanation and they did……..sort of….but…..

  48. Micah Avatar
    Micah

    It would be nice to know if most, if not all, of that $4 million was recovered so as to justify those persons getting suspended sentences. The notion that they previously had clean records being a mitigating factor is ridiculous when they were doing this over a period of years, and stealing such large amounts, initially successfully. I really hope this has nothing to do with the “lighter shades” of these guys, or who they are related to, but it wouldn’t surprise me if those were factors.

  49. T J Avatar
    T J

    @ David

    Yes it is about the justice system. They accused were found guilty but its the judge who imposed the ‘sentence’. I dont think its much more people can do other than change the law.

  50. David Avatar
    David

    @TJ

    Laws can change based on advocacy.

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