Coye family challenges income tax assessments

Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Aaron Humes Reporting: One year on from their acquittal on money laundering charges in the Court of Appeal, the Coye family continues to face legal challenges.

On Monday Melonie Coye sued the Commissioner of Income Tax Kent Clare over an assessment of the Coye family’s finances by the Income Tax Department, which was made in 2014. The then Income Tax Commissioner assessed the family’s fortunes and determined that they owed the government 3.212 million dollars in unpaid taxes.

Melonie Coye

They believe that it was arbitrary and exorbitant, which the Income Tax Department disputed. Coye and attorney Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay denied comment to reporters at court following the case management session before Justice Courtney Abel.

Six members of the family including late patriarch Michael Coye and two assistants at the former family business, Money Exchange International Limited, were charged with money laundering in 2007, had their charges dismissed in Supreme Court, lost on appeal at the Court of Appeal, were convicted in 2012, won appeal at the Court of Appeal, successfully challenged the Financial Intelligence Unit and a Panamanian company seeking return of its monies allegedly loaned to the family to start its business to get their accounts unfrozen, and recently settled a legal dispute with longtime family attorney Arthur Saldivar over claims that Saldivar made off with almost a million dollars of her family’s money.

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