Ex-Sports Council pay clerk faces preliminary inquiry on money laundering charge

By Aaron Humes: Tonight, 43-year-old Ivan Ayuso, former senior pay clerk at the National Sports Council (NSC), is cooling his heels at the Central Prison, Hattieville, pending securing bail of $300,000 as he awaits a preliminary inquiry into a charge of money laundering.

Ayuso was accused, in the Auditor General’s report into the National Sports Council released in 2020, of diverting amounts totalling $1.09 million of Sports Council funds into three separate bank accounts at different banks.

He was arraigned in January of 2021 and today was handed disclosure by a presiding Magistrate in a box with over 1,000 sheets of paper. It contains all of the documents the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which is prosecuting the case, intends to use at trial on indictment.

But before that, Ayuso must be committed to stand trial at the conclusion of a preliminary inquiry, which is slated to begin on August 19 before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford. No plea has been taken.

The FIU prosecutor in the case is Janelle Thomas-Shorter while Ayuso was represented by Senior Counsel Ellis Arnold, and previously by Ronell Gonzalez.

Senior Counsel Arnold summarized events to reporters after the hearing: “Today my client was arraigned in the magistrate’s court, he was read one single count of money laundering. It is for transactions that would have taken place in the amount of approximately $1.09 million dollars and the magistrate granted bail in the matter after the accused was read the offence and after he understood the offence. He was granted bail in the sum of $300,000 and of course, it is a land title bail. Unfortunately, the accused was not able to meet bail this afternoon, but we are trying to work on the bail documents for him.”

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