US indicts van Brink
Jan 12, 2004
THE embattled former First International Bank of Grenada (FIBG) founder/chairman, Arthur Van Brink, and four others have been indicted in the US for over $206m fraud.
By Yunusu Abbey
THE embattled former First International Bank of Grenada (FIBG) founder/chairman, Arthur Van Brink, and four others have been indicted in the US for over $206m fraud.
But Van Brink alias Gilbert Allen Ziegler, now living in Uganda, is still at large while his three alleged accomplices were arrested in the US on January 6.
Until recently, Van Brink lived in Luzira, a city suburb, and was a regular guest at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel.
But reports said his whereabouts are unknown.
KYC News reported that the five defendants had been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering since July 1996.
It said Brink faced 22 counts of mail fraud, 16 of wire fraud, and 103 of engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property.
In Kampala, Noah Mwesigwa of Shonubi, Musoke & Co. Advocates, who has been pursuing the Van Brink case on behalf of the FIBG, said the suits were yet to be heard in court.
“The suit for costs of security is scheduled to be heard in February,†Mwesigwa said.
A Canadian-appointed FIBG liquidator, locally represented by Shonubi & Company Advocates, had wanted Van Brink’s assets in Uganda seized on grounds that he allegedly acquired them with the FIBG depositors’ funds.
The property included a mansion on Mbuya Hill which has been sold to Dirk Ten Brink, the Sheraton Kampala Hotel director of operations and Cape Town Villas land at Munyonyo on Lake Victoria shores. But Mwesigwa said the property ownership was still in dispute.
Described as a US national formerly of Oregon and Hawaii origin, Van Brink is facing the charges along with Douglas C. Ferguson, a US national formerly of Oregon and Laurent E. Barnabe, a.k.a. Larry Barnabe, a Canadian national residing in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Others are Rita L. Regale, a.k.a. Rita L. Brunges, a US national formerly of Hawaii, and Robert J. Skirving, a US national residing in Oregon. Barnabe, Regale and Skirving were reportedly arrested on January 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada; Pahrump, Nevada; and Florida, respectively. Ferguson is still at large.
The report said recently unsealed court records show that an arrest warrant was issued against Van Brink as long ago as July 1, 2002 on six counts of wire fraud.
“Additional charges were brought against him and Regale was added as a defendant in a first superseding indictment on December 18, 2002 before further charges and three other defendants were added in a second superseding indictment on October 27, 2003,†it said.
All the five suspects collectively face 146 counts at the US District Court for the district of Oregon.
Details of the charges are reportedly contained in a second superseding indictment which was returned by a Grand Jury on October 27, 2003 but sealed until January 5, 2004 so that US authorities could make arrests.
US prosecutors alleged among the properties purchased by Brink was a “palace†in Uganda that he bought in July, 1999 for $1.3 million from Olle Otteby, an account holder with Cater Allen Bank (Isle of Man) Ltd.
Otteby, who has left the country, was formerly managing director of Kyagalanyi Coffee Exporters in Kampala.
The prosecutors said defrauded client funds were processed by Automated Payment Processing Inc. through its account at US Bank in Forest Grove, Oregon as part of a money laundering scheme.
Other banks named included Standard Chartered Bank in Kampala, Gold Trust Bank Ltd. in Kampala, National Commercial Bank of Grenada Ltd. and National Commercial Bank Ltd.
Also named were; Wells Fargo Bank, in Clackamas, Oregon, and Tacoma, Washington, US National Bank.
THE embattled former First International Bank of Grenada (FIBG) founder/chairman, Arthur Van Brink, and four others have been indicted in the US for over $206m fraud.
But Van Brink alias Gilbert Allen Ziegler, now living in Uganda, is still at large while his three alleged accomplices were arrested in the US on January 6.
Until recently, Van Brink lived in Luzira, a city suburb, and was a regular guest at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel.
But reports said his whereabouts are unknown.
KYC News reported that the five defendants had been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering since July 1996.
It said Brink faced 22 counts of mail fraud, 16 of wire fraud, and 103 of engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property.
In Kampala, Noah Mwesigwa of Shonubi, Musoke & Co. Advocates, who has been pursuing the Van Brink case on behalf of the FIBG, said the suits were yet to be heard in court.
“The suit for costs of security is scheduled to be heard in February,†Mwesigwa said.
A Canadian-appointed FIBG liquidator, locally represented by Shonubi & Company Advocates, had wanted Van Brink’s assets in Uganda seized on grounds that he allegedly acquired them with the FIBG depositors’ funds.
The property included a mansion on Mbuya Hill which has been sold to Dirk Ten Brink, the Sheraton Kampala Hotel director of operations and Cape Town Villas land at Munyonyo on Lake Victoria shores. But Mwesigwa said the property ownership was still in dispute.
Described as a US national formerly of Oregon and Hawaii origin, Van Brink is facing the charges along with Douglas C. Ferguson, a US national formerly of Oregon and Laurent E. Barnabe, a.k.a. Larry Barnabe, a Canadian national residing in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Others are Rita L. Regale, a.k.a. Rita L. Brunges, a US national formerly of Hawaii, and Robert J. Skirving, a US national residing in Oregon. Barnabe, Regale and Skirving were reportedly arrested on January 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada; Pahrump, Nevada; and Florida, respectively. Ferguson is still at large.
The report said recently unsealed court records show that an arrest warrant was issued against Van Brink as long ago as July 1, 2002 on six counts of wire fraud.
“Additional charges were brought against him and Regale was added as a defendant in a first superseding indictment on December 18, 2002 before further charges and three other defendants were added in a second superseding indictment on October 27, 2003,†it said.
All the five suspects collectively face 146 counts at the US District Court for the district of Oregon.
Details of the charges are reportedly contained in a second superseding indictment which was returned by a Grand Jury on October 27, 2003 but sealed until January 5, 2004 so that US authorities could make arrests.
US prosecutors alleged among the properties purchased by Brink was a “palace†in Uganda that he bought in July, 1999 for $1.3 million from Olle Otteby, an account holder with Cater Allen Bank (Isle of Man) Ltd.
Otteby, who has left the country, was formerly managing director of Kyagalanyi Coffee Exporters in Kampala.
The prosecutors said defrauded client funds were processed by Automated Payment Processing Inc. through its account at US Bank in Forest Grove, Oregon as part of a money laundering scheme.
Other banks named included Standard Chartered Bank in Kampala, Gold Trust Bank Ltd. in Kampala, National Commercial Bank of Grenada Ltd. and National Commercial Bank Ltd.
Also named were; Wells Fargo Bank, in Clackamas, Oregon, and Tacoma, Washington, US National Bank.