By JIMENITA SWAIN Guardian Staff Reporter

Canadian businessman, Dennis Sutton, was convicted in the Supreme Court Wednesday of 68 counts of fraud and forgery in connection with the formation of International Business Companies two years ago.

The jury deliberated for a little over two hours and returned an 11 to 1 verdict. Sutton pleaded not guilty to all of the charges last Monday.

Sutton, who operated a small trust and company management firm on Bay Street called International Investors Group (IIG) from the mid-1990s until leaving the Bahamas for Canada in June of 2001, was sentenced to six months in prison on each of the 68 counts, to run concurrently. The maximum sentence is five years on each count.

He was remanded to Fox Hill Prison Wednesday. But according to his son, Jeff, efforts are underway to release him on bail while the case is appealed by lawyers Thomas Evans and Kenneth Toppin.

IIG was shut down after police raided the business in early January of 2001, and Sutton was arraigned before Magistrate Linda Virgill that same month. His initial bail of $250,000 was reduced to $50,000 and he retired to Canada until the case was called this month.

Asked by Justice Ricardo Marques if he had anything to say before sentencing, Sutton said: "No my Lord. I don't believe I am guilty. I have said all I have to say."

After listening to mitigation by Evans on his client's behalf, Justice Isaacs told Sutton, who was standing in the prisoner's dock, that, "The court is cognizant of the finding of the jury that you uttered a number of memorandums and articles of association bearing the names of two counsels. Lawyers have a bad enough reputation without other people adding to it.

"This country has a sufficiently tenuous reputation, without persons sullying it any further. You sir, are a guest in this country and you have bitten the hand that fed you," the judge said sternly. "The court takes the view that a period of incarceration is called for," he said before imposing sentence.

The charges related to the incorporation of IBC's using the names of attorneys Donna Harding-Lee and Yvette McCartney without their consent between the period 1997 to 2000.

Evans, told the court that the fraud allegation against his client would have amounted to about $5,100. He made the court aware of his client's age and said that up to Jan. 8, 2001, Sutton was a person of sterling character. He said his client's business was raided and he was put out of employment.

"He has been rendered financially destitute," Evans said. "And this conviction undoubtedly destroys him. The verdict is a travesty of justice, really. There is absolutely no evidence of an intention to defraud being proved in this case. We think that the judge should have withdrawn the case from the jury. Of course once the case goes to the jury, God only knows what happened," Evans said in response to the verdict.

"It is very clear that the only evidence led was that his staff had paid these ladies; there was nothing to contradict that, other than what they say. The cheques were there, presented in evidence, actually negotiated and debited from the account owned by the company of Mr. Sutton," he added.

Prosecution witness Yvette McCartney admitted an arrangement with Sutton where he incorporated over 30 IBCs, but said there was a discrepancy with one account and that she did not give Sutton any authorization to use her name.

Lawyer Harding-Lee admitted to being paid $1,400, which she negotiated from the bank and had debited from the Sutton account, but she denied ever having any type of arrangement with the accused.

The Crown called a total of 13 witnesses, while the defence called one witness other than Sutton himself.

Sutton, a British-trained lawyer and financial expert, came to the Bahamas in 1987 as a manager for International Trust Group, the owners of BITCO. When BITCO was acquired by the Ansbacher Group he eventually found work in offshore management at the firm of Anthony Thompson, and later set up IIG. In 2001 he had some 200 companies under management and used a variety of lawyers for registered office services.

Analysts say the case must be viewed in the context of a government "crackdown" on small offshore firms designed to shore up the Bahamas' reputation in the face of blacklisting threats from rich countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Before the government's package of strict financial legislation was implemented in late 2001, IBC's were very easily incorporated to provide anonymity for investors for a number of reasons, from avoidance of taxes and liability suits, to maintaining privacy from competitors or separating venture capital accounts.

Caption: FOUND GUILTY- 68 year old Dennis Sutton escorted from the Supreme Court Yesterday after a jury found him guilty of 68 counts of fraud by false pretenses and uttering a forged document. Staff Photo by Donald Knowles

Posted Friday 12 September, 2003