Sprint superstar Usain Bolt had funds of approximately US$12.7 million at Jamaican investment house Stocks & Securities Limited (SSL) headed by Hugh Croskery go missing.

This has become a national scandal and Bolt has garnered support and sympathy from the vast majority of the Jamaican people.

How was this allowed to happen and what has been done to restore Bolt’s funds?

For all that he has done for Jamaica, he doesn’t deserve to be millions of US dollars out of pocket, robbed by his own people.

He decided to invest with a Jamaican institution and to live in the country of his birth.  He could have settled and invested anywhere in the world given his iconic status but chose Jamaica. 

Now comes the retort that this has nothing to do with the Government and that he invested at his own volition-caveat emptor. The Jamaican Government owes him nothing and he can’t now cry about the risks he took.  There is even the notion being touted that not all the money mentioned was sent to SSL and that the figure being bandied about is onerous. This would imply that Usain Bolt and his representatives do not know what they are talking about and that the boy from Trelawny does not have a grip on his affairs.

Bolt’s lawyer Linton P. Gordon sought to dispel this.

Below is his full statement:

The allegations being circulated in the public that not all of Mr. Usain Bolt’s funds that were sent to Stocks & Securities Limited (SSL) were received by the institution are false, baseless, and entirely without credibility.

All funds lodged at SSL by Mr. Bolt’s company were transferred via bank transactions and each and every payment was acknowledged by the institution in writing.

Furthermore, Mr. Ken Tomlinson, who was appointed by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to take temporary management of SSL, found records confirming these lodgements and has attested to them in the Supreme Court. Therefore, any suggestion that funds from Mr. Bolt’s company, Welljen Ltd, did not reach SSL is inaccurate and without merit.

The notion that Mr. Bolt was negligent in making these deposits is entirely unfounded. The Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Government of Jamaica, and hundreds of Jamaican citizens invested in SSL—an institution which was approved and regulated by the government. To suggest that Mr. Bolt was careless or lacked proper financial management is to imply the same about every Jamaican who has invested in a government-approved financial institution.

Additionally, the FSC issued SSL an annual license to operate as a financial institution. Every citizen has the right to rely on the government entity that is responsible for assessing and regulating such institutions.

There now appears to be an organized effort to shift blame onto The Honorable Usain Bolt for his loss—when he is guilty of nothing more than investing in the country that he loves. This is a textbook case of victim-blaming and it appears to be an attempt to absolve the government of its failure to protect the public and those defrauded by SSL. Even more concerning is the apparent attempt to silence victims and manipulate the narrative about who is truly responsible for this large-scale fraud, which has left hundreds of Jamaicans without their hard-earned money and no clear path to recovery.

Finally, the government had announced that it invited experts from the United States of America and the United Kingdom to conduct audits and investigations into the operation of SSL. The results of these audits and investigations have not been shared with Mr. Bolt or his Attorneys. However, based on reports circulating in the media, it appears that parts of the investigation are being shared with a certain mediahouse including what purports to be information touching and concerning our client’s account at SSL; information that is confidential and entitled to protection under the law.

We are currently reviewing some of the statements that have been made and will advise our client on the legal actions available to him.