Five people appeared before the Magistrate Court yesterday on charges related to a $280,000 fraud. Pictured are (front) Shukuanya Thompson; (middle left) Randolph Smith and (middle right) Kareem Murphy; (back left) Jeramie Stuart and (back right) Anderson Johnson. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff
By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
A WOMAN supervisor of a local accounting and business firm was arraigned in a Magistrate’s Court yesterday over allegations she made false entries into the records of her workplace to show that five people were collectively entitled to over $280,000 in payments.
Shukuanya Thompson, a corporate services supervisor at HLB Galanis & Co, stood before Deputy Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain charged with 18 counts of falsification of accounts stemming from various incidents that allegedly occurred between May and December 2016.
It is alleged between those dates, Thompson made false entries into the records of Galanis & Co, that she was required to maintain, to show that Jeramie Stuart, Anderson Johnson, Randolph Smith, Anva Butler and Jamaal Bain were entitled to a collective $283,264.31 in payments.
Thompson was also charged with defrauding FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) of $714.31 on November 17, 2016, as well as uttering and consequently possessing false FCIB cheques in that amount on that same day.
Thompson was also charged along with Randolph Smith, Jeramie Stuart and Anderson Johnson with conspiring to commit fraud by false pretenses between May 4, 2016 and December 15, 2016.
Johnson was charged by himself for defrauding FCIB of $194,864.5 between May 17 and December 1, 2016. He was also accused of uttering and consequently possessing false FCIB cheques totaling that amount between the same timeframe.
Jeramie Stuart, of South Beach, was also charged with defrauding FCIB of $14,522.5 between December 13 and December 15, 2016, as well as uttering and consequently possessing false FCIB cheques in that amount.
Randolph Smith, of Cable Beach, was also charged with defrauding FCIB of $21,079.50 in cash on December 1, 2016, as well as uttering and consequently possessing a false FCIB cheque in that same amount.
All four pleaded not guilty to all of the charges they were faced with.
They were denied bail and remanded, and the matter was adjourned to February 14 for re-arraignment and fixture.
Another man was arraigned before the chief magistrate over allegations he defrauded two construction/dredging companies in Abaco of over $15,000 over three months last year.
Kareem Adrian Murphy stood before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt facing six charges of fraud stemming from fraudulently obtaining of $15,600 from Blue Water Dredging and Newbold Construction in Dundas Town.
It is alleged that between August 28 and November 21, 2017, while at New Providence, Murphy defrauded Blue Waters dredging in Dundas Town, Abaco of $9,600.
It was also alleged that between September 29 and November 13, 2017, Murphy defrauded Newbold Construction of $6,000.
Murphy pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and the matter was adjourned to February 12.
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