The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Three Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) staff accused of playing key roles in the $1.9m fraudulent invoices scam that rocked the state-owned utility have lost their wrongful/unfair dismissal claims.

Justice Ian Winder, in a November 5, 2021, ruling found that BPL had “a reasonable and honest belief” based on the findings of its investigation that Tevaughn Miller, D’Yanndra Curry and Katonia Neely had collectively processed hundreds of thousands of dollars involved in the scheme.

As a result, he ruled that there had been no breach of BPL’s industrial agreement with the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) or the trio’s rights under the Employment Act, and therefore dismissed their claim in its entirety.

Setting out the background to the dispute, Justice Winder recalled how BPL fell victim in 2017 to a fraud ring that resulted in losses of $1.9m via payment of fictitious invoices to both existing and sham contractors for work that was never performed on the state-owned utility’s behalf.

In May 2017, BPL came to understand that it had become the object of a fraudulent scheme which began within BPL,” his judgment recorded. “The scheme involved the presentation of fraudulent invoices and payment of those invoices being made to both existing and fictional contractors of BPL.

“It resulted in the loss of some $1.9m for BPL. Having been made aware of the fraudulent scheme, BPL commenced investigations into several of its employees, including the plaintiffs.”

The trio were subject to a series of suspensions from work as the Government-owned electricity monopoly investigated the fraud, with the probe’s findings resulting in the trio’s August 16, 2017, terminations. The trio were told their actions both violated the Employment Act as well as the industrial agreement with the BEWU.

However, they countered with almost-identical legal actions claiming wrongful and/or unfair dismissal as well as breaches of the BPL/BEWU industrial agreement and the Employment Act. They claimed they were never told of the allegations against them, and did not have an opportunity to defend themselves or present their case.

However, BPL produced evidence of a supplemental agreement with the BEWU, signed by Astrid Bodie, the latter’s secretary, and other union officials, which agreed to the suspension of Miller and the others for an additional 30 days beyond that provided in the industrial agreement so the $1.9m fraud investigation could continue.

The utility cited this as evidence of “the procedural fairness of the investigation”, and Chequita Johnson, BPL’s former human resources manager, compensation and benefits, told the Supreme Court that each of the trio knew of the allegations against them as they were provided with documents linking them to the fraud. 

BPL also alleged that Miller, Curry and Neely abandoned its grievance procedure before it was completed in favour of initiating Supreme Court action, with the investigation into the fraud conducted by the utility’s information technology (IT) department as well as the EY (Ernst & Young) accounting firm.

Miller, according to Justice Winder’s ruling, was found to have entered three fraudulent cheques worth a collective $121,069 in BPL’s system on behalf of companies Bahamas Industrial Equipment, James Munroe Company and Scuderia Electrical.

“BPL submits that Tevaughn [Miller], by virtue of his role as filing clerk in the finance division, always had access to and was involved in the movement of cheques and invoices with the accounts payable department,” Justice Winder wrote. “They say that this is where the opportunity for him to participate in the fraudulent scheme arose.

“Both the internal investigation and the report by EY pointed to Tevaughn’s involvement, says BPL. It was noted that Tevaughn’s job duties were to maintain a complete and accurate log of all cheques that are printed and their status (still in accounts payable for vetting, released to the executive wing for signature, waiting for pick-up by vendors).

“A review of Tevaughn’s cheque log noted that it was generally incomplete, making it impossible to trace the final whereabouts of the fraudulent cheques prior to being reviewed from BPL headquarters.”

Noting further evidence, Justice Winder added: “BPL says that its monitoring of Tevaughn’s employee key card during its investigation showed him on the company’s grounds when he was not scheduled to work, and on a day when one of the three (3) cheques in question was deposited to a bank.

“There was no indication that anyone other than Tevaughn ever used his key card. The evidence in favour of Tevaughn being a part of the fraudulent scheme included Johnson’s evidence that six fraudulent cheques were found in his work desk. Tevaughn denied any knowledge of the cheques.”

As for D’Yanndra Curry, Justice Winder’s judgment said: “BPL submits that the investigation shows that she was responsible for entering fraudulent invoices. Chantal Williams’ evidence (BPL internal audit] was that 25 of 44 of what were discovered to be fictitious invoices totaling $1.441m were entered by D’Yanndra.

“D’Yanndra’s oral evidence was that she did not consider anything suspicious about her singularly having inputted 25 of the cheques, as it was her job to process cheques..... The audit report also cited that D’Yanndra inputted six of 13 fictitious vendors into BPL’s accounts system which cheques were issued to.

“She also was responsible for performing a first level review and signing off on five cheques which totaled $111,734. On May 10, 2017, D’Yanndra was also found to have fraudulent cheques in her desk drawer, six in total, which had already been cleared by the bank,” he continued.

“She claimed that she was not made aware of the cheques being found in her desk during her interview. BPL contended that during her interview D’Yanndra became agitated and left early without completing the interview.”

Finally, Katonia Neely was alleged to have been responsible for reviewing, signing-off and stamping $23,000 worth of fraudulent cheques made out to Bahamas Heavy Machinery and Trucking. “BPL further says that Katonia admitted to having a non-work relationship with Reno Bethel, who the Royal Bahamas Police Force determined was a primary suspect in the fraudulent scheme,” the judge said.

“She told the court in her evidence that she had a side business selling jewellery, amongst other items, and Bethel was one of her customers. BPL says that Katonia was not forthcoming about her relationship with Bethel.

“Part of what led them to this conclusion is that Katonia could not or would not produce messages between herself and Bethel when asked to do so. Katonia says that her mobile phone ran out of space and the messages were deleted.”

Justice Winder said he found BPL’s evidence, and that of its current and former executives, more credible than the dismissed trio’s testimony. “I accept that BPL was not dissuaded by the explanations offered by the plaintiffs from forming an honest and reasonable belief that the plaintiffs were involved or responsible for BPL’s financial loss,” he ruled.

“I am not required to find that they were in fact guilty of the misconduct alleged, and I refrain from such a finding, but on the evidence before the court I accept that it was open to BPL to form such a belief, which I found that it honestly held.”