Money Express in trouble

Up to US$47 million has blown up in the crash of the Ricky Azan-controlled Money Express financial entity, sources told the Sunday Herald last week.

Several Kingston-based businessmen who sourced foreign exchange through Money Express to pay their overseas suppliers, were left with millions of dollars in bounced cheques. And many others who invested millions are still pondering their fate, despite assurances that steps have been taken to stabilise the situation.

nvestors who attended a meeting at the Altamont Court Hotel last week, were told that the collapse of an overseas bank which Money Express did business with was the primary cause of its problems. It was not immediately known what was the return offered to investors, but they were told no interest would be paid for the months of December 2007 and January2008.

The collapse of the entity should aahave other implications for Azan, a prime fundraiser for the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and who has been named to the boards of several public bodies. According to sources, he has been told to quit those position since word of the Money Express crash surfaced early last week.

Money Express is the latest unregulated financial entity to have faltered, following the government’s decision to call a halt to the operations of Cash Plus, one of the giants among the unregulated schemes.

On Friday, Worldwise announced that National Commercial Bank (NCB) had refused to honour a manager’s cheque covering payments to its investors. The company was forced to make alternative arrangements.

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