High Court orders payment for Que Pasa’s new lawyers

The high court has ordered that lawyers for Antonio “Que Pasa” Gellizeau be paid $163,231.35 for work done on an application to the court to extend appeal proceedings.

Justice Persad, sitting in Chambers in Kingstown on May 22, 2014, ordered that the lawyers be paid from a fixed deposit account in the name of Elizabeth Coy{{more}} at the St Vincent Co-operative Bank.

The invoice submitted by Gellizeau’s lawyers: Nicole Sylvester, Patina Knights and Mikhail Charles, was dated April 24, 2014.

Gellizeau’s application to extend appeal proceedings was successful and at a sitting of the Court of Appeal on May 26, 2014, he was given leave to appeal his conviction and sentencing in the largest money laundering case recorded in the OECS.

In submitting the application for leave, lawyer Nicole Sylvester said she got involved in the matter in February this year, after Gellizeau had previously been represented by a series of lawyers.

She noted that the time for appealing had elapsed before they were able to file a notice to appeal.

“It should have been filed in August 2013 and unfortunately, it was filed on December 2,” Sylvester said.

Sylvester said following Gellizeau’s conviction and sentencing in July, he “agitated unendingly” through his solicitors to have his notice of appeal filed.

“As a consequence thereof, because it was outside the prescribed time of the Court of Appeal, we had to seek the discretion of the court,” she said.

Gellizeau was sentenced by the High Court on July 22, 2013 to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour.

He was convicted at the Serious Offences Court on March 9, 2012, for concealing

on the yacht “Jotobin” on

April 5, 2008, at Calliaqua, US$1,733,463 (EC$4,628,346) and for bringing the money into St Vincent and the Grenadines on the yacht.

The judges of the Court of Appeal, which included President of the Court Davidson Baptiste, Justice of Appeal Louise Blenman and Justice of Appeal (Ag) Paul Webster, also granted the applicants a stay of proceedings in relation to the confiscation hearing, pending the outcome of the appeal matter.

In June 2008, several of Gellizeau’s assets were frozen by order of the court. The assets include bank accounts, Flexible Premium Annuities with CLICO and vehicles which were registered to him, his family members and associates. Assets belonging to Gellizeau and his relatives were also frozen in Trinidad and St Lucia.

The account at the St Vincent Cooperative Bank, in the name of Elizabeth Coy, was one of the accounts which had been frozen in 2008.

Gellizeau’s appeal will be heard in October at the next sitting of the Court of Appeal.