'Chug IT' promoter implicated in major fraud racket

Popular party promoter, and founder of the successful CHUG IT beach party series, Andrew 'French' Wright, was today arrested and charged along with two others for their connection with a $222M fraud racket committed at the Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) between 2011 and 2017.

The announcement was made via a release from the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA). 

Next to Wright, arrested and charged are Rudolph Barnes and Oneil Hope.

According to MOCA, all three are alleged to have been part of a team of former employees of INSPORTS, who wrote, signed and encashed fraudulent cheques for payees who were neither employees nor contracted workers of the entity.

The suspected fraud and other irregularities were detected by INSPORTS in 2017 during an examination of their financial records. The matter was then reported to MOCA triggering an investigation.

The three have been charged with various offences including Conspiracy to Defraud, Acquisition, Use and Possession of Criminal Property, Engaging in Transactions Involving Criminal Property and Larceny as a Servant.

“These arrests”, according to Major Basil Jarrett, Director of Communications, “are the first set of arrests as MOCA currently has warrants out for several other individuals.”

Jarrett also praised MOCA’s partners, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) the Financial Investigations Division (FID) and Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ), for the critical role they played in the investigations.

“These types of investigations are complex undertakings requiring thoroughness and collaboration”, he said, “and so it took a meticulous approach, led by MOCA’s investigative teams, to examine all the leads and uncover all the evidence required to make these arrests and bring these charges”.

In the meantime, Jarrett is reminding persons to continue to report instances of corruption and organised crime to MOCA’s newly created tip hotline, 888-MOCA-TIP.

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