Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Olint Corporation Ltd., an
investment club trading in foreign exchange, which was closed in March this year by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), was yesterday given the green light by the Supreme Court to continue its operations.
Mrs. Justice Ingrid Mangatal heard legal arguments in the matter and granted a stay of execution of the FSC's cease and desist orders until the trial of the civil suit, which is set for March 26 next year.
The FSC claimed that it carried out investigations and found that Olint Corporation had breached the Securities Act and was not licensed by the FSC to carry out foreign currency trading activities. The FSC issued a cease and desist order on March 24 this year.
Olint Corporation and one of its directors, David Smith, took the matter to the Supreme Court, seeking damages against the FSC. It also applied for a stay of execution of the FSC's order.
A condition of the judge's order is that there must not be any increase in the number of members of the club until the suit has been disposed of.
Minimise Injustice
"I am of the view that granting a stay of execution of the commission's cease and desist order is the course that appears to offer the best prospect that eventual injustice will be minimised," the judge said.
Lord Anthony Gifford, Q.C., and attorneys-at-law Christopher Dunkley and Huntley Watson, who represented Olint Corporation and David Smith, argued that it was unlawful for the FSC to act under the Securities Act and not to give notice under the Financial Services Commission Act. They argued that "where two statutes
conflict, the later statute is deemed to have impliedly repealed the conflicting provisions of the earlier statute." The claimants said the FSC Act was the later statute. They said the FSC acted on a belief that the claimants' activities were unlawful.
In response, Government lawyer Nicole Foster-Pusey said it was clear that Parliament sought to maintain the two different powers as they dealt with different subject matters.
