Investment club Olint Corporation Ltd has been given a stay of cease-and-desist order which was issued by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in March 2006.

The stay is to remain in force until the appeal which Olint has brought against a Supreme Court ruling in December last year has been heard and determined. The Supreme Court had upheld the cease-and-desist order which the FSC had issued.

Lord Anthony Gifford, QC, and attorneys-at-law Huntley Watson and Canute Brown made the application for a stay.

Justice Mahadev Dukharan (acting), in granting the stay after a hearing in chambers at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, made several orders for Olint to comply with.

No new clients

The judge ordered there should be no increase in Olint's membership or clientele pending the determination of the appeal. Olint is to complete a list of its members as at February 5 this year.

One of its directors is to file an affidavit verifying the number of members in the club and serve it on the FSC before February 19.

Olint has also been ordered to provide an affidavit exhibiting the list of members in the club and place it in a sealed envelope and deliver it to the Registrar of the Court of Appeal before February 19.

The envelope will remain in the Registrar's possession until the appeal has been heard. If Olint is successful in its appeal, the list will be returned, but, if it loses, list will go to the FSC which is the respondent in the appeal.

Olint is contending that it deals strictly in foreign exchange and therefore should not be regulated by the FSC. However, the FSC claims that it has authority to regulate Olint because it was dealing in investment.

Neil Lewis and Janice Lewis, trading as LewFam, are also appealing against a Supreme Court ruling in December last year which upheld the cease-and-desist order which was issued by the FSC.