Billionaire Michael Lee-Chin’s National Commercial Bank Accused of Money Laundering

Jamaica's Financial regulators, have charged Michael Lee-Chin’s National Commercial Bank (NCB) with failing to report suspicious money dealings by one of Jamaica's reputed drug Kingpins, Norris 'Deedo' Nembhard.

Police made the charges after receiving reports that an employee at the bank was laundering cash for drug kingpins, the Jamaica Gleaner reports.

NCB's CEO, Patrick Hylton, confirmed that six summonses had been served on the bank relating to six transactions over an eight-month period in 2003.

"When those transactions were discovered later that year, the bank took immediate steps to institute its disciplinary process for the employees involved and to file the requisite reports based on information available at the time," Hylton said in a statement.

Jamaica’s laws stated that any transaction over US$50,000 must be reported.

Norris 'Deedo' Nembhard was declared a drug kingpin by the Bush administration under their Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and has been in jail, since 2005, fighting extradition to the United States.

On March 19, 2002, under Mr. Lee-Chin’s stewardship, AIC acquired 75% of National Commercial Bank (NCB). NCB is Jamaica’s largest bank with 52 branches, 2,600 employees, and offices in Cayman and the U.K.