Couple arrested in alleged payroll scam at HEART

almost 4 years in Jamaica Observer

THE Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) is reporting that it has arrested and charged three people, including a wife and husband, for alleged fraud related to activities at the Human Employment and Resource Training/National ServiceTraining Agency (HEART/NSTA Trust).According to MOCA, Michael Anthony Tyrell and his wife Anna-Kay Tameka Tyrell were arrested at their Westphalia District, St Andrew, address in the early morning hours of Tuesday, September 7. The third person, Tasha Bucknor, was arrested later the same day."The trio, along with others, have been accused of defrauding HEART of over $8 million," MOCA alleged in a news release yesterday.The MOCA release reports its public affairs officer, Detective Inspector Antoinette Morrison, as saying that a total of 33 irregular payments were unearthed during an audit exercise of the Payroll Department at HEART for the 2018 period."These payments, which amounted to a total of $8.1 million, were processed for fake part-time employees..." Morrison said."We are continuing our investigations to identify, arrest and charge others who were involved in the scheme," said Morrison, "but in the meantime the Tyrells have both been charged with larceny as a servant, conspiracy to defraud and money laundering while Bucknor was charged with receiving stolen property and conspiracy to defraud."All three have been [scheduled] to appear in the St Andrew Parish Court on September 24, 2021."

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