$30m pastor charged 18 months after cash seized

LA ROMAINE pastor Vinworth Dayal, who approached Central Bank with more than $28 million in $100 cotton bills during the demonetisation period in 2019, has been slapped with two charges which allege the money was proceeds of criminal property, contrary to the Income Tax Act.

Dayal appeared before Port of Spain magistrate Maureen Baboolal-Gafoor on Thursday. The charges alleged that on December 31, 2019, he possessed criminal property in the amount of $28,028,600 in TT currency, which represented in whole, or in part, a pecuniary advantage to himself as a result of criminal conduct contrary to the Income Tax Act, knowing or having reasonable grounds to suspect that those proceeds were criminal property.

The second charge reads the same, but alleges he was in possession of $2,691,338, on January 2, 2020.

Both charges were laid under Section 45(1)(b) of the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Dayal was granted $10 million in bail to cover the two charges and has to surrender his passport within 24 hours. He is expected to return to court on July 29, and the matter has been transferred to the Eighth Court before the Chief Magistrate. The money was detained in an interest-bearing account.

He is represented by attorneys John Heath and Chase Pegus.

December 31, 2019 was the last day on which Central Bank said it would be accepting cotton $100 bills to exchange for new polymer bills. Dayal, who heads the Third Exodus Assembly Church in Longdenville, Chaguanas, went to the bank with close to $28 million to exchange in 28 boxes.

Police were called in after he could not provide proper documentation for how he got the money, but he said the money came from tithes which he collected over the years.

Police searched his house at Ocean Avenue, Gulf View, La Romaine and seized an additional $2 million in smaller bills.

The court granted investigators were granted a detention order to seize the money pending the investigation. Extensions were granted by the court as investigators continued their probe.

Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, detention orders allow the police to hold money for a period not exceeding three months. The law provides for the court to grant further detention, but the total period cannot exceed two years.

Dayal had the option of petitioning the court for his money to be released.

The $100 cotton notes are no longer legal tender. Source say almost all the money seized by the police met the bank’s deadline for conversion to the new notes, except for a little over $100,000.

The money has been with the Central Bank since December 2019, when Deyal went to change the old $100 bills.

Soon after the police raid, Dayal told his congregation the money was what they gave him, as he defended himself. He also hit back at other church leaders who had called on him to declare how he amassed the money.