Gun dealer fights back seeking to block financial info

FIREARMS dealer Hugh Leong Poi wants all information received by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) on him or his dealership from several financial institutions, last year, destroyed.

Leong Poi is also questioning the constitutionality of the move by the FIU to request financial information from various institutions for some 35 individuals and 17 businesses associated with the legal firearms business around October 2022.

He has filed a constitutional claim seeking several declarations and orders. Among those orders is the destruction of the information obtained by the FIU on him and his business – Sport Outlet Ltd (SOL).

Leong Poi, 54, is jointly charged with Opposition MP David Lee for conspiring to defraud the State of $1.4 million in motor vehicle taxes. The charges arose from the purchase of a $2.3 million Mercedes Benz AMG G 63 jeep from New Zealand.

In his lawsuit, Leong Poi is also asking for the FIU to disclose a complete copy of each request; an order quashing each request and an order that the FIU’s acting director Nigel Stoddard provide a statutory declaration detailing copies of suspicious transaction reports (STR), or suspicious activity reports (SAR) from any financial institution, or listed business on him (Leong Poi), or his business that led to the FIU’s request under section 8(3)(a) and section 11(a) of the Financial Intelligence Unit Act, for the court's inspection.

Leong Poi also wants an injunction restraining the FIU from using any of the information it received pursuant to its request.

The FIU is the agency with regulatory responsibility for anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism. It falls under the Ministry of Finance.

Leong Poi’s claim was filed on March 6 and has been assigned to Justice Jacqueline Wilson. It was listed for a hearing on April 6. The Judiciary did not respond to Newsday’s request for a link for the hearing.

According to the claim, obtained by Sunday Newsday, Leong Poi said he received a call from an acting ASP De Mata, of the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB), on October 9, 2022, who said he wanted to do a “routine audit” of SOL’s inventory. Leong Poi claimed he was surprised because in the three years the company has been involved in the sale of firearms it has never been audited or investigated by any state entity.

Leong Poi complied and arranged for the police to visit his premises in Gulf View, La Romaine for the audit. The claim said De Mata and other officers came to SOL and began searching its inventory but did not provide a search warrant or documents from the Police Commissioner to say why they were searching the premises, or conducting an audit of the company’s inventory, or on what authority they were acting.

“At no point in time was the first claimant (Leong Poi) given any explanation or any information on about the purpose of the audit which lasted for two weeks.”

Sport Outlet, which predominantly sold sportswear and equipment, ventured into the sale of firearms and ammunition after Leong Poi obtained his firearm dealers’ licence in 2019.

The company sells pistols, rifles and shotguns for personal protection and sport shooting. The claim said all imports for semi-automatic weapons, mainly from foreign suppliers, are authorised by the relevant state agencies. Its transactions for buying and importing are done through one account and “neither the claimant nor SOL has any history of illegal or suspicious banking transactions with the financial institutions or the listed business with which they conduct business," the claim says.

The firearms audit

Leong Poi’s lawsuit refers to a similar claim filed by former police commissioner Gary Griffith in 2022.

His claim says when Griffith demitted office in 2021, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said there was going to be a “full and comprehensive” audit into the process used by the police service and Griffith to issue firearm licences to the members of the industry.

Apart from Leong Poi and Griffith’s claims, there are others which challenge various aspects of the legality of the audit.

Leong Poi’s lawsuit referenced a story in the Sunday Express on August 21, 2021, “in an apparent leak of the said audit report.”

“There was widespread news coverage about this audit report into the operations of the firearms department of the TT Police Service during the term of office of Mr Gary Griffith.

“The audit report painted the operations of the firearms department and the issuance of FULs (firearm user's licence) and FDLs (firearm dealer's licence) in a negative light and caused great agitation against members of the firearms dealers' industry in TT.

“Consequently, there has been sustained national attention on the firearms industry and many of the legitimate dealers in that industry have been subject to searches of their premises, seizures of firearms and ammunition as well and have been subjected to intense national scrutiny and adverse publicity,” the claim says.

It said after the leak of the audit report, Griffith “came to be aware” of a request by the unit made to financial institutions concerning 52 individuals and companies associated with the legal firearms business in TT, including himself, his relatives, friends and professional associations (which included Leong Poi and his company).

The claim goes on to add, “The intervention by the high government official and thereafter the formation by Mr Griffith of a new political party called the National Transformation Alliance marked the commencement of a sustained campaign by agents of the State against firearms dealers whether their permits were authorised before or during Mr Griffith’s tenure as commissioner of police.

“This campaign involved the conduct of intrusive activities against several firearms dealers. These included legally impermissible audits as well as the application for authorisation, and execution of search warrants against numerous firearms dealers.

“This decision was unparalleled and was not motivated by the principles which comprise the rule of law but rather was a standard-less sweep designed to achieve an ulterior motive. More particularly, it was arbitrary, excessive, and targeted against firearms dealers in general and was for an improper purpose.”

Leong Poi’s attorneys insist that the revelation of details of the bank accounts of the 52 without prima facie grounds to accuse them of wrongdoing “is a violation of their right to privacy.”

They also contend that, “The acting director’s decision and subsequent request under the provisions of the FIUA were part of a plan and campaign weighed against the first claimant as a bona fide member of the firearms industry and which finds its provenance in the circumstances arising out of the non-appointment of Mr Griffith in the post of commissioner of police.”

Leong Poi’s claim alleges that the systemic unfairness could be seen from the fact that “there are a number of firearms dealers whose private and commercial premises were raided” by the police and other state apparatus and whose firearms and other belongings were seized.

Leong Poi is represented by attorneys Fyard Hosein, SC, Anil Maraj and Amirah Rahaman.