Peter Bunting - File

Email and blogs being anonymously circulated in cyberspace, linking many to the floundering invest scheme, Olint Corporation, continue to stalk some of the nation's well-known personalities and corporate entities.

A new email, this time filled with photos and captions, has added to the firestorm.

One of the earlier emails suggested that the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) general election victory in 2007 was largely funded by Olint.

The email contained messages purportedly sent by the members of the JLP hierarchy, including Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Finance Minister Audley Shaw and state minister Daryl Vaz, to Olint's embattled boss, David Smith, asking for funds or thanking him for his support.

Several financial entities are named in the emails. Some have undoubtedly invested with Olint while others, acting on instructions from their clients, transferred money to the foreign exchange trading club.

Investment firm, Dehring, Bunting and Golding (DB&G), is one of the entities named in the email. However, Peter Bunting, former chairman of the firm, scoffed at the suggestion that DB&G invested with Olint.

In 2006 Bunting, now member of parliament for Central Manchester, was among the first in corporate Jamaica to sound a warning against alternative investment schemes.

He explained, however, that his firm did transfer funds to the scheme on the request of some clients.

Bunting could not divulge how much of his clients' funds were transferred to the alternative investment scheme but noted that, in 2006, while DB&G lost business to Olint, the impact was not significant.

A blog entry about the DB&G stated: "Of all of Olint's investors, only one was smart enough to consistently pull money out over a period of time. The only smart corporation/person was Dehring, Bunting and Golding."

Despite the flattering blog comments, Bunting categorically denied the claim. "That's rubbish. We were smart never to invest in it and we consistently advised our clients (against it)," he declared.

Claudette Crooks, president of Money Masters Limited, was not amused when The Gleaner contacted her recently.

The financial analyst was dismissive of the content of the email.

"Anybody can send an email and circulate whatever garbage they want to circulate," she said.

Crooks argued that where she chooses to invest her money "is nobody's business" but her own.

"I would never have a discussion with a reporter as to where I invest my money and in addition to that anybody who wants to, in the context of Jamaica which is such a volatile economy, talk about people's finances and expect people to validate what's in an email must be crazy."

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com