Providenciales, 08 Dec 2015 – David Smith will not spend Christmas at home with his family, but he will also not be spending it miles and miles away in a US Federal prison.
Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay Hale on Monday delayed a decision on the matter until January 2016 and that means Smith, who is accused of scamming millions of dollars in a Ponzi Scheme will spend the holiday at Her Majesty’s Prison in Grand Turk.
Smith through his attorney, Oliver Smith is arguing that the US Extradition order is rendering too severe a punishment.
David Smith is adamant that the help he offered the investigation satisfied his end of the deal for a lesser sentence but that the US is still aiming to impose at least 24 more years for the 25 counts of financial crime. Smith has already served six years in TCI prison and was released in January.
Faulty paperwork prevented US authorities from immediately whisking Smith off to Orlando and it gave him time to make appeals to the local courts to stop the extradition.
The grounds, most simply put, are that the US was reneging on its promise to significantly reduce his sentence. The matter has been in and out of court for months and will now wait again until the New Year for a decision. David Smith, who is originally from Jamaica, had plead guilty to defrauding customers of $220 million dollars.
