ST JOHN’S, Antigua : Paula Pieterson will be leaving Antigua & Barbuda US $60,000 poorer than when she came following a historic money laundering case – the first such conviction the country has ever seen.
Yesterday’s court case also ended with an order for her deportation and the forfeiture of the said sum that she smuggled into the country hidden in her undergarments last year.
The 43-year-old Dominican woman admitted to two of four counts of money laundering – just as the prosecution was about to call its last witness to testify against her.
In addition to those charges, the witness was also set to give evidence about Pieterson’s false statement that she had less than the US $10,000 cash allowed in one’s possession without having to make a declaration on arrival at VC Bird International Airport in December.
Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Anthony Armstrong led the victory before Senior Magistrate Asquith Riviere in All Saints Magistrate’s Court.
The mother of five was sentenced to nine months, with a one-third reduction for her guilty plea to each of the two money laundering charges and six months on the remaining offence – to run concurrently with the other sentence.
However, the prison sentence boils down to time served since the court has given consideration to Pieterson being on remand since her December arrest.
The woman will remain in custody until she is repatriated.
On December 27, 2011 Customs officials made the bust when the woman arrived from St Maarten and called in the Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP) to take charge of the investigation the same day.
The ONDCP then charged the woman with money laundering, but after reviewing the file the DPP advised the supervisory authority to add the charge of making a false declaration under the Customs and Management Control Act of 1993.
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