February 10, 2027. That is the new trial date for Jean Ann Panton, the only defendant in the sprawling Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) fraud, after a Jamaican Supreme Court judge wiped the original May 4, 2026 date from the calendar. Justice Simone Wolfe Reece set the date at a hearing in Kingston, and chose December 10 of this year for Panton’s return to court, when a renewed bail application and a trial readiness hearing will run on the same day.
The bail bid will be fought on paper first. The judge directed that the fresh application be made in writing, with the defence filing submissions by the end of September and the Crown answering by the end of October.
In person, Panton cut a striking figure: she appeared in a wheelchair, took notes through the proceedings and seemed in good spirits. She was remanded nonetheless, and she has been behind bars since February 2023. As the firm’s former client relations manager she faces a 22-count indictment covering forgery, larceny as a servant and transactions involving criminal property, and she remains the only person charged in a fraud that surfaced in January 2023.
Her lawyer used the hearing to air prison conditions. Sylvester Hemmings told the court that authorities at the women’s correctional facility had stopped relatives from bringing food to inmates, a change he said hits his client hard because she has a deteriorating medical condition that needs a special diet her family used to supply. “When I go to the prison, what I see her eating, I wouldn’t give my cats,” Hemmings argued. The judge asked whether he had raised the policy with prison authorities and whether an accommodation could be reached; he conceded he had not yet done so.
The backdrop explains the attention. The fraud at the investment firm became public in January 2023 after clients reported major losses, and among them was sprint legend Usain Bolt. An account in the name of Welljen Limited, his company, reportedly fell from roughly J$2 billion, about US$12.7 million, in October 2022 all the way down to J$1.8 million, roughly US$12,000, by the time the scheme was uncovered. His legal team says none of the missing money has come back.
Panton’s own confession, signed in the scandal’s first weeks, put the tally starkly: she admitted siphoning from client accounts, and her statement at the time read, “I feel remorse for my actions,” words she has since tried to unwind. She later told the court the confession had been premised on an offer from a former boss, a claim his lawyers rejected.
Either way, the arithmetic of the calendar is stark. By the time the trial opens on February 10, 2027, Panton will have spent nearly four years in custody without a verdict.
Sources
- Jean Ann Panton to return to court December 10 in SSL fraud case (The Gleaner)
- 'Confession Was Premised on an Offer’: Woman at the Center of Fraud Scandal That Swiped Millions from Usain Bolt’s Wealth Says Former Boss Bribed Her to Take the Fall
