The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

JONATHAN Ash yesterday claimed that being in fear for his life prompted him to pay former Cabinet minister Shane Gibson $80,000 to ensure he would be paid the $1m plus he was owed for hurricane cleanup work.

Mr Ash said besides the former labour minister being “in charge” of the hurricane cleanup efforts at the time, knowing “how the country runs” and concerns about his own safety compelled him to do what he “had to do” in order to get money owed to him by the government. 

“I know how the country run,” Mr Ash testified. “...I was in fear for my life at the time, so I did what I had to do to get my money.” 

Mr Ash also said this fear was the reason he reported Gibson’s alleged actions to the police. 

Mr Ash also said Gibson messaged him on WhatsApp in March 2017 and told him he would need between $50,000 and $100,000 for several PLP members of Parliament, and he subsequently made those payments. He said after this, various people reached out to him about him “making all this money”.

At that point, Mr Ash said he felt like he was “between a rock and a hard place”, and began to get “a little afraid for my life”, not just because he knew “what was happening” but also what had already happened. Thus, he said with him being a “small businessman”, and before he got “taken out”, he should “come forward and say what happened”.

“Everything I’m doing I did on my own, as a man, because I was afraid,” he said, as he insisted he was never coerced to testify. “I have a wife, I have children and I have people that I love. I couldn’t just let my life be taken out over some matters that I didn’t have no control over.”

And that came after Mr Ash, in viewing printouts of messages exchanged between himself and Gibson, confirmed that he told the former minister, “We have to win,” meaning the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) heading into the general election that year.

However, Mr Ash explained: “That was the PLP government. I don’t have a problem with (them). I don’t have a problem with this government either.”

Mr Ash was also shown printouts of screenshots of various WhatsApp messages he shared with Gibson between the first three months of 2017. And some of those messages, Mr Ash said, referred to instances where he would meet up with Gibson to pay him as per the former minister’s request for “shingles”, said to be a code name for money.

One message from Gibson that read: “Any shingles today?” In response, Mr Ash replied by asking the former minister where he was. 

Gibson told Mr Ash he was in the Golden Gates area. However, Mr Ash said he met Gibson later on that evening at the shooting range off Gladstone Road, where he gave the man the first payment of $25,000.

In another instance on February 18, Mr Ash wrote to Gibson: “Her sir I drop it off.” Gibson replied by saying “thanks,” and Mr Ash responded: “No problem.” Mr Ash explained that at that point in time, he was paying both Gibson and Deborah Bastian, a woman connected to Gibson, and had just given Ms Bastian some funds to give to Gibson.

In a voice note played in court, Mr Ash could be heard saying: “I drop the shingles off, all right?”

Then, in another instance on March 28, 2017 which Mr Ash said was “something totally different” and involved “another set of money”, Gibson messaged him and told him: “We have South Beach, Bamboo Town, Carmichael, Golden Gates, Southern Shores, Golden Isles, Seabreeze and Yamacraw. I would estimate between 50 and 100. You let me know depending on what you want them to have.”

Mr Ash, who usually addressed Gibson as “boss” or “general”, responded by saying, “Okay something can work.”

Mr Ash explained that he ultimately ended up paying the then-MP’s for those constituencies either $5,000 or $10,000. He said because they didn’t want to have the cheques made out to them directly, the MPs would send different people to collect them. However, Mr Ash said he knew that the people receiving the cheques were “comrades” with the MPs.

At the start of yesterday’s proceedings, lead Crown prosecutor James Guthrie, QC, produced copies of various cheques from which Mr Ash said he used to pay Gibson directly.

He previously testified he made payments to Gibson of $25,000 on two separate occasions and $10,000 on three separate occasions.

Mr Ash said he made those payments between February and March 2017. February 21, 2017 was when he first gave Gibson $25,000, Mr Ash said. That exchange allegedly occurred at Baha Mar Boulevard. Mr Ash said he would later go on to make payments to Gibson at a shooting range off Gladstone Road.

Mr Ash also confirmed the authenticity of a number of other cheques he used to withdraw large amounts of money, some of which he said he gave to Bastian to pay down on a $250,000 bill Gibson had charged him.

Those payments, he said, were made between the beginning of January 2017 to February of that year. 

However, Mr Ash revealed yesterday that there was a point in time in mid-February 2017 when he was paying Gibson and Ms Bastian simultaneously.

Gibson’s attorney Keith Knight, QC, said it may become “necessary” for his side to speak to the woman. 

However, Mr Guthrie said the Crown does not intend to call the woman as a witness on its case.

That, Mr Knight said, then raises the issue of whether or not the defence is “at liberty” to speak to Ms Bastian. However, Justice Carolita Bethel admonished the senior Jamaican attorney to raise such issues outside of the jury’s presence.

Nonetheless, Mr Ash was shown a number of cheques from the Public Treasury to him or his company, Ash Enterprises and Trucking, showing how he received $1,365,446 on two dates in March 2017.

On March 8, 2017, he received three cheques, each worth $227,587.66 and the other worth just two cents more. On March 21, he received another three cheques; two were worth $227,587.67 and one worth $227,507.66.

Mr Ash was also shown additional Public Treasury cheques showing how he received a collective $653,062.50 in outstanding payments during the time he was paying Ms Bastian allegedly on Gibson’s behalf. Mr Ash surmised that those payments were for the three dumpsites he cleaned up in the third week of January, namely the dump site at Bacardi Road, the city dump off Harrold Road, and the dump site that was situated at the Sports Centre. 

The case continues today.