Lawyers Claim Suspect in Usain Bolt Money Laundering Case ‘Too Ill’ to Go to Jail

The case regarding Usain Bolt’s missing money continues.

Jean-Ann Panton, former client relationship manager at Stocks and Securities Ltd., admitted to stealing millions of dollars from the Olympic gold-medalist. Now with the trial underway, Panton’s attorneys claim she’s too sick to go to jail.

Sources reveal Tamika Harris, Panton’s attorney, applied for bail on her client’s behalf at the Supreme Court in Kingston. After Panton showed up to court in a wheelchair, Harris claimed her client was born with a dislocated hip and has had 25 surgeries since she was a child.

“She requires wheelchair assistance and the use of a walker as part of her rehabilitation and she has also had side effects from the antibiotics prescribed which makes balancing challenging,” Harris said, according to The Jamaica Gleaner.

“The last surgery that she did she got an infection and that made her prospect of recovery more difficult.”

The judge wasn’t moved by Harris’ pleas. Justice Shelly Williams didn’t say Harris’ claims weren’t believable, however, the only medical reports provided were those regarding Panton’s diabetic history. “I am not saying that you can’t put forward all of this, but if you are going to do that you need a medical report that supports your position,” Williams said.

BLACK ENTERPRISE reported that Panton allegedly started stealing money back in 2010 to pay for her father’s medical expenses, having being diagnosed with cancer. The former SSL employee said she had no idea how she was going to return the money. Things came to light after Bolt found more than $12 million missing from his account. After being caught, Panton wrote a statement and said she felt “could borrow the money from the Bolt management group to repay the other SSL clients.”

Bolt was gracious enough to give SSL 10 days to return the funds. Since then, the decorated athlete has fired his business manager.