Usain Bolt’s lawyer has slammed Jamaicans for victim-shaming the legendary sprinter over the millions he fraudulently lost from an investment scheme.
Usain Bolt’s lawyer Linton Gordon has hit out at Jamaicans for blaming the legendary sprinter over his lost millions instead of turning the heat on the country’s government.
Bolt is among investors who lost millions of dollars in an investment scheme in a mysterious way that is yet to be unraveled since it happened in January 2023.
The 38-year-old lost $6 million from what he had put into the Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) with hundreds of other investors also seeing their hard-earned cash disappear without a trace.
Since then, Bolt has waited for the Jamaican government to act without success and spoke over the issue for the first time this week, saying that he might be forced to apply pressure for action to be taken as he feels the state is doing nothing about it.
Bolt’s comments have not been received well by some Jamaicans, who have blamed him for not doing the due diligence before putting his money in the investment scheme, something that has left the 100m and 200m world record holder disappointed, and his lawyer is breathing fire.
Amid a $12.8M fraud case and stalled government action over his lost investment, Usain Bolt lashed out at a fan by retorting, ‘Don’t be a syndicate.’
“There now appears to be an organized effort to shift blame onto the Honorable Usain Bolt for his loss—when he is guilty of nothing more than investing in the country that he loves,” Gordon said in a statement on Friday.
“This is a textbook case of victim-blaming, and it appears to be an attempt to absolve the government of its failure to protect the public and those defrauded by SSL.
“Even more concerning is the apparent attempt to silence victims and manipulate the narrative about who is truly responsible for this large-scale fraud, which has left hundreds of Jamaicans without their hard-earned money and no clear path to recovery.”
Bolt’s lawyer insists the sprinter and his advisors followed due process and received assurances that the scheme was legit with confirmation even coming from state agencies.
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“The allegations being circulated publicly that not all of Usain Bolt’s funds sent to Stocks & Securities Limited were received by the institution are false, baseless, and entirely without credibility,” added Gordon.
“All funds lodged at SSL by Bolt’s company were transferred via bank transactions, and each and every payment was acknowledged by the institution in writing. The notion that Bolt was negligent in making these deposits is entirely unfounded.
“The Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Government of Jamaica, and hundreds of Jamaican citizens invested in SSL—an institution that was approved and regulated by the government.
“To suggest that Bolt was careless or lacked proper financial management is to imply the same about every Jamaican who has invested in a government-approved financial institution.”
It is not clear how the fraud will be unearthed given the Jamaican government’s slow pace in tackling the matter that has left Bolt as the face of the scam that affected many.
Bolt brought glory to Jamaica during his storied athletics career that saw him win 11 world titles and eight Olympics gold medals and set the 100m and 200m world records that are yet to be broken since 2009.
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Jamaican great Usain Bolt may have been used to winning on track but he has had to endure painful losses off it, going by the multi-million ventures that lost him big money.
His track winnings brought him hundreds of millions in prize money and endorsements, investing some in the scheme that has now left him in agony.
