Prosecutors say Mr Gellizeau owned the Jo-Tobin and Mr Robinson sailed it from St Lucia to Bermuda. Mr Robinson and Mr Andrews are later said to have sailed the yacht from Bermuda to Bequia in the Grenadines, where Mr Gellizeau was on board another of his vessels, the Orion.
Police detained the Jo-Tobin on April 5, 2008, searched the vessel, and found the money concealed close to the water tanks. Mr Robinson and Mr Andrews are charged with concealing the cash on the yacht while knowing or suspecting it represented another person’s proceeds of criminal conduct. Mr Gellizeau faces similar charges.
According to the Searchlight, Mr Robinson took the witness stand last week and said the $1.7 million belonged to him from his work in hotels and fishing. He said that back in 2008, he stashed his money in plastic bags, then placed it in a metallic tank on the boat and sealed it with styrofoam.
“I did it that way because we were going sailing and people may try to hijack your boat,” he explained.
Quizzed by prosecutor Gilbert Peterson over how he accumulated the money, Mr Robinson, of Sandys, replied: “I worked for it in my country.” He went on to say he had been saving it since the 1980s.
He told the court he had no investments in stock and business ventures and owned no real estate.
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