Mavado Roasts Christopher Townsend After Attorney Suggests Civil Claim In Jennifer Messado Fraud Matter
An irate Mavado has reacted ferociously to recent statements made by attorney-at-law Christopher Townsend that the Gangsta For Life deejay should have sought redress through the civil courts instead of the criminal courts in the $30 million fraud case against his client Jennifer Messado.
On Tuesday, Mavado, in responding to the prominent lawyer, took to Instagram to share a screenshot of a Jamaica Observer headline, which stated, figuratively, that the attorney was asking Mavado to “Keep it Civil”.
The fulsome recommendation by Townsend though, which the headline did not capture, was that, among other things, it was likely that the Gully Gad might not get back his money, even if he came out victorious, as, instead of pursuing compensation through the civil courts, he was doing so via the criminal courts, which could be in vain.
“First thing Townsend and Messado should go to jail together. But I guess Jamaica system that the government set, it’s just to make the ghetto youths have nowhere. And when we work for we things dem find ways to take it and we should say nothing. Lol,” Mavado wrote in the Instagram post.
“Look how long this woman take my money and we still going thru this every day just because she’s well in-line with the government and she has so much ppl in high places but when I go in to my USA government we will see how things going to work out after that,” he added.
The now-disbarred real estate attorney, Jennifer Messado is to stand trial in the criminal courts on March 1 next year, in the fraud matter.
Earlier this year she filed for bankruptcy, but according to Townsend, the majority of the cases filed against her have so far been settled by way of the civil courts.
In May this year, Mavado trashed Messado after learning that she had filed for bankruptcy, labelling her an “old criminal” who, according to him, continued to avoid a jail sentence because of her social standing.
Her bankruptcy claim had stalled the Supreme Court proceedings, resulting in Mavado’s then-attorney Tameka Harris, expressing concern that Messado was trying to use bankruptcy to circumvent repaying, especially in light of how she obtained the money.
“This is Jamaica’s legal scammers that the government can not do nothing about all because she’s (Messado) not from the ghetto … a things like This a mash up the country because it makes you wonder how much ppl may be not around because of her doings, and her powerful power that she have exercised a lot,” Mavado had ranted on Instagram at the time.
Messado, who has been disbarred by the General Legal Council, had reportedly defrauded the Father God singer in a real estate deal back in April 2018.
According to court files, Mavado was introduced to a property at Grosvenor Terrace in Kingston 8 and proceeded to make arrangements to purchase the property through his attorney, Tamika Harris.
Messado reportedly claimed that she had been given permission to oversee the sale of the property, as the owner was in prison overseas, following which, Mavado paid her $30.7 million and signed a sale agreement and a document giving him possession.
However, it was later discovered that the property was neither up for sale, nor was the owner incarcerated.
The owner of the property also came forward saying that he did not know Messado and had never given her permission to sell his property.
Following the alleged fraud discovery, Mavado was reportedly reimbursed $7 million by Messado. But, after several attempts to recover the remainder, he reported the matter to the police, and Messado was arrested and charged with obtaining money by false pretense.
In October, Mavado’s current attorney Oswest Senior Smith, in elaborating on the fact that Mavado had wanted to give his testimony via video link from the US, noted that he had made an application, but it is still unclear whether the entertainer will be granted permission, as there had been talk of an outstanding warrant for his arrest in relation to an incident years ago.
While not confirming whether Mavado would appear in person or via video link for the newly scheduled court dates, Senior Smith said that it was now a non-issue, as based on his perusal of the file, the critical witnesses were the two who paid over the monies to Messado on behalf of the singjay, whose “potential testimony is little more than providing framework.”