MELISSA FRAUD SHIELD

LASCO Financial Services has revealed that it began holding back 30 per cent of donations made through the Government’s Hurricane Melissa relief platform after its system flagged as suspicious, a number of transactions linked to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

LASCO said it remitted 70 per cent of the money received to ODPEM daily while the reserve was being held, with more than 95 per cent of all donated amounts having been paid over to the agency by the end of March, before the 30 per cent withholding was discontinued in June after the risk associated with the account returned to normal.

The disclosure provides a new explanation for the arrangement, which came under scrutiny after the Auditor General’s Department found that 30 per cent of online donations had been retained for up to 45 days by a financial services institution, without a formal written agreement governing the retention.