A for­mer cashier as­signed to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has been charged in con­nec­tion with the al­leged em­bez­zle­ment of $718,000 from the State.

On Ju­ly 24, of­fi­cers of the Fraud Squad ar­rest­ed for­mer cashier Kavi­ta Ma­haraj at a res­i­dence in San­gre Grande. She had re­port­ed­ly been ab­sent from du­ty since 2024 and had not been for­mal­ly sus­pend­ed dur­ing the pe­ri­od un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion. Her re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in­clud­ed col­lect­ing cash pay­ments for ser­vices such as work per­mits and re­mit­ting those funds to the Min­istry.

An in­ter­nal au­dit by the Min­istry re­vealed dis­crep­an­cies in fi­nan­cial records be­tween Jan­u­ary and Sep­tem­ber 2023. It is al­leged that Ma­haraj fal­si­fied of­fi­cial records and mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ed funds dur­ing this pe­ri­od.

A for­mal re­port was sub­mit­ted to the Fraud Squad, and Act­ing Cor­po­ral Saun­ders was as­signed as lead in­ves­ti­ga­tor. The in­ves­ti­ga­tion was sup­port­ed by Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Jack­man, Su­per­in­ten­dent Lutch­man, As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent Thomas, and Sergeant Hamil­ton.

On Ju­ly 27, Ma­haraj was charged with one count of Em­bez­zle­ment by a Pub­lic Ser­vant, con­trary to Sec­tion 18(b)(i) of the Lar­ce­ny Act, Chap­ter 11:12. She ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter In­di­ra Chinebass and was grant­ed bail in the amount of $450,000. Bail con­di­tions in­clude re­port­ing to a po­lice sta­tion twice week­ly and im­me­di­ate no­ti­fi­ca­tion to the court of any change in ad­dress.

The mat­ter has been ad­journed to Oc­to­ber 31, for a sta­tus hear­ing.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice stat­ed it will con­tin­ue ef­forts un­der Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions Suzette Mar­tin and As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice De­nis Knutt to ad­dress white-col­lar crime.