Wednesday, 27 February 2008 Kern Spencer, Rodney Chin and Coleen Wright are facing multiple criminal charges, from Fraud to Money laundering.

Those terms have been bandied around regularly, but most ordinary Jamaicans who hear them do not know what they mean.

For instance Corruption under section 14-1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act deals specifically with public officials.

"I believe that Act was introduced in 2000 and came into effect May 2001. It was mainly geared at public officials who accepted gifts or articles of money in the course of holding public office," said attorney-at-law Georgia Gibson Henlin.  

"Money laundering as the name suggests is anything that is done to make money look clean. So laundering in Jamaican parlance would be like rinsing. So if money is dirty it's a process by which you clean it up to give it legitimacy. (It is) taken through any kind of process that will give it a legitimate look and not associated with crime," she said.

On fraud, she said, "Fraud is any offence involving dishonesty, corruption or deceit, with a view for personal gain."