More than 10 years after the business went south, civil servants who invested $100 million in Jamomes Developers Ltd are to be reimbursed.

"I am not sure how much I will get back but I am so glad that they have surfaced," retired teacher Ruth Lawrence told the Sunday Observer after receiving the good news. "This would be a good little break in these hard times," she added.

Lawrence was one of more than 7,000 people - mostly civil servants who invested government-issued bonds they received in 1993 as back pay - who put money into Jamomes and who were left in the cold when Government ordered the business closed in late 1996 and imprisoned its executive chairman, Errol Hanchard, in December 1997.

The investment option was offered in conjunction with the Jamaica Civil Service Association. However, based on allegations that the company had diverted funds from its real estate portfolio to an equities portfolio without consent of the investors, the Securities Commission launched a high-profile investigation into the company's business operations.

There were suspicions that the scheme, which offered returns of a minimum of $50,000 on each $7,500 invested over a seven-year period, was a scam and that the development company didn't have enough assets to cover the promissory notes it issued.

Hanchard spent 56 days in jail on a charge of conspiracy to defraud by mismanagement and was released on a bail of $75 million. The DPP withdrew the case in 2005, clearing Hanchard.

"I think we were wrongfully arrested," Hanchard said last week. "They had no case against us."

Earlier this year, Jamomes director John Templer started calling investors from the incomplete database it retrieved from the DPP's office, informing them that they would be getting back at least the principal that was invested.

"I would say 99 per cent of the people are so happy to be getting their money back. I feel like Father Christmas bringing the good news," Templer told the Sunday Observer.

"We were hoping to access enough liquidity to start paying out in December but our investment plans were set back by the financial meltdown and individual investors couldn't assist," said Hanchard. "But between the first and second quarter of 2009 we will be paying back at least the principal to these people who have invested with us, even though the Government has not paid over $30 million of the money that was deducted."

The Jamomes chairman said they had commitments of $100 million but had only received $70 million.

"I am grateful to be getting my money back," said correctional services worker Clinton Douglas, who said he had invested just over $10,000 in Jamomes.

"I am giving them the benefit of the doubt because... they could have stayed away or come back with another name and not contact any of the investors. This man (Hanchard) has come to me to say he's giving me my money back, not to look more money, so I don't see why I should not trust him at the onset," he said.

"Most of us considered it dead, but the investment plan they have sounds reasonable, sounds workable, sounds practical," he added, saying he still had confidence in Jamomes and would consider re-investing with the company.

Retired registered nurse, Camaletha Kelly, shared similar views.

"Not hearing anything for so many years, I thought [the money] was gone," she said. "I feel very good because I thought it was dead."

Kelly said she had no immediate plans for her money, about $50,000 by her estimation, but that it would come in handy, given the present economic conditions.

For his part, Hanchard said he would now continue to pursue the entrepreneurial development plan he had sought to effect in the late 1990s: the establishment of digi-tourism as a means of sustainable economic development.

"I feel vindicated because the DPP withdrew the charges and secondly, because I [recently] passed the fit and proper with the Bank of Jamaica," he said. "It means, therefore, that the way has been cleared for me to proceed with what was delayed by the State."