Antoinette Bolden refuted allegations that she and her husband David stole funds from Emerald Capital International [ECI], a finance company they ran.She asserted in Supreme Court as she took the witness stand yesterday that “we never stole money from ECI,” and “we never charged anything improper to ECI.”Mr and Mrs Bolden are accused of stealing around $252,000 from the company, and of laundering $65,000 of the allegedly stolen funds.ECI was funded by shareholders and part-owned by two Canadian businessmen, John Wright and Jason Bagg.According to Mr Wright and Mr Bagg, during evidence for the prosecution, the Boldens siphoned cash from the company without permission or authorisation.Prosecutor Susan Mulligan alleged during her opening speech on May 9 that the couple plundered the accounts to pay debts and live beyond their means.Other allegedly-stolen funds covered bank overdrafts and propped up their other companies, known collectively as the Emerald Financial Group, in order to retain their Bermuda Monetary Authority licences.The Boldens are further accused of misleading the Bermuda Monetary Authority.The couple asserted throughout the prosecution case, through their defence lawyer Saul Froomkin QC, that the funds they took out of the company were legitimate and related to expenses they incurred and payments they were due.When the defence case began yesterday, Mrs Bolden, 47, accepted an invitation to give evidence. She explained she and Mr Bolden, 48, have been married for 22 years and have an 18-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter.She said she and Mr Bolden began their Emerald group of companies in 1992, with Emerald Financial Limited. They then started up Emerald Investment Management in 1998, and Direct Trade, a trading platform for the US stock exchange, in 1999.She explained that she and her husband put ten to 16 hours of work per day into the Emerald Group and ECI, which was founded in 2007.Frequently dropping her voice and speaking quickly, Mrs Bolden was asked on several occasions by Mr Froomkin to speak up. At one point, Chief Justice Richard Ground also urged: “Don’t be afraid, Mrs Bolden, to belt it out.”The defendant, who is a chartered accountant with an MBA according to her lawyer, went on to tell the jury she was responsible for the day to day operations of the group and oversaw the finances.“I did the Money Talks TV show,” she added.Mrs Bolden was accused by Mr Wright and Mr Bagg of being the person in charge of bookkeeping, and not keeping proper records. However, she told the trial the bookkeeping was outsourced to a company in Mauritius, as of 2007.She said she “hardly ever” spoke to Mr Wright and Jason Bagg “even less”.Quizzed by her lawyer over expenses relating to ECI, she said: “For expenses that were incurred by John and Jason, they were paid in Canada via credit cards or other accounts. In Bermuda they were paid from the Emerald Group of companies for David and myself.”The Canadian directors alleged that the Boldens took payments they were not due, and which had not been authorised.But Mrs Bolden said she and her husband used their own bank accounts and credit cards to meet expenses such as hotel bills for people doing work for ECI in Bermuda. She said this was done “with the understanding it was to be reimbursed”.Mrs Bolden said Mr Bagg “had no idea what was happening on a daily operational basis with ECI”. And, she told the jury, she and her husband have never been convicted of any crime.Asked by Mr Froomkin: “Did you ever steal any money from ECI?”, Mrs Bolden replied: “We never stole money from ECI.”“Did you ever claim any improper expense to ECI?” asked Mr Froomkin.“No, we never charged anything improper to ECI,” she replied.At the close of the prosecution case, prosecutor Susan Mulligan had conceded some of the disputed transactions may have been legitimate, and asked that some of the charges be dropped. The Chief Justice directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts on those charges. He said he’d also agreed to reduce the sums of money specified in some of the other charges.That means the original sum the Boldens were accused of stealing, $316,402, has now dropped to around $252,000.The Boldens, of Harrington Sound Road, Hamilton Parish, deny all the remaining charges they face and the case continues.