The country’s largest and oldest bank, the Belize Bank, and its CEO and president, Philip Johnson, have been summoned in connection with 79 charges under the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, allegedly for failing to report “suspicious” banking transactions with its sister company, Belize Telecommunications Limited, to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
But when the case was called up in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court today, strangely no one from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution or from the Belize Bank was present in court. The Magistrate, Sharon Frazer, was puzzled as to why neither of the parties had appeared on the adjournment date, which she had set in their presence on Monday, May 12, when she granted an adjournment so the FIU could correct a breach made in serving the summons to Johnson.
Checks the Magistrate made with her office staff indicated that no one had called to indicate why they were absent from court.
The Magistrate later found out, however, that Sergeant Bernard Reyes, the police officer assigned to the case for the FIU, had served the summons for the wrong date. Instead of serving the summons to have the parties appear before Magistrate Frazer today, Friday, May 16, as she had instructed, the summons was served for Wednesday, May 21 – without the knowledge and consent of the Magistrate.
We don’t know what the Magistrate will do about the slip-up, but we are informed that customarily, when an order of the court is breached, it is treated as a contempt matter. In this case, the Magistrate said, it appears that the defendants, the Belize Bank and its president Philip Johnson, are not at fault.
We are officially informed that even though the FIU has documented 79 money laundering-related charges for the Belize Bank, only the summons for one of those charges has been served on the defendant.
(That summons, we understand, quotes a figure of roughly US$35,000, which the summons claims BTL deposited in the Belize Bank in January 2004. There is yet no official indication what the total dollar figure for all 79 counts is.)
Magistrate Frazer has explained that even though the summons specifies only one charge, when the defendants actually appear before the court, the full 79 charges will be read to them.
The reason why the case was postponed on Monday, when it was first to be heard in the court, is because the sergeant had served a witness summons to Johnson, when, in fact, he should have been served as a defendant in the case, along with the Belize Bank.
Barring any more snafus, the matter is due to be heard in Magistrate’s Court Number 6 on Wednesday, May 21.
The Belize Bank is being defended by Eamon Courtenay, SC, while the FIU’s case is being prosecuted by Merlene Moody of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution.
Government legal personnel in the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General’s Ministry tell Amandala that the Belize Bank and its chairman are accused of violating Section 13 of the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, Chapter 104 of the Laws of Belize, for “failing to report a suspicious transaction” to the FIU, which is the supervisory financial authority.
The Belize Bank has a reported asset base of over $1 billion.
This is the first time since the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act came into force in 1996 that a bank is facing formal charges.