Last month, Belize Healthcare Partners announced that it was acquiring 100% shares in Universal Health Services (UHS). We were also subsequently told that Dr. Muthugounder Venugopal (Dr. Venny) was the majority shareholder in UHS, but when we pressed to find out who else has a stake in the company, the details were not forthcoming.
In January, Belize Healthcare Partners Limited (BHPL) director, Collet Montejo, told Amandala that BHPL has four Belizean directors, two of whom are Dr. Venny and current general manager, Rosinell Craig. The other two, he said, wished to remain anonymous. Montejo also identified “foreign partners,” who, he said, would also like to remain anonymous.
So, Amandala independently ventured to obtain additional information on the ownership of UHS. Here is some of what we found out:
BHPL applied for incorporation on September 24, 2007, through attorney Carlo A. Mason, who works out of Marina Towers on Princess Margaret Drive, Newtown Barracks, Belize City.
The Belize Companies Registry registered the company on October 8, 2007, with an authorized share capital of 10,000 shares. Initially, 2,900 shares were issued to Dr. Venny, and 500 shares to Keith Neal, both of Belmopan.
But on January 16, 2008, two days before the UHS deal was sealed, Dr. Vinny and Neal both transferred their shares to a company in Nevis named Thoroughbred Ltd. of Juris Building, P.O. Box 480, Main Street, Charlestown, Nevis, the address of Daniel Brantley and Associates.
One share from the issued lot was transferred to Rantallo Group S.A., also of Charlestown, Nevis.
Our research has shown that Rantallo Group SA is a shell company that was created in June 2007, and publicized for sale by Overseas Management Company, based in Panama. Such companies take only a few hundred dollars to set up and the process, according to the agency, takes two days.
The post office boxes associated with these companies are for agencies that register offshore companies, free from taxation and having privacy/confidentiality privileges.
We also find it interesting that on January 18, 2008, the very day that UHS and BHPL finalized the sale of 100% of UHS’s assets, BHPL entered into a mortgage debenture with the Belize Bank, in favor of the bank, for $3 million.
All the assets of the company – BHPL – and “all other property of the company, present and future,” which would include its newly acquired UHS assets, were mortgaged to the Belize Bank.
British billionaire Michael Ashcroft, who is also a Belizean citizen, controls the Belize Bank.
Noteworthy is the fact that the past owners of UHS – the chief ones being Dr. Victor Lizarraga, Dr. Atanascio Cob, and PUP insider Luke Espat – had to sell because they had defaulted on a debt to the same bank, which, at the time of the sale, was in excess of $30 million.