BELIZE CITY, Wed. Mar. 30, 2022– In response to recent allegations of a conflict of interest on the part of Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Hon. Christopher Coye, who reportedly co-owns, with another minister of government, a company known as PHX Capital Limited that was granted a Financial Institution License by the Central Bank of Belize and has since been operating in the financial sector, Prime Minister Hon. John Briceño has stated that there is “absolutely nothing wrong.”
“He’s the Minister of State. I am the Minister, and I am responsible, so at the end of the day, if there’s something wrong, you hold me responsible, not Chris Coye,” said the Prime Minister to local reporters.
According to a public notice published by the Central Bank of Belize, a license to carry out financial business granted to PHX Capital Limited was issued by the then Governor of the Central Bank, Joy Grant, on June 1, 2020—an entire five months before the November 2020 general elections that resulted in a change of administration, following which Coye was appointed as a Minister of State in the newly elected PUP government. And since the license was approved under a UDP government, Prime Minister Hon. John Briceño is insisting that there is nothing unethical about Coye’s ownership of a financial enterprise while himself serving as the Minister of State in the Finance Ministry.
“I don’t remember what the name is, but they [the two ministers] do have a sort of limited financial license…I don’t want you to quote me, but yes, they’ve had this from in the UDP days, so if there’s a conflict, maybe you should have talked to Dean Barrow back then,” remarked the Prime Minister.
Phoenix Capital Limited is listed in Belize’s Companies Registry as an international business company (IBC). Hon. Christopher Coye, in response to the recent allegations, has stated that the licensed company isn’t conducting any business with the Government of Belize nor is it operating in the banking sector, since the license granted is only for conducting “financial business”.
Of note is the fact that the person who reportedly unearthed the documentation for the financial license and raised concerns about a possible conflict of interest is former Governor of the Central Bank, Manuel Vasquez. Vazquez replaced his predecessor, Joy Grant, in April 2021 and was set to serve a five-year term after signing a contract with GoB. He was removed from the post, however, a mere five months later, with differences between Vasquez and the board of the bank being cited as one reason for his termination.
According to a report made by Love News in August 2021, Vasquez wrote several emails to his staff before his departure, with one of them stating that he had faced “stiff opposition from the Ministry of Finance and special financial and economic sector interests” including one major banking institute in Belize. In that email, Vasquez also stated that he had tried his best to “restore the integrity and operational autonomy of the bank.”
But Prime Minister Briceño has vehemently denied that the issuance of the license had anything to do with Vasquez’ departure. In fact, he told local media that Vasquez’s concerns had been addressed and he had withdrawn his objections to the issuance of the license back in 2021.
“The facts are that they have a company that was operating under the UDP government. The UDP government approved those licenses and when the former governor, Manuel Vasquez, found out about it because, apparently, when he found it in a different file where it did not belong, in some filing cabinet, he then started to ask about it, and then he was told—and he found out—that there was nothing wrong. It was straightforward. There is absolutely nothing wrong. And it ended as that. So, the former Governor, that has nothing to do with his stepping down as the Governor of Central Bank,” said Prime Minister Briceño.