BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 22, 2019– A Deputy Governor of the Belize Central Bank has resigned from his post and has taken up a new appointment as liquidator for the now defunct Choice Bank, an offshore bank which was stripped of its license by the Belize Central Bank and placed in receivership in June of last year.
The new Choice Bank liquidator, Kareem Michael, has become the third person named to that post. Michael’s appointment becomes effective today, Monday, July 22, the Central Bank said in a media release it posted on its website on Friday.
Michael takes over as liquidator after the Central Bank and Cedric Flowers, the liquidator for Choice Bank, were unable to come to an agreement when Flowers’ contract came to an end. Michael has left his cushy job at the Central Bank to take up the liquidator’s job, for which he will be handsomely paid, reportedly almost $50,000 per month.
Flowers was appointed liquidator on July 4, 2018. He succeeded Henry Hazel, who was the first liquidator for the failed offshore bank. No real explanation has been forthcoming from the Central Bank other than this statement in its media release: “the former liquidator’s term of engagement has come to an end.”
The Central Bank’s media release added, “As defined in Section 106(5) of the Domestic Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 2012, the Central Bank has the power to appoint a liquidator from either the private sector or an officer of the Central Bank who meets such qualifications as prescribed by the Central Bank.”
The Central Bank’s release said that Michael, who has served as a Deputy Governor of the bank for only 19 months, has the knowledge and experience to bring the liquidation process to a close.
Amandala has learned, however, that a senior employee of the Central Bank will be assisting the new liquidator, and if that turns out to be the case, then the Central Bank will be in joint management of the liquidation process for Choice Bank, which still has to deal with the issue of the termination of claims.
Because Choice Bank was an offshore bank, most of its business was conducted by debit card holders and there were over 200,000 card holders whose claims still have to be validated. Choice Bank used Master Card debit cards for its offshore business, and there are claims of over 120 million US dollars from its customers all over the world.