The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has yet to move against a second bank, the First Caribbean International Bank, under investigation for charges under the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, but indications are that Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL) – the company that reportedly deposited the money into the banks – also forms a part of the investigations.
The FIU is in court prosecuting the Belize Bank for 79 charges of failure to report suspicious transactions, after receiving USD deposits in excess of US$2 million from BTL in 2004 and 2005.
FIU director, Geraldine Davis-Young, told Amandala that nothing has yet concluded with respect to First Caribbean. Davis would not discuss the details of the investigations with us, noting that the FIU has to maintain confidentiality.
She did explain that the investigation is three-pronged, involving the two commercial banks as well as the company which deposited the funds into the banks in question.
Reports to our newspaper were that most of the foreign currency transactions took place between 2003 and 2005, and total several million dollars.
BTL’s former CEO, Gaspar Aguilar, had told Amandala in September 2005 – when the exchanges became public and over $7 million of BTL’s money was allegedly heisted by money changers – that the street exchange of large sums of money dated way back to 2001. BTL’s board was forced to go outside the regular banking system, said Aguilar, to find US currency to pay for equipment and other foreign expenses.
So if the transactions date back to seven years ago, why are charges being levied only from 2004 and onward? When we asked Davis to explain, she told our newspaper that the FIU limited itself to the 2004-2005 time period because the law places a statute of limitation on prosecutions.
We checked the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, and found that in Section 28, it states that all prosecutions, actions, suits, and other proceedings brought for any offence, or for the recovery of any fines, penalty or forfeitures, under this Act or the Regulations made there-under, shall be brought within five years next after the date the offence was committed or the cause of action accrued.
We interpret that to mean that prosecutions commenced now, in 2008, can only go back as far as 2003, at the earliest.
It is interesting to note that the currency exchange and banking transactions that resulted in the charges against the Belize Bank date back as far as 2001, and continued both under the headship of the Ashcroft companies and Jeffrey Prosser’s Innovative Communication Corporation.
Of note is that Keith Arnold, who had also served as BTL chairman when news of the transactions were carried in the media three years ago, was the man in charge of the FIU before Davis’ time. Arnold never labeled the BTL foreign currency transactions illegal. Instead, he called the transactions “imprudent practices.”
Even though there had been a change in the FIU’s directorship, formal charges were only levied against the Belize Bank after a change of government took place in February of this year. The FIU has hired B.Q. Pitts, former law partner of Attorney General Wilfred Elrington, as special prosecutor.
After the Belize Bank entered its not guilty plea in the courtroom of Magistrate Sharon Frazer last Wednesday, June 18, their attorney, Eamon Courtenay told journalists that the FIU had failed to disclose evidence.
Davis told our newspaper today that while Courtenay wanted the FIU to give disclosure before the bank entered a plea, that would not have been prudent for the FIU to do. She indicated that now that a plea has been taken, Pitts is prepared to disclose the evidence.
As Amandala had first reported on May 29, 2008, Prime Minister Dean Barrow told our newspaper earlier this month that authorities are trying to get First Caribbean to enter a guilty plea. (Barrow did not then disclose the name of the bank, citing ongoing negotiations.)
Ashcroft sold BTL to Prosser through a Government-mediated deal in April, 2004. The Belize Bank, another Ashcroft company, has been charged in connection with deposits from BTL occurring between January 2004 and August 2005 – three months before Keith Arnold resigned his FIU post.
The Said Musa-led government ousted Prosser from BTL’s board in February 2005, and soon after, Ashcroft began resuming control of BTL through a network of Belizean and offshore Caribbean companies.