31.1 C
Belize City
Thursday, March 28, 2024

World Down Syndrome Day

Photo: Students and staff of Stella Maris...

BPD awards 3 officers with Women Police of the Year

Photo: (l-r) Myrna Pena, Carmella Cacho, and...

Suicide on the rise!

Photo: Iveth Quintanilla, Mental Health Coordinator by Charles...

Gimme mi $30 million ? Jeff tells Mike!

GeneralGimme mi $30 million ? Jeff tells Mike!

Earlier today, Amandala received an anonymous package marked ?urgent and confidential.? It contained a number of documents, including a letter carrying the name of BTL?s secretary, Wilman Black, to Campbell and dated November 24, 2004. Since then, all our attempts to reach Black have been futile.


The letter, the authenticity of which we were unable to confirm, alleges that an executive committee comprised of Dean Boyce, Philip Osborne, and Edward Nabil Musa, all based in Belize, was running BTL when the decision was taken in November of 2003. However, the letter claims, Musa was excluded from the meeting.


When we contacted Osborne tonight, he declined to discuss the documents and the allegations via telephone, and asked us to send him a fax later. On the other hand, Boyce spoke briefly with our newspaper, maintaining that the transaction in question was totally above board.


He said that in 2002, BTL had borrowed money from ING Bank, a foreign international bank, to install its multi-million-dollar GSM cellular network, for which, he said, BTL had to pay in US dollars. He said that the bank required a guarantee for the loan, and Carlisle, through the Belize Bank, provided the guarantee.


?It was a perfectly legitimate and arms-length transaction,? Boyce maintained, citing the notes of BTL?s last two financial reports.


In its audited financial report published in 2003, BTL disclosed that it had gotten a US$11,524,545 loan from ING Bank on March 21, 2003. In exchange for guaranteeing the loan, said BTL, the BBL had taken a BZ$30.5 million lien (a legal claim by one person on the property of another for security for payment of a debt) over BTL?s cash balances at the BBL, then reported at BZ$44.5 million.


In the following year?s financials, BTL reported that it had, instead of the deposit, held a long-term note with the BBL of $30 million, which was the new guarantee for the loan, in place of the $30 million deposit.


This meant that the Belize Bank was free to use BTL?s $30 million, and pay it back five years later, in 2008. The interest due to BTL would be 9%, according to the reports.


Since 2001, when Sir Michael Ashcroft, through Carlisle Holdings, took over majority holdings in BTL, shareholders had been offered script dividends?more dividends in BTL in place of cash, and the once handsome dividend payments have gradually declined. Ashcroft told minority shareholders that BTL?s cash position had become weak, after it had purchased the GSM equipment.


At the company?s AGM in 2003, he had said that BTL was in dire straights because of what he claimed was ?subsidized competition??i.e. public sector loans to Intelco. Then, he had also said that BTL?s spare cash was down to $10 million, and it would need all profits to pay for the GSM system for which it had borrowed earlier that year.


At the time, shareholders had complained about the low level of dividends that they were offered. At the 2003 AGM, BTL?s ex-chair, Net Vasquez, had said that most of BTL?s money was deposited at the Belize Bank, where it was earning interest of 5 to 6%; meanwhile, BBL would be able to lend at a higher rate, hence benefiting from BTL?s deposits.


Boyce said that the $30 million note with the bank was secured after the $30 million that was held in term deposits matured last November. The note would mature in 2008?the year when the last payment on the ING loan is due.


He added that the new managers of BTL are free to request an alternative guarantor for the loan, thereby freeing up BTL?s money in the Belize Bank.


The letter, purportedly forwarded by Black to the Central Bank Governor, claims that it was illegal for the BBL to borrow from BTL in the first place, and that such an act is ?contrary to the banking licence to the Bank.?


The remedy, said the letter, is for the Central Bank to require BBL to release the $30 million to BTL, allowing BTL to be able to withdraw the money ?subject to the company?s liabilities to the Belize Bank.?


The development is rather interesting, given recent assertions made in a press release issued by BTL on the previous day, Tuesday, November 23, on behalf of the new managers of BTL, Innovative Communication Corporation (ICC), a company owned by Jeffrey Prosser of the United States Virgin Islands.


The press release claimed that Prosser, who supposedly has yet to pay Government US$57 million to close the BTL sale, has been having a hard time getting the financing needed to pay GOB because of what he calls ?malicious intrusion,? which allegedly includes misrepresentations to financial institutions outside of Belize and to some minority shareholders in BTL. The intent of those malicious persons, the press release claimed, is to thwart the sale of BTL.


On Tuesday, ICC pledged to pay GOB the US$57 million within 90 days.

Check out our other content

World Down Syndrome Day

Suicide on the rise!

Check out other tags:

International