PM Barrow about Musa, Fonseca and Mai: “The opinion is in …crimes were committed …there is the kind of material that compels criminal charges being levied.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow told the media this morning that the Government is today filing a civil suit against Lord Michael Ashcroft’s Belize Bank, to have it return $20 million gifted to Belize from Venezuela for housing for the poor, but which the former PUP administration used to settle a debt, guaranteed with taxpayers money, that the Universal Health Services, a failed private hospital, had with the bank.
But the Government is not stopping there, Barrow indicated. He also informed that the Government’s legal advisors have indicated that there is enough information to levy criminal charges against the former government officials who were involved in making the transaction. The key officials named in facilitating the Venezuela transaction are former Prime Minister Said Musa, former Housing Minister Ralph Fonseca, and former chief executive officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amalia Mai.
“I am satisfied that the police can move now,” Barrow said, but explained that because the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Lutchman Sooknandan, has to be involved in the case, Attorney General (AG) Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington will have to meet with the DPP to determine the way forward. If there is need to bring in a special prosecutor to fight the case, said Barrow, Government will also move in that direction.
Solicitor General Tanya Herwanger and Senior Counsel Michael Young have advised him that they could proceed with the civil suit to recover the money from the bank, Barrow told the media.
“They feel it should be pretty smooth sailing with respect to eventual recovery. Of course, you know that the people we are going up against have all the resources in the world, and they will be filing motions and countermotions. So it’s going to take some time, but we are very confident, on the basis of the opinion we’ve received, on the basis of the facts, on the basis of the justice of the case, that ultimately we will get back this money for the Government and people of Belize.”
We note that the Government did proceed last week Friday with issuing a demand letter to the Belize Bank, calling for the bank to return the $20 million gift from Venezuela. However, the bank responded, challenging the Government to withdraw the letter, indicating its view that based on the bank’s interpretation of the law, since it was, essentially, free money to Belize, that there was no legal requirement that the funds should have been deposited in the Government’s account, for the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Official information from the Government indicates that the funds were paid directly to the bank, but transferred first to the Belize’s Bank’s account in the UK (Bank of America) and then the Belize Bank’s Turks and Caicos branch, before trekking its way to the bank in Belize.
Similarly, another $20 million gifted from Taiwan for the Government and people of Belize, but paid to the bank for the UHS debt, is under dispute.
On Friday, the government told the bank that it had two working days to return the Venezuela $20 million, and now that the bank has refused to refund the Government, the Government is now proceeding with a civil suit – which, by all indications, will be a long-drawn-out process, possibly being fought all the way to London’s Privy Council.
And what if, worse-case scenario, the Government fails in getting the money returned, asked Channel 5’s Ann Marie Williams.
“If we don’t, we don’t,” Barrow replied. “But I don’t see how that’s going to happen. As a lawyer myself, what’s been said by Michael Young and Tanya Herwanger strikes me as unassailable, and so I have every conviction that ultimately, justice will be done, and that justice means the ordering by the Supreme Court of the return of this money, the recovery of this money by the Government of Belize.”
As to what action will be taken against the former Government officials, Musa, Fonseca and Mai, Barrow told the media:
“I want to have the Attorney General meet with the Director of Public Prosecutions, because the matter is at a stage now where the opinion with respect to criminal charges, the opinion is in – certainly the opinion that I thought I needed to assure me personally, and as a leader of government, that we will be proceeding properly and again, consistent with the rule of law, and with the achievement of the ends of justice – the opinion is in that crimes were committed, [and] there is the kind of material that compels criminal charges being levied.”
Even though Barrow said that he would prefer to use local expertise to fight the case against the Belize Bank, Government may also use its option of bringing in a special prosecutor, because they need to ensure that there are no “missteps” in the process. All that will be determined, he said, after the AG sits with the DPP.
As regards to whether government would include the former and present owners of UHS in the legal proceedings, Barrow did not give that indication, but he did indicate that his administration has suspended the multi-million-dollar service contract the former Musa administration made with the new owner of UHS, Belize Healthcare Partners.
“With respect certainly to the $370,000 monthly fee, [which] it was agreed that Government would pay to Belize Healthcare Partners,” said Barrow, “we’ve already indicated that ain’t going to happen.”
He said that the Financial Secretary, Joe Waight, has been instructed to find out how many people have been sent over to UHS by the Ministry of Health to receive dialysis treatment, and Government will continue to pay for them, but that’s where payments will be capped.
Barrow told us that he has learned that out of the $370,000 monthly fee that was being paid by the former administration, $80,000 went to cover administrative expenses at UHS alone. No payments have been made after January, and none since the change of government, he told the media.
We underscore that while Government is pursing the return of the $20 million from Venezuela, it has been silent on the Taiwan $20 million, which was gifted to Belize through the Embassy here, supposedly for improvements in the health system.
What is noteworthy is that even though Musa and Fonseca have said that the public now owns shares in UHS, as a result of the $40 million ($20 from Venezuela and $20 million from Taiwan) paid to settle the UHS debt with the bank, the documents substantiating this claim have yet to be made public.
Barrow had said on record a month ago, on March 12, that with respect of the $40 million diverted to the Belize Bank to pay the UHS debt, the Government and people of Belize have nothing at all to show for it.
The Central Bank had issued a directive to the Belize Bank on March 17, firstly, demanding the return of the (Venezuelan) $20 million to the Government and secondly, requiring the bank to report on how the $20 million from Taiwan was transacted.
The Belize Bank challenged those directives in court last week, but the court ruled that the Belize Bank must go to the Banks and Financial Institutions Appeals Board.
(Lord Michael Ashcroft, the majority owner of the Belize Bank, is also the founder and chairman of Crimestoppers (UK). He was knighted in 2000, and made a member of the House of Lords (Lord Ashcroft of Chichester, KCMG). The PUP government also made him Belize’s ambassador to the United Nations in 1998.)