_{Photo: Hon. Cordel Hyde – Minister of Natural Resources, Petroleum and Mining}

BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 12, 2024

When Ricardo Borja was killed on August 19, 2023, his murder quickly took on a more ominous undertone when it emerged that he was a proficient land consultant working with other real estate partners, and that only days prior to his assassination, he recorded purported testimony about sweeping land fraud dating back to at least 2019. It has been almost ten months since those reports emerged (right after his death), and his name is now back in the news due to the surfacing of anecdotal reports that someone with whom he would have had business links, 43-year-old Darren “Dalla Coin” Taylor, also has ended up dead. In fact, in his recording, Borja had made reference to Taylor as being instrumental in their work. Taylor was killed in April this year while at his home in Dangriga. Police found $3,000 on him, suggesting that robbery was not the motive. At the time, police said he appeared to have been killed over a business deal purportedly involving land.

Based on his observations of the dealings and putting two and two together, Borja detailed the land fraud perpetrated. According to Borja, it started with false wills concocted for deceased landowners whose estate had not been settled. He stated that he never questioned the validity of the grant of administrations for the deceased’s land going to someone other than the legitimate heir, thinking they had gone through the proper court procedure, rather than involving fraud on the part of court employees.

Borja said they even created fake passports and land titles—a process that he said he did not participate in. At the time, Minister of Immigration Eamon Courtenay told Amandala: “From other sources, what I have been told is that the passports that he was referring to were fake non-Belizean passports – dead Americans, dead British people, passports for foreigners. It was foreign land sales that they would present fake passports for.” It has since been clarified that the land targeted was owned by foreigners who had passed away.

Asked about the latest developments, including Taylor’s death, Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Cordel Hyde, today grimly remarked, “It’s scary when you consider that persons have died and quite possibly linked to these things. You are dealing with a different level of opportunism and different level of criminality and a different level of wickedness altogether. And I don’t know that you necessarily can liquidate that, can destroy that in the shortest possible time.” The Minister acknowledged the importance of putting in place regulations and structures to deal with real estate agents who have been “… having a free run at it for the longest time, and these guys are so-called land agents, and they also pretend to be attorneys and financial experts … and they are very clever, very smooth, very savvy, because they are able to convince very wealthy people to get off their money.”

Apart from collaborating with authorities, Hyde says that his ministry has also done their own internal investigation since Borja’s death. He reported that in the case of Borja’s firm, JC Consulting, close to 80% of over 300 transactions they triggered at the Lands Registry were never concluded. The Minister commented, “Through that process they are able to get what would be the relevant fees, the relevant duties that have to be paid, but they don’t come back!” The report is that the fraudsters collected stamp duty from the intended buyer but the money was pocketed and therefore never reached the Lands Department. Hyde described it as “… a fraud against those persons; it’s a fraud against the state … Lots of these people are out of money by hundreds of thousands of dollars – can’t get their property. They show up at the Lands Department believing that they’ve paid all the relevant fees and come for their land paper.” Instead, they have to start the process all over again without getting any redress for the loss of their life savings.

COMPOL says BPD setting up a fraud unit

Minister Cordel Hyde says that Belize police interact with the Lands Department almost on a weekly basis looking at files, trying to further their investigation. He noted, however, that they may have to consider hiring a special prosecutor or investigator, given that these activities cannot be considered run-of-the-mill.

Earlier this week, when asked about the complexity of investigating this kind of white-collar crime, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams said that they are working on establishing a fraud unit within the Police Department. However, they have to harmonize it with the work of the Financial Intelligence Unit to ensure there is no overlap. They would be expected to work together.