If Taiwanese investor Johnny Kuo gets his way in the Court of Appeal, Government may have to fork out more millions to settle the Mahogany Heights land dispute to be free of the legal entanglements that have been preventing area residents from getting clear titles to the land on which their houses sit.
Amandala has learned that the Government of Belize had gone to the Supreme Court to get the case settled definitively, but Johnny Kuo, the man who claims he provided the US$1 million that Lebanese Abdul Hamze used to purchase the land from Parrot Hill Corporation, is appealing the case even though Government has agreed to settle with Kuo for US$1 million.
The issue was before the Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) as recently as February 2, 2007, but notably, there was no mention of the case then, and Government has made no disclosure to the public about it. Amandala only learned of it today.
The story is very complicated, but, as we have previously reported, Hamze, who reportedly paid US$800,000 for the 7,000 acres of land, entered into a deal with Government.
Hamze was selling the land to GOB for $9.5 million, but GOB discontinued payments after paying $7 million, allegedly due to legal entanglements between Hamze and Kuo. Hamze is reportedly now in Lebanon, and Kuo wants what he claims is his 50% cut of the profits on the sale – which would be $3.75 million.
Government went to the court, appealing for clear title provided that it paid the $2.5 million balance due on the land. The Supreme Court had accepted Government’s bid to pay the $2.5 million balance.
But Kuo later filed an appeal about a month ago. The case is to be heard in June, and attorney Sedi Elrington is representing Kuo.
When we spoke with him today, Elrington said that according to the agreement between Hamze and Kuo, Kuo was to get back his US$1 million from the proceeds of the land resale, and the balance of $7.5 million was to be split 50-50 between the two of them.
Even though, according to Elrington, GOB has deposited $2.5 million at the Registry, Kuo will not touch it because he will now go to the Court of Appeal to get the $3.5 million portion of the $7 million GOB paid to Hamze. In fact, his argument will be that the Government paid the wrong person, and it must now pay Kuo his portion.
The land was to be subdivided, but our reports say that only a survey was done before Hamze entered the deal with GOB.
Elrington told Amandala that there were initially two agreements between Hamze and Kuo: interestingly, the one that specifies that Kuo provided US$1 million for the land purchase and was supposed to get it back after the land sale was reportedly lodged at the Musa and Balderamos law firm – the Prime Minister’s law firm – while a second agreement, described as a mortgage, was lodged at Barrow and Williams law firm, the firm of Opposition Leader Hon. Dean Barrow.
According to Elrington, Hamze has fled to Lebanon with the money, while his client, Kuo, has not gotten any of the proceeds of the $7 million Government had paid Hamze for the Mahogany Heights land.
Kuo’s position is that he won’t surrender rights to the Mahogany Heights land unless Government pays him what he is due – $3.5 million.