Prime Minister Dean Barrow has asked the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to investigate a string of dubious financial transactions, possibly dating back as far as 2002, which have led to several millions of dollars going missing and still unaccounted for from the public coffers, as well as one of Belize’s most profitable companies – monies that are suspected to have been mingled with US dollars of questionable origin on the parallel market.
The FIU was established under the Laws of Belize with the powers to investigate and prosecute financial crimes, as well as to serve as a supervisory authority under the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act.
A press release from Government indicates that Barrow met today with FIU director Geraldine Davis Young, former Income Tax Commissioner, at his office in Belmopan.
We know that the attention of the FIU had previously been called to probe two major cases. One is that of Moises Cal, former People’s United Party standard bearer for Belmopan who stepped down after Panama authorities indicated that he had been wanted in connection with a million dollars he was said to have taken to Panama in February 2007, stashed in a suitcase compartment. Cal was traveling on a diplomatic passport.
The FIU had secondly been asked to investigate the case of BZ$7.6 million which had been swindled from the Belize Telecommunications Limited (now Belize Telemedia Limited), when two men were given money to exchange on the parallel market, but they never returned with the US dollar equivalent.
By far the biggest financial investigation being requested is that into the securitization transactions that resulted in tens of millions of dollars being deposited in foreign banks, allegedly to pay for business transactions for companies that had their mortgages resold abroad under a government-guaranteed scheme.
Those transactions were the center of the probe undertaken by the Senate Special Select Committee, which handed in its final report to former Prime Minister Said Musa in July of 2006. That’s around the same time that the now FIU director took over office from former BTL chairman, Keith Arnold.
Today’s press release challenges the veracity of statements made by former Prime Minister Said Musa, who claimed that he had directed the matter to the FIU.
“Will the Prime Minister say whether he has considered (and if not, why not) asking the Financial Intelligence Unit to make inquiries of counterparts in the U.S. and elsewhere in an effort to trace loan monies that the Senate Special Select Committee has identified as having been (possibly) fraudulently obtained?” Barrow had asked Musa on August 25, 2006, in the House of Representatives, echoing a query he reportedly made on another occasion.
Referring to a transcript of the meeting, GOB recalls Musa’s reply, claiming that, “…a copy of the Report of the Senate Special Select Committee has been provided to the Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit with the view to tracing the loan monies that the Committee alleged as having been wrongfully obtained. The Director of the FIU will no doubt pursue the matter.”
However, Government’s press release today claims that according to the FIU director, Musa’s administration did not forward anything to the FIU.
“The categorical statement today by the FIU Director to Prime Minister Barrow squarely contradicts that claim made by former Prime Minister Said Musa,” the release says.
Barrow said that he would ensure that a copy of the report is sent to the FIU, “for action to be taken.”
Another big financial investigation for which the Government has seen no resolve is the Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation (DFC). That Commission was hamstrung when one of two co-chairmen submitted a unilateral report even before the work was done, and by the time the second chair was ready to submit her report, former DFC chairman Glenn Godfrey blocked it with a Supreme Court injunction.
Government is now calling in the FIU to pick up that investigation, “…and take appropriate action on whatever might have arisen out of that inquiry, utilizing whatever material is available as a result of the inquiry.”
Barrow also asked the FIU to pursue the Cal and BTL cases, in which former CEO Gaspar Aguilar, his in-law Hassan El Sayed, and Dion Zabaneh facilitated parallel market transactions that were not in line with financial regulations.
“The FIU, the Prime Minister says, will continue to pursue that matter to determine whether any banking laws or the Money Laundering ACT was violated,” the Government release adds.
The calls by Prime Minister Barrow for the FIU to investigate monies traded on the parallel market and deposited in a local bank, funds garnered from abroad under securitization under dubious companies and deposited in foreign accounts, funds of unknown origin carted off in cash to foreign countries, and the Government’s well-financed development bank going broke come on the heels of the mystery of the Venezuelan US$20 million, on which we reported in our midweek edition dated February 27, 2008.
The release notes that, “…on the matter of the missing US $10 million from Venezuela, the Prime Minister says that in addition to a letter sent to Venezuelan authorities by Belize’s Financial Secretary, the FIU has written to its counterpart in Venezuela to assist in investigating the matter.”
We note that when Barrow’s Cabinet met this week, they discussed an unjust enrichment act. However, when we pressed for more details on the legislation, we were unable to get any specifics, even from Cabinet Secretary James Murphy.
Our newspaper has been trying to find out whether such a law would have retroactive effect, enabling it to cover prosecution of past crimes, and whether the penalties would require jail time for convicted offenders.
There is wide public sentiment that were anyone to be proven to have committed such grave atrocities as making off with millions of public funds, that such perpetrators should be severely punished.
The GOB release concludes that, “…government will continue to pursue justice on behalf of the Belizean people and will leave no stones unturned to bring to account those who have robbed the people of this country.”
We note that today’s GOB release did not mention any call on the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate and prosecute. The DPP also has that jurisdiction, even though the FIU is a specialized financial crimes unit empowered to address the matters raised today by Prime Minister Barrow.