_{Office of the Toledo Teachers Credit Union}

Toledo’s credit union sacks entire Bella Vista Branch staff over fraud

TOLEDO, Mon. June 9, 2025

The Toledo Teachers Credit Union (TTCU) is the smallest credit union in Belize, but it is the only credit union in the Toledo District, boasting 7,000 members and $26.68 million in assets. It is therefore financially sound, with a loan portfolio totaling $17 million as at March 2025. In recent days, the institution has come under significant public scrutiny after news emerged that an external audit had uncovered misappropriation of funds from members’ accounts to the tune of close to $500,000. It is important to note, though, that it was the credit union’s Board of Directors which requested the external audit following the credit union’s own internal investigation which had started long before. Ultimately, it has all resulted in the termination of the 8-plus employees at the credit union’s growing Bella Vista branch, including its manager.

_{Leopold Romero, General Manager, Toledo Teachers Credit Union}

The General Manager of the TTCU, Leopold Romero told Amandala today that everything started unraveling in 2024 when it emerged that Bella Vista Branch employees were obtaining credit from construction supply companies in the name of the credit union. However, the items obtained were meant for their personal use for the construction of homes and fences, and the like. Romero says the credit union’s internal auditor became suspicious due to the fact that the credit union was not doing any construction at the time. This led to the first set of terminations which included the branch manager along with two other employees. Then, says Romero, the field officer from the head office of the credit union learned that all the staff at the branch had been involved in the fraudulent issuance of loans, which were taken out in the names of some 28 credit union members between early 2022 and the last quarter of 2024. According to GM Romero, some of those members were actually out of the country when the loans were approved. The scheme was uncovered as the field officer was following up on nonperforming loans that, as it turns out, the members were entirely unaware of. That led to another set of terminations. The external auditor was then hired in the first quarter of this year.

Romero reported that after the audit was completed, they got the police involved with a view to recovering the misappropriated funds. At the same time, he informed that they have sorted things out with all affected members using the credit union’s reserves which stand at about $4.5 million. Notably though, Romero informed that members will not receive a dividend and rebate this year in order to allow their reserves to recover. In a release on June 2nd, the credit union wrote, “Despite a challenging year, we have strong legal reserves, remain stable and are progressing in a positive direction.” The institution assured that its internal control mechanisms were fully functioning, and that they had implemented additional security measures to prevent future occurrences. Members were also encouraged to regularly monitor their accounts, and have been offered free account statements to review account balances.

The credit union is also keeping the Central Bank of Belize updated on recovery activities. Sources say the Central Bank is keeping the TTCU under close watch. In the case of the Belize Credit Union League, Executive Director Gemayel Babb explained to Amandala today that the League is a voluntary association and they provide technical support if requested by any of their 8 credit union members which represent 167,000 individual members. No such request has come from TTCU, and Babb says they are merely keeping abreast of the reports provided by the credit union on how they are managing the situation. He confirmed that no credit union in Belize is on the verge of collapse, as substantiated by the financials published quarterly by the Central Bank.

The TTCU was to hold a general membership meeting to discuss the results of the audit, among other matters, on May 31, but quorum was not met, and so the meeting has been rescheduled to June 21, 2025.

Apart from the siphoning of funds from the members’ accounts, there is another red flag that Romero says was raised as part of their investigation and the audits conducted. He contends that there was collusion between the Bella Vista branch manager and a contractor from the village who had opened companies along with his wife, some of which they deemed to have false addresses or which were not even registered. According to Romero, the companies were receiving funds from the Government treasury for construction contracts totaling over $200,000. The issue has to do with what is called source of funds, or the supporting documentation that was to be submitted to validate the money transfers as legitimate. Romero says that, whereas a contract for the construction works was provided in one company’s name, it was another company that was receiving the funds.

As it turns out, the former Bella Vista branch manager of the TTCU was hired as the financial administrator of the Global Fund Cycle 7 project in the Ministry of Economic Development under a one-year contract beginning in January 2025 when Carlos Pol was the acting CEO in the Ministry. Today he (Pol) explained to Amandala that the hire was part of the establishment of the Project Management Unit for the Global Fund Cycle 7. Pol stated that the Global Fund approved the hiring process under the Belize Procurement Procedures. This, he says, included the advertisement of the position. Pol shared that four applications were received, and candidates were then shortlisted based on approved terms of reference.  He added that the evaluation panel in December 2024 consisted of six members, including a Belize Global Fund specialist “who served as the eyes of the Global Fund.” After he was ranked with the highest score, the recommendation for his employment then went to the Ministry of Finance for approval as well as to the Contractor General. When we asked if the panel had considered the termination of the candidate from his previous job, Pol stated that he was not part of the panel and said he does not know if they had asked for any recommendation letter, but noted, “that should have been considered back then.”