No doubt about it, Jeff Prosser was 'hard pay' matter of fact, he could be 'hard pay star'of the decade. But is that enough to justify government's action to just up and 'strong' BTL from him. Well the government thinks so; it claims it made a non-provisional arrangement with Prosser to pay US$57 million on February 7th and when he didn't he had no more rights. But Prosser did have a bundle of agreements with government, many of them still not disclosed by government and he claims he would have paid on January the 18th if the government had lived up to its promises to him.
It's become a finger pointing match, except one of the persons pointing has control of BTL, while the other, Prosser, is left holding Intelco's US$27 million debt to the Royal Merchant Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. And Prosser is determined not to get left holding that bag, so he's sought the intercession of his representative in Belize, the US Ambassador Russell Freeman.
As non-performing as Prosser may have been, the US government always frowns on government's; particularly those in developing countries, forcing takeovers of US controlled companies. With that in mind, Freeman has been trying to patch things up with the government on Prosser's behalf. Today he told us, he hopes everything works out.
Russell Freeman, US Ambassador to Belize
"Well we are naturally hoping that both the Prosser Group and the government will be able to work out their differences and it won't have to go to court proceedings. But I think its too earlier for me at this time to comment specifically on any of the issues involved."
Alfonso Noble,
Does this at all dampen further investor confidence in Belize, at least from the US's point of view?
Russell Freeman,
"I think we have to wait till things sort out to see where it's going to end up."
And while Freeman was non-committal but open to comment, the man who this week held meetings with Prosser's Washington attorneys, the resurgent Minister Ralph Fonseca, had no comment at all; in fact after granting interviews to Channel 5 and FM 2000, he simply walked away from Alfonso Noble. In total Fonseca refused three requests from Alfonso. The official explanation was that he had a boat to catch to visit a waiting U.S. Coast Guard Cutter.
And late word in to our newsroom this evening is that Jeffrey Prosser has taken Government to court, but in Miami. Details have been hard to come by, but we have confirmed that he was seeking an injunction against the Government of Belize. The judge refused but set a hearing date for next week Tuesday, the 22nd.
