On December 20th of last year, businessman Benjamin Lo bought 60 air conditioning units from Data Pro. It was a tightly timed transaction, occurring just 9 days before BTL took possession of all assets belonging to Data Pro. The takeover was part of a Social Security/GOB/BTL transaction where Social Security was trying to recover cash for one more Intelco bad debt, which in this case was secured by a mortgage they held for the Data Pro property. But it seems Data Pro's ownership wanted to shift off some assets before the takeover and that's where Lo came in. Now, Lo's 60 air conditioning units are sitting at the Ladyville Police Station compound inside a container.
But, how did it come to this? Well, in February of this year Lo tried to remove the units from a portion of land that used to belong to data pro but now belongs to him. However as he tried to do so the police stepped in and prevented him from taking the air conditioners. No reason was given but the police did give Lo a receipt dated February 28th signed by officer in charge of Ladyville Police Christopher Noble.
Since then Lo has been trying to get the air conditioning units he says he paid for and for which he has a receipt. That took him to the Director of Public Prosecutions who in a letter dated 10th March instructed Officer Commanding National CIB James Magdaleno to return the units. In the letter the DPP says, "this is a matter that should not be pursued by the police." The letter goes on to say, "it is hereby now further directed that the air conditioning units which are presently being maintained while in the custody of the Police Department be returned to the current owner Mr. Benjamin Lo." That was 18 days ago and the police are still holding on the container with the air conditioning units in it.
While we were unable to get comment from CIB boss Superintendent James Magdaleno, we do have a letter from attorney for BTL Jacqueline Marshalleck in which the lawyer states that the sale of the units was not complete because it was never recorded at the general registry in Belmopan and that "the bill of sale in question was made to defraud creditors, in this case SSB."
It's quite the legal tangle in which the police are found to be looking like the guard dogs of a private company looking to collect on a venture that went belly up and in its wake left numerous other entanglements.
