Remember the Sunshine shares?….That's the block of shares in Telemedia owned by the so-called BTL employees trust - and Ashcroft-allied advocates have thrown about values in the range of 60 million US dollars.
Well, government has written to the Trust with its estimate - and - shall we say - it's way, way, way lower than that. According to an article in today's Reporter newspaper, the Financial Secretary Joe Waight wrote to the Trust attorney Godfrey smith On December 10th of last year to say that the shares are valued at a little over 16 million Belize dollars. That is based on a value of one dollar and forty six cents per share.
And not content to leave it there, Waight goes on to factor in debts Sunshine owes to the government of Belize, the Social security board, and the British Caribbean bank and concludes, remarkably, quote:
"As the liabilities of Sunshine far exceeded its assets….the shares of Sunshine had a negative value at the time of acquisition on August 25, 2009.
"It follows that no compensation is payable to your clients for the acquisition of their shares in Sunshine's shares and in Telemedia."
We're tempted to say "wow", but The Trust's attorney Godfrey Smith appears unfazed. He wrote back to the government, quote:
"BZ$1.46 per share is such a ludicrously low figure that it could only have been arrived at as a deliberate ploy to maliciously deprive my clients of their constitutionally guaranteed right to compensation within a reasonable time." That's where it stands tonight as this matter will now likely join so many others in the concatenation of litigation resulting from the acquisition….
