Last night we told you that in 4 years between 2001 and 2005, BTL management authorized employees to change about BZ$200 million on the black market. It's an illegal and highly risky practice but it was ok'd by BTL's Board of Directors so the company could find the U.S. dollars to meet its foreign currency obligations, some of it to pay for management fees sent to Prosser and Ashcroft's foreign headquarters.
But now, Utilities Minister Ralph Fonseca has gone on the record to say that he never ok'd the practice and that the Executive Committee, which runs BTL, is looking for a paper trail to hand over to police. That paper trail, presumably would show how former Head of Finance Gaspar Aguilar transacted and lost $6.2 million. Well we don't where the executive committee is looking, but we've found part of that paper trail and it shows how widespread and current the illegal money changing practice has been.
Records of BTL checks obtained by 7NEWS show how the transactions went. The checks we have were made out to employees between May and July of his year; they are made out in sizeable amounts, ranging from half a million Belize dollars to as much as 1.2 million dollars. These were cashed by the employees at the First Caribbean Bank and then that cash was taken to the money changers who came back with U.S. dollars in cash. Those us dollars were then deposited in the Belize Bank, who used the money to pay BTL's suppliers.
Now these checks show just how much activity there was just between May and July after the money had been lost in the December transaction and while government and Michael Ashcroft's E-com were running BTL, meaning that, at least by omission, Utilities Minister Ralph Fonseca must have known about it. And 7NEWS has obtained more proof that it was standard practice at BTL to give senior employees in the Accounting Department huge sums of money to change into U.S. dollars on the parallel market. This additional proof comes from the general ledger control accounts which show to whom the checks were made and the dollar amounts for which they were made, all with management approval.
Indeed it is a paper trail that shows a widespread and institutionalized unlawful practice that, we are told, continued at least up to last month.
