Gaspar Aguilar remains a key suspect in a police investigation into $7.4 million missing from BTL. As former financial controller, Aguilar claims that the board of directors instructed him to change the money on the parallel market. But at the company's annual general meeting on September 30th, Chairman Keith Arnold told shareholders that Aguilar was acting on his own. That's a huge difference between stories, actually the difference between one individual's criminal act and a company's questionable practice. So which is it? Well tonight 7NEWS has obtained documents which shows that BTL's Board of Directors authorized and blessed transactions on the parallel market. In fact, it was more than just a practice, it appears to have been policy.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
The letter shows that as Financial Controller, Gaspar Aguilar wrote to Dean Boyce on June 13 of 2003, telling him that the company needs to secure US$3 million within 30 days to meet its external commitments. He tells Boyce he checked the source, which would be black market currency trader, for the U.S. dollars, and the exchange rate is US$2.18 to BZ$1. He tells Boyce, "with your approval I can begin the purchase of the US$3 million, starting on Monday June 16". In a signed note at the bottom of the letter, Boyce, Ashcroft's Chairman, authorizes the transaction saying, "transaction authorized to a maximum of US$3 million at a maximum exchange rate of $2.18." That signature is Boyce's.
And if that isn't sanction enough of this very illegal business, on August fifth, of 2003, just one month and a half later, Aguilar writes to Boyce, asking for approval to buy US$1 million a month from August to March of the following year at a rate of $2.18 and $2.20 in the Christmas season. Now keep in mind all these transactions are for currency to be bought off the black market. Boyce writes in an e-mail later that same August fifth: "I am authorizing the purchase of US$1million per month with a maximum exchange rate of US$1 to BZ$2.18."
All these authorizations came after Boyce was warned in August of 2003 by the external auditors that there are "deficiencies in supporting documentary evidence of U.S. dollar purchases." Of course, those deficiencies existed because the currency was being purchased illegally on the black market where there's no paper trail. In 2004, those same external auditors again warned BTL's Board of Directors that BZ$8.2 million was used to purchase U.S. dollars on the parallel market which is contrary to exchange control regulations. It warns that, "the risk is fairly obvious."
All this proves that at all times, BTL's Board of Directors and its Chairman, both Prosser's and Ashcroft's, knew of the risks involved with the way they were changing money, but chose not to heed them and apparently also turning a blind eye was the Financial Intelligence Unit headed by the now Chairman of BTL Keith Arnold.
Between 2001 and 2005 BTL changed US$100 million on the parallel market. The Minister of Finance for two of those four years, Ralph Fonseca claims he knew nothing about it.
