And, from the upper court to the lower, the Belize Bank was also answering charges at the Magistrate’s level. The bank faces 79 charges of failure to report a suspicious transaction under the Money Laundering Act. Those suspicious transactions reportedly date back to 2004 when BTL was changing huge sums of cash on the black market. All 79 charges were read, and the Belize Bank through its attorney Eamon Courtenay pleaded not guilty to all counts. Courtenay told us he is concerned that the bank has not seen any evidence.
Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Belize Bank
“We are very confident first of all that the bank will prevail at the end of the day. Secondly, we have been asking the FIU to provide us with the evidence that they say that they have which will supposedly support this offense. Despite repeated requests, they have not done so. We have come to court today, they still don’t have evidence to provide to us. It seems to me that there is a issue here about evidence in the possession of the prosecution. I’ve made it abundantly clear, abundantly clear in the court on the record this morning that we want all the evidence in the possession of the FIU, whether they intend to use it or not, because it is our feeling that they do not have evidence to support these charges.
I think the FIU needs to step back. When you make an allegation like this, you need to have compelling evidence because of the implications, not only for the bank, but for the financial institutions in this country and for the financial systems. There are ramifications.”
The matter has been adjourned. The Financial Intelligence Unit is represented by special prosecutor B.Q. Pitts.
