But before putting those arguments before Muria upstairs in the Supreme Court, Courtenay appeared downstairs in the Magistrate’s Court on behalf of the Belize Bank in the case of the seventy-nine counts of failure to report a suspicious transaction. And Courtenay was not a happy camper this morning because as he says, his clients still aren’t sure what they are being accused of because the Financial Intelligence Unit has yet disclose the evidence that supports the charges.
Representing the FIU in court this morning were a trio of legal eagles, B.Q. Pitts, Trecia Pitts and the FIU’s new full-time attorney Marilyn Williams. According Pitts, because of the “nature, complexity and volume” of the case, disclosure is taking some time but he assured Magistrate Sharon Fraser this morning, “They will get it. We will provide it.” Fraser accepted that assurance but opted instead to place on the record an order that disclosure be made no later than August fifteenth. Outside the courtroom, Courtenay made clear his displeasure with the late disclosure.
Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Belize Bank
“The Magistrate has given them sufficient time. You know that I had written to them before the charges. They said no, wait until after you’ve been charged. The bank has been charged and they said give us the disclosure, they still haven’t. Now they are getting five additional weeks to, I don’t know, compile their evidence or get their evidence in a form that they can receive it. The point we keep underlying is how can you charge seventy-nine counts of failure to report a suspicious transaction and when they say where is the evidence, you need months to produce that evidence something seems to me to be fundamentally wrong with this case.”
The FIU’s case against the Belize Bank has been adjourned until September third.
