First it was the Belize Bank that was charged with 79 counts of failure to report a suspicious transaction and now identical charges have been laid against First Caribbean International Bank. That bank faces 113 counts for failure to report transactions occurring between 2004 and 2005, adding up to millions of dollars. They are offences under the Money Laundering Act, and while they are innocent until proven otherwise, just to be linked to these charges makes for a huge black eye for this the largest, regionally-listed bank in the Caribbean, with over 100 branches in 18 countries. Today First Caribbean’s Country Manager Glen Smith said, quote “our bank takes its legal and regulatory responsibilities very seriously and we are careful to ensure that we operate within the legal and regulatory environments where the bank does business including Belize...” He continued to say that, “First Caribbean.... will continue to cooperate fully with.... authorities (but) First Caribbean will defend its good name and brand to the fullest extent.” That defense begins on the 22nd when First Caribbean’s attorney is expected to appear in court to answer to those hundred-plus charges.
But many of you may be asking, what are all these “suspicious transactions?” Well, it goes like this...: between 2001 and 2005, BTL is estimated to have changed 100 million U.S. dollars on the black market. And according to the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Belize Bank and the First Caribbean International banks facilitated those transactions, making significant outlays of Belize currency available so that BTL’s financial controller Gaspar Aguilar could then personally carry the Belize currency to black market money traders in exchange for us dollars. It was a practice laden with risk and BTL’s auditors repeatedly warned against it. But it persisted until the end of 2004 when BTL lost over 6 million Belize dollars to theft. Aguilar gave that money in cash to a currency trader who took off with it and never came up with the equivalent in U.S. dollars. Aguilar became the fall guy for a dubious corporate policy and in September of 2005, after he had been fired, he told us that one transaction went wrong in a history of hundreds, over a span of years. Tonight we reproduce a portion of that interview conducted in September of 2005.
Gaspar Aguilar,
"Because the entire transaction, this is one transaction out of hundreds, and whoever enters into this type of commercial arrangement is fully aware that there is tremendous risk and this is one transaction that fell into that risk out of hundreds, out of a US$100 million. So that is what people need to understand, that this is not a one off thing, isolated, that I did."
Jules Vasquez,
From throughout this process is it your feeling that the Central Bank or the Ministry of Finance, the regulators of the financial sector in our country, were aware of such large movement of U.S. on the parallel or black market?
Gaspar Aguilar,
"Well I can only confirm what the public already knows, the system is there, and they had to know. You can't hide that volume of transactions, both in the number of transactions and in the dollar value. The authorities know."
And while no bank has offered any admission of involvement, as we understand it the justification that has been cited is that the money was being channeled through the now defunct casas de cambio. Aguilar’s public statement and the one he gave to police disputes that interpretation.
