Last night, we told you about 42-year-old Ivan Ayuso, the first public official who has been charged with criminal wrongdoing allegedly committed under the Barrow administration. Tonight, he's at the Belize Central Prison after being taken to court for laundering over 1 million dollars in public funds.
As we told you, Ayuso used to work at the National Sports Council as a senior pay clerk. The Auditor-General found in a report released last year that he allegedly diverted over 400 thousand dollars into his personal accounts at 3 separate banks, which were major losses at the Sports Council's expense.
Our information is that he had been charged with theft, uttering upon a forged document, and money laundering for a little over 1.09 million dollars. Today, he was arraigned before Senior Magistrate Ford on the single charge of money laundering. No plea was taken from him since this will be tried as an indictable matter. The Financial Intelligence Unit's prosecutor, Janelle Thomas Shorter, was the authority in this arraignment, and since she did not object, the Senior Magistrate granted him bail in the sum of 300 thousand dollars.
After the arraignment, his attorney granted an interview to court reporters, and here's that conversation:
Ronnell Gonzalez, Attorney for Defendant
"Today my client was arraigned in the magistrate's court, he was read one single count of money laundering. It is for transactions that would have taken place in the amount of approximately $1.09 million dollars and the magistrate granted bail in the matter after the accused was read the offence and after he understood the offence. He was granted bail in the sum of $300,000 and of course it is a land title bail. Unfortunately the accused was not able to meet bail this afternoon, but we are trying to work on the bail documents for him."
Reporter
"Tell us what capacity did your client work, how this such a charge came about of the money laundering."
Ronnell Gonzalez, Attorney for Defendant
"As I mentioned I don't want to go deep into the details, but what I can say as far as I am instructed and in his own defense is that the accused was an accounting clerk during the period of 2016, dating about a couple years back 3-4 years before 2016 and leading up to 2016 where he was in charge of preparing documents or cheques I should say in the capacity of an accountant accounting clerk. I should say in his defense that at no time he was ever authorized to sign off on any of these cheques and therefore his public image I would want to say that they stand only as allegations at this time before the court."
There are a number of conditions to Ayuso's bail. He must report to the Belama Police Substation every Friday. He must surrender all his travel documents to the Clerk of Court. He cannot leave the jurisdiction without first applying to the court for permission. He must also stay away from the prosecution witnesses in the case against him, and he cannot be arrested and charged with any offense whilst out on bail
As you heard, Ayuso was unable to meet that massive bail, and he was remanded to the Belize Central Prison. His attorney believes that he'll be able to meet that amount sometime next week. His case has been adjourned until March 18, 2021.
