And, in other news, he's the American felon who's gotten the most coverage. Ever in the Belize media. We're talking of course about Lev Dermen - the former close associate and campaign funder of UDP politician John Saldivar.
Well, on Friday the Los Angeles businessman was sentenced to 40 years in prison for leading a conspiracy with the Kingston family from the US state of Utah. They allegedly conspired to defraud a US clean-fuels program of more than $1 billion US dollars.
US news reports say that the US District Judge "imposed one of the longest US fraud terms in the past decade on 56 year old Dermen." That;s because the case was considered "one of the most egregious examples of tax fraud in US history."
So, what does this have to do with Belize? Well, like we said, Dermen was a Saldivar contributor and the lawsuit had a lot to do with the laundering of 134 million dollars through "lavish purchases". So, did any of that money pass through Belize? Well, none of the reports we have seen so far say that specifically but we know there were eland purchases out west and we'll tell you about those tomorrow.
