How secure is Belize's banking system? That's the question we asked when we heard reports of a Suspicious Transaction Report involving a politically exposed person-that's defined as someone more susceptible to corruption because of their association with political figures.
But while we tried to take a closer look at how large sums of foreign money moved through Belize's financial system, our investigation - which included rejected Freedom of Information Requests and sources that wished to remain anonymous - ground to a halt due to the inability to access necessary documentation - which is in an executive level lockbox.
But we outlined the initial allegation - first made in 2024 - and the attempts we made to verify it. Courtney Menzies has that story.
It was business as usual in the House of Representatives on September 13th, 2024. Members passed a simple motion: the Resolution to Celebrate 35 Years of Diplomatic Ties with Democratic Taiwan. On the government side, it received full support. On the Opposition side, not so much. At that time, 4 members of the United Democratic Party were present, and two of them stood to support the motion. The then Leader of the Opposition, however, remained silent.
Prime Minister John Briceno criticized Shyne Barrow for this, which led to this explosive outburst:
(SEPT 13th 2024)
Shyne Barrow, Former Leader of the Opposition
"You want me to talk about the millions of dollars that Taiwan gave to your sister? You want me to talk about the millions of dollars that Taiwan gave to your sister? I'm trying to hold it out of respect some of my colleagues [inaudible]."
"Tell them the FIU director [inaudible]."
"I have the evidence. That is not democratic. Taiwan talks about democracy but that is not democratic."
Later, outside the House Chambers, he explained his outburst.
Shyne Barrow, Former Leader of the Opposition
"I know for a fact that the Taiwanese gave three million dollars, thereabouts to [a relative] of the Prime Minister in an NGO and the FIU was investigating that and senior executives in the FIU were terminated because of that investigation. And that type of money is being given to that NGO and then dispersed to members of the government is a direct interference in our democracy."
Strong allegations: That Taiwan funnelled three million dollars to a family member of the prime minister through dubious means. But without evidence, it was just an allegation.
When we went digging, we found that it stemmed from unconfirmed reports of a suspicious transaction report filed by the credit union tied to someone in the Prime Minister's inner circle. This individual was also said to be linked to the account of the non-governmental organization receiving the money. This suspicious transaction report -or STR- is what led to the alleged investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit that Barrow spoke about in the House.
To find out more information, on November 20th, 2025, we submitted a Freedom of Information Request to the FIU. We asked for the suspicious transaction report submitted by the credit union, investigation notes or findings produced by the FIU relating to that STR, and records of any action taken by the FIU in response to the STR, if any.
We also asked for investigation notes regarding the non-governmental organization -or NGO- that Barrow mentioned, as well as communications referencing deposits from Taiwan.
The investigation - if it indeed happened - would have had to look into not just the NGO and the deposits and transfers being made, but the involvement of a politically exposed person - that is, the PM's relative and part of his inner circle.
On December 9th -about three weeks after we submitted our request- FIU gave its answer. Basically, according to the Money Laundering and Terrorism Prevention Act, the unit is prohibited from confirming or denying whether it received any suspicious transaction report, known as an STR - even one involving politically exposed persons. Furthermore, FIU said, it cannot disclose or discuss the content of any STR or discuss any investigation related to an STR at any stage.
In other words: The FIU would not provide any information related to this case of alleged financial wrongdoing.
Without evidence of the STR, our investigation stalled - since the FIU report would have confirmed or dispelled the allegation of the millions of dollars deposited into a commercial bank account belonging to an NGO. An account, according to Shyne Barrow-linked to a family member of the prime minister.
The credit union initially filed its STR after detecting a series of deposits amounting to thousands of dollars landing in the account linked to that individual.
We spoke with the former governor of the Central Bank, who explained that STR's are mandatory when the financial institution makes a discovery that is not within the norm.
Glenford Ysaguirre, Former Governor, Central Bank of Belize
"So when you open an account, the financial institution should evaluate the risks that customer poses to the system with regards to illicit activities or the financing of terrorism, and then make a determination of the source of funds they need to satisfy themselves, or what it would be, an idea of how much, based on your employment or the nature of your business, which they could anticipate you may be depositing in any particular period. And if you exceed those thresholds that they may set for you, they can make a determination whether or not they can, and they will report it as a suspicious transaction."
The situation can become concerning when the account holder is a politically exposed person.
Glenford Ysaguirre, Former Governor, Central Bank of Belize
"They would be considered that because these people are more susceptible to bribes and are higher risks for corruption. And so this system requires them to receive special attention, which is called, enhanced due diligence, I think they call it."
"The due diligence that would be done on that person and the scrutiny that would be conducted on their transactions would be a little bit more than what you would do for the ordinary person."
But according to our sources, the FIU's investigation ultimately ended. Then, in February 2023, the former director, Kent Clare's contract was not renewed. He retained Dean Barrow as his attorney and filed for judicial review because, according to him, he had been given verbal confirmation that his contract would be renewed. Later, Clare accepted a settlement of over $400,000 dollars and the case was dropped. Because of this, he never filed an affidavit in the suit.
While there is no evidence of correlation between the non renewal of his contract, the settlement and the dropped investigation - there is information pointing to it. So, we submitted another Freedom of Information Request to the Ministry of Finance. In that letter, we requested a copy of the final deed of settlement, all written communications between the ministry and Clare regarding the non-renewal of his contract, and the total cost of pursuing the settlement.
We also asked the ministry for any receipts related to the funds the NGO got. When we asked the Financial Secretary, who was CC'd in our letter, about the request on December 3rd 2025, this is what he said:
(DEC 3rd)
Joseph Waight, FinSec
"The short answer, yes I got a copy from the AG's office. I was on leave last week but I saw it. The AG's ministry is preparing a response. I believe they may ask for a little more time which is you know. But certainly it's a Freedom of Information Request and I don't think there's anything to hide so I'm very positive their response will come shortly but fully. But I'm not sure it can come - there's 14 days? And it takes a little while. 14 days, if it's something at the top of you desk and it's easy, but if it requires a lot of gathering of deeds of settlement and other things, it may take some time but I'm guided by the AG's ministry. He passed it to me and I passed back some of the information, we're looking at it. They may ask for a little more time but the intention is to respond with alacrity or with speed and in full."
Despite Joseph Waight's assertion that there was nothing to hide-two days later, on December 5th 2025, the Ministry of Finance rejected our request, stating quote, "Without providing your source of evidence or any evidence at all, you assert that Mr. Clare's contract was not renewed as a result of a purported investigation by the FIU into a suspicious transaction at [the credit union] involving [the NGO]. We do not see how you could possibly expect our ministry to answer any matter concerning an investigation by the FIU, which is an entirely independent statutory body with investigative powers concerning financial crimes or any matter concerning [the NGO]." End quote.
The response from the Ministry continued by stating that contracts made pursuant to the Financial Intelligence Unit Act, such as Clare's, are not considered public contracts, and any correspondence would have been legally privileged.
Again, our investigation stalled.
However, one attorney, Darrell Bradley, told us via text messages that Clare's contract would not be privileged and that he doesn't think that there is any such thing as privilege in those circumstances. Still, MOF denied the request and there is currently no ombudsman to appeal it.
But we still wondered: Are NGO's commonly used to funnel funds to politicians? We asked Ysaguirre about this practice.
Courtney Menzies:
"And in your line of work, have you seen it often, is it a common way to sort of make illicit financial payments to politicians in the events where this happened, using an NGO as a guise?"
Glenford Ysaguirre, Former Governor, Central Bank of Belize
"NGOs, charitable institutions, even churches have become high risk, in organizations and for money laundering. And so those types of institutions would require some additional due diligence if you see volumes of money coming through these places. One would think that there may be some requirement to investigate further and look at it and make sure that it's absolutely consistent with the nature of their business."
While Barrow's allegation was explosive, our reporting so far found no public documentation to substantiate his claims or any official confirmation that the alleged FIU investigation ever occurred.
When we went to the Prime Minister, he denied the allegations.
(Dec 12th)
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"This is when you're being reckless. As in the letter we said, that's a private company so it does not fit under the Freedom of Information Act and there's nothing to say but I can tell you I did no such thing, I will not comment anymore on that matter, so please respect, we did answer you."
What remains now is a trail of unanswered questions and a system that, by design, makes those questions difficult to resolve.
