And while Barrow sees today's ruling as a step towards re-nationalizing BTL, there is still the issue of the Miami court that has ruled that government acted illegally when it removed Prosser's directors on February 9th. While now the government has at least the glimmer of hope with today's ruling by the Chief Justice of Belize there is still the issue whether the Miami Judge Ursula Ungaro Benages will take into consideration Belize Chief Justice Conteh's ruling.
Well today, we were informed that she will be asked to make that consideration. Government's lead litigator in Miami, Barry Davidson from the firm of Hunton and Williams says there are two encouraging developments on that front. First, he has made an application to the judge asking her to revisit her contempt ruling because new information and evidence obtained from BTL Company Secretary Wilman Black shows that when she made the contempt ruling she did not have all the information. The new information shows that ICC was duly informed of the change of directors by Black but that was not presented to the judge. Davidson hopes that by showing her now, it will lessen or possibly nullify whatever damages for contempt that may be levied against the government.
Also, armed with the Conteh judgement, Davis says he will ask the judge to revisit her ruling on the composition of the board, which she held had to be deadlocked at 4 - 4, and not 6 - 2 as Conteh has directed. These applications are expected to be heard before the Miami court shortly. If Davidson is successful, it would greatly weaken Prosser's position before the U.S. court.
But, an interesting footnote to this is that this morning, senior executives from Prosser's financiers, the Weston Group out of New York called our newsroom to say that they will arrive in Belize next week with money to pay for the Carlisle Shares. That's a hot blast of information, and we're not sure how it fits into all this, as, locally at least, government has benefited from Michael Ashcroft's E-com, whose legal action has effectively neutralized and almost completely eliminated Prosser from any position of power within BTL.
