Yesterday Minister of Information Godfrey Smith told us that government will go ahead with the sale of its BTL shares to Michael Ashcroft and his related companies, despite what the Belize Court of Appeals said on Monday. Today Attorney General Francis Fonseca stressed that the Appeals Court only overturned three of the Chief Justice's four declarations and that one standing declaration allows the US$37.5 million sale to go through.
Francis Fonseca, Attorney General
"Certainly our initial legal advice on this issue is that the third declaration, which was left unchanged by the Court of Appeals, that third declaration given by the Chief Justice, was not overturned by the Court of Appeals. We believe that that third deceleration is a fundamental declaration. It is a declaration which deals with the rights of the majority holders of the C shares to appoint four C directors to the board of directors of BTL. While that right remains in tact we believe that the government remains in control of the board of directors along with E-com of course. Combined together we are the majority holders of the C shares in BTL."
Keith Swift,
They did however overturn the second declaration which said the two Prosser directors should have been removed.
Francis Fonseca,
"Again I think we have to look at the reasons for the decisions before we can fully speak on the issue. But again we believe that what the Court of Appeal is saying in its decision is that there should not be an automatic trigger for removal, that there has to be a process carried out by a duly appointed board of directors and they have said, in keeping with the third declaration of the Chief Justice, that that duly constituted board of directors is the board of directors comprised as appointed by the majority holders of the C shares in BTL which are the Government of Belize and E-com. So we believe that is fundamental to this issue and we'll have to obviously wait and see what the reasons for the decisions are."
Keith Swift,
Is this going to stall the closing of the sale?
Francis Fonseca,
"We don't believe so. We don't believe that it should. As I said, it is a matter we have to look at very closely and again continue to seek legal advice on. But certainly all the legal advice we are getting from our quarters at this point indicate that it should not stall the sale of the shares in BTL."
As mentioned in the interview, the second declaration, which has been set aside, says that Prosser's two C directors lost standing when he lost control of the government's shares. Now that the declaration has been set aside, we take it to mean that they do not lose their standing, meaning they remain on the board which would leave the board deadlocked four to four. This, again, is not government's interpretation.
