It made big news last year when Belizean resort developer Carlos Poper took out a civil suit against Minister of State Servulo Baeza - who he claimed had set him up on a land deal. Well tonight, the news is that the matter will not go to trial as both sides have reached an amicable settlement.
What is in that settlement? Well a court order details that Baeza has agreed to refund Poper the full purchase price for the land which is $150,000. The court order also requires Baeza to pay $16,500 in Poper's lawyers fees and another $4,100 for a surveyor.
As we've reported, in 2003 Baeza sold Poper acres of what he thought was a beachfront property on Ropewalk Caye in the Turneffe Island range. After two years building a resort, Poper found out that he had actually built on someone else's property. The land that Baeza sold him was elsewhere on the island. No one in government offered to help him and Poper ended up Having to sell the resort, that he had put almost a million dollars into - at a distress price.
So now, while Baeza has to come up with $150,000 plus lawyer's fees, what he saves is political capital. Documents produced in the case would have shown that as a Minister Baeza bought the land for ten thousand dollars from the government and shortly after, flipped it for $150,000, 15 times the original purchase price.
And apart form having to pay out $170,000 forthwith, Baeza also has no claim on the land. The title was defective, so the Chief Justice will order the government to cancel it. Of course, Baeza is free to re-apply for it.
