The general election may have been the biggest story of the year so far, but the biggest news is the Venezuela money. US$10 million in grant funds from Venezuela were missing and for two weeks the mystery swelled and groaned under the weight of public speculation. Finally last night, former Prime Minister Said Musa ‘fessed up: he secretly diverted the money to the Belize Bank to settle a part of the debt for Universal Health Services. It is an enormous disclosure and today the Prime Minister had his turn to discuss it. As we reported, he met with Fonseca and Musa yesterday – at their request – and has his own conclusions about the moral and legal propriety of what they did. He discussed those at length today at a press conference before he left for a heads of government meeting in the Bahamas.
Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“I think it was outrageously wrong, I think that it was reprehensibly wrong. I think that it was legally wrong.”
Barrow spoke at the airport’s VIP lounge, flanked by his senior staff and the Governor of the Central Bank.
Dean Barrow,
“In my view, and in the view of the government, what was done by Misters Musa and Fonseca and to a less extent by Amalia Mai is absolutely reprehensible. It is highly immoral and the product of a conspiracy that seemed to have had as its motive two things: to divert this huge chunk of money that was the property of the Belizean people once it was gifted by Venezuela, to divert it from its legitimate and proper and agreed upon use, to divert it so that they, in particular the almighty then Prime Minister and the almighty then Minister of Housing, might use the US$10 million as they saw fit. And it was always the intentions of these ex-officials to lie about the misuse of the money, to disappear it, to act as though it had never been given.”
And having spoken with Musa and Fonseca the day before, Barrow surmised that they only came forward because they were out of options.
Dean Barrow,
“Furthermore it is my sense that these gentlemen had no intention of ever coming clean, even after the general election of February 7th 2008 and it was only that fortuitous, or perhaps not so fortuitous letter from the officials
in Caracas that forced public and official scrutiny that raised for the first time the fact it was US$20 million and not US$10 million. It was that that sweated Misters Musa and Fonseca and obliged them to crack now.”
The grant agreement says nothing about paying the Universal debt.
Dean Barrow,
“They are saying Amalia Mai went to Caracas on the 28th of December 2007 to close this deal and she was asked to sign an official agreement between the government of Belize and the government of Venezuela, acting through the particular agency, the particular bank, reflecting the fact that the Venezuelans were giving Belize US$20 million to be used $19 million for housing and $1 million for the Marion Jones complex. I asked for a copy of the agreement. I was met with the astounding answer that the Venezuelans did not give Miss Mai a copy of the agreement.
Why would Miss Mai sign for $20 million, $19 million to be used for housing and $1 million for the Marion Jones Complex, if it was true, as Misters Fonseca and Musa were telling me, and as they told the nation last night, that there was always some kind of side oral understanding with the Venezuelans that $10 million out of the twenty could be used for other, either unspecified purposes or I think they said for debt relief. Their answer to me was Miss Mai was told she had to sign this, take it or leave it – you sign this and you get the money or you don’t sign this and you don’t get the money.
They are claiming that there was this understanding, there was this, as it were, behind the scenes understanding that they could proceed to do with the $10 million, half of the money as they wish. So it is my sense that they were hoping to be able to back up that claim by way of some official support for it out of Venezuela. I think they realized now that that support ain’t forthcoming.
It is clear that they felt that let us face the music in terms of accepting that we were outrageously wrong in diverting funds belonging to the people and government of Belize for a purpose that was not approved but let us at the same time say see, we are coming clean – at least believe us when we say none of it found its way into our personal pockets. That is as far as I can understand.”
Jules Vasquez,
Sir is there any understanding as to why they took two weeks?
Dean Barrow,
“Well as I said I believe they made trips to Venezuela. I believe they were trying to get people in Venezuela officially to cover them. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether their story is in the first place true, that the Venezuelans agreed, sort of behind closed doors, that they could do with the money as they wished. But the Venezuelans obviously preserved deniability for themselves, obliged them to sign the official document that spoke only about $20 million and the specified purposes. Either these good gentlemen are not as bright and as sophisticated as certainly one of them thinks he is or, which amounts to the same thing, they’ve been had.”
And if you think that by paying that money Belizeans have a stake in Universal – well you’re the one that’s been had.
Dean Barrow,
“My understanding was not to purchase 49% for the government and people of Belize that the interests, which the Belize Bank forms a part of, they are the ones that according to the Leader of the Opposition set up a charitable trust to hold this 49% stake in the newly organized entity. I believe he said to me that the trustees are Phillip Osborne and Mel Flores, both of whom for the interests, the group interest of which the Belize Bank forms a part of. It is not that the money was invested for the government of Belize, shares were bought for the government and people of Belize. No, this charitable trust is a charitable trust owned by the interests that appointed Misters Johnson and Flores to be the trustees.”
So if Michael Ashcroft’s agents and affiliates are so involved – does his bank share culpability? Barrow had to think out loud to answer that one.
Jules Vasquez,
If it was reprehensible and considered illegal, was the Belize Bank complicit in that conspiracy?
Dean Barrow,
“Well the Belize Bank it now turns out was the recipient of these funds. The government paid the funds without first coming to the public. The government paid the funds by way of in my view an improper diversion when you look at what the contract reputedly contained. I would say that the Belize Bank might perhaps want to explain their position.”
And Fonseca and Musa will also have some explaining to do.
Dean Barrow,
“It strikes me that there has to be legal consequences to what has happened. But legally wrong, in what particular context, legally wrong so as to produce what particular consequences, I do not wish to say. I believe that we need to take proper opinion on that. We are absolutely determined to gather all the material that we can and when that has been done, the government of Belize will seek legal opinion as to the implications of all this. Wherever this leads, because at the end of the day it is likely to see some people in public trouble, I think we have a duty to ensure that we dot all our Is, cross all our Ts."
And that starts by sending a special team led by Belize’s ambassador to Guatemala Fred Martinez to Venezuela.
Dean Barrow,
“I wish Ambassador Martinez and his team to bring back the copy of the agreement and a copy of the wiring instructions so that I might know who it was actually gave the instructions for the ten million dollars to be sent other than to the account of the government of Belize.”
Sydney Campbell, Central Bank Governor
“One of the critical document we need is the wire transfer instructions
to say the people in Venezuela, what instruction you gave for this money to move from out of your account into that of the Belize Bank.”
That is the Belize Bank in Turks and Caicos.
Sydney Campbell,
“The transaction as we understood it, the money was booked, the Belize Bank has a branch in Turks and Caicos and the money was booked there initially and then sent to settle the debt here in Belize. Around the end of January there was a transfer made to that bank of the amount to settle the debt obligation, the Belize Bank – the bank that had the debt for government for UHS.”
Jules Vasquez,
Would you say taking it through Turks and Caicos was an intentional strategy to mask or obfuscate the source of it?
Sydney Campbell,
“Well I wouldn’t want to prejudge them. Clearly I’ve said we’ve done only a preliminary look at the information we have on hand. I have indicated to the authorities that we will now make a thorough examination and that will reveal clearly how the money moved from the time it got into the hands of the Belize Bank.
The amount that was written from the debt, from the total amount that government had, which was I think it was $33.5 million and it was another $6 million so if you add it up totally, it comes to a total Belize dollar value of 40 million.”
Adele Ramos, Amandala
“How much million was moved?”
Sydney Campbell,
“Was used to settle the obligation.”
Adele Ramos,
“But how much was moved?
Sydney Campbell,
“That is the amount that came in to settle the debt obligation.”
And now to find out where all that $39 million came from, they’ll have to go to the Turks and Caicos.
Sydney Campbell,
“That branch is a part of the Belize Bank so the examination people will go to Turks and Caicos to make sure that we get to the bottom of what exactly happened.”
Of note in the investigation into the source of the money is Barrow’s statement that government may have paid other monies to the Belize Bank to settle the debt. Reports tell us that Dr. Venny’s Health Care Partners Group paid $13.5 million for the 51% controlling interest. $8.4 million of that reportedly borrowed from the Belize Bank. So take government’s 20, Dr. Venny’s 13, and you’re still short of $6 million to reach the final figure of $39 million provided by the Central Bank Governor. Where did it come from and who paid it? Well that’s what the Central Bank investigation will have to determine.
