And while Musa can argue that the money was gifted for health and that it was used to pay for a private hospital – so in a very general way, the two are related, no such defense can be made for the Venezuela money. Through the work of Fred Martinez in Venezuela, government has obtained the paperwork for the grant agreement signed by Amalia Mai in Venezuela on December 28th and it says nothing about health or Universal. Barrow explained.
Dean Barrow,
“Where that is concerned there is the written agreement signed by Amalai Mai, acting pursuant to the authority conferred on her by the then Prime Minister. There is the written agreement that made it absolutely plain that this was an international agreement committing the government of Belize to use these funds for the specified purposes. $9 million was for use in home improvement loans and the other ten million, which Amalai Mai instructed the Venezuelans to send to an account in the UK held in the name of the Belize Bank, was for use in new home construction. The confirmation note sent by the relevant Venezuelan agency, BANDES is the Spanish acronym, to the Belize Bank with respect to the fact that the $10 million had been wired, had clearly on the face of it wording that said that this was in connection with the disbursement being made to the government of Belize for use in housing construction.
Officials of the government of Venezuela have been extremely forthcoming. They have indicated that the officials of the government of Venezuela have said to them directly that contrary to what the ex-Prime Minister and the ex-Minister of Housing have said, there was never any understanding or side arrangement that this money was to be used for any purpose other than what was reflected in the formal agreement, what was reflected in the wiring instructions, what was reflected in the letter that the Venezuelans sent to Amalia Mai. So when in his public statement and when, in the conversations with me, the ex-Prime Minister says that it was always understood by Venezuela that he and Fonseca would use this money otherwise than for the purposes described in the agreement, it is clear that that version, and I’ll put it as kindly as I possibly can, does not accord with the official position of the government of Venezuela.
They always knew that the purpose for which the money was being gifted, or the purposes were the ones I described: one million for Marion Jones, nine million for home improvement, and ten million for new home construction.
I have indicated to the Belize Bank that I wish to put them on notice that the government will also be taking legal advice as to whether they are not obliged to credit that money, return that money, if you will, to the government for the people of this country.”
Barrow says that he is advised that Belize Bank principal Michael Ashcroft is expected to be in town this weekend and he will re-iterate to him government’s wish to be refunded the $10 million which was clearly gifted for another purpose. But not only was the $40 million misdirected, once it got to the Belize Bank it went through a labyrinthine series of reconfigurations – which has accrued no tangible benefit to the Belizean people.
Dean Barrow,
“The enormity of what Musa and Fonseca did and Amalia Mai, although I suppose she may be able to resort to the Newenberg defense, she was just following orders, but the enormity of what has done is compounded by this fact: forty million dollars gifted to us by Venezuela and Taiwan was paid over to the Belize Bank. We did not end up owning the hospital notwithstanding that $40 million was paid. That money was then as we understand it, deposited in the name of a charitable trust registered in Nevis but operating at a Turks and Caicos Belize Bank account. In turn, that money was used, $5 million of it to lend Dr. Venny as a direct loan from the Belize Bank and another $8 million or so as a loan from one of the free vehicles that were used by the Belize Health Care Trust Group in connection with this whole UHS deal.
And funnily enough, although Dr. Venny only put up $12 million or $13 million loaned to him by the Health Care Trust Group, he owns 51% of the shares and the Health Care Trust Group only owns 49%. As Louis Carol said, curiouser and curiouser. Upshot is that the government and people of Belize end up having not even one singly solitary share in the facility now owned by Belize Health Care Partners Group.”
