So who ended up with former Deputy Prime Minister Hugo Patt's Ministerial Ride, a 2020 Toyota Tacoma which was sold for 65 thousand dollars? When we left you last night, it sounded like it was Emil Torres - who happens to be the same man who had sold it to government 10 months earlier for 90 thousand dollars! Here's that part of the Commission of Inquiry from the first day of hearings on Monday:
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, Commission of Inquiry
"But I flash through this file again and I can't find the receipt for the payment for the agreed price, a government receipt."
Ruperto Vicente
"What happened they paid, it's a wire transfer."
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, Commission of Inquiry
"Yes."
Ruperto Vicente
"We haven't gotten the receipt. If the receipt is not there, then we can get that receipt for you."
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, Commission of Inquiry
"But interestingly it says a transfer from Mr. Emil Torres who is the original person who sold it."
Ruperto Vicente
"Ahh."
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, Commission of Inquiry
"The transfer information that paid the government for it."
Ruperto Vicente
"I am not sure of that one."
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, Commission of Inquiry
"It wasn't the person who sold it buying it back, was it?"
Ruperto Vicente
"I would hope not. We don't go that far. We don't investigate that far."
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, Commission of Inquiry
"His name appears on the transfer for the payment for the government for the price."
Ruperto Vicente
"I would hope that he was not the one who bought the vehicle."
So, car dealer Emil Torres was the man left holding the bag right there - and it sounds like he sold the government a vehicle for 90 thousand dollars in February and then bought it back in November for 65 thousand dollars.
Except he says "nutton noh got soh!" Today, Torres told us that he was not buying back the vehicle - in fact he was simply making a payment of fifty thousand dollars for a friend, a third party whom he owed:
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Did you buy back the Toyota Tacoma that you sold the government 10 months earlier?"
Emil Torres, Emil Torres Auto Co., Ltd.
"Absolutely not. I knew about the buy back of that vehicle, the same time all Belizean knew about the buy back, Jules. I was listening to the commission of inquiries when that thing done, the guy called Mr. Vicente, Mr. Torres. I was like me, buy back a vehicle. I start making phone calls, like what the heck is this? I even went so far as to call my attorney. We would need to do something about this because this is defamation of character. How dare they call my name. I don't buy vehicles, I sell vehicles. What would I be doing buying back a vehicle. I got back to the office, of course people started asking around like what is happening, it came back to me that my company did do a transfer to the government of Belize, an individual that I know - I borrowed some money from. I had money back for him. I called him and I told him the money came in - wire transfer. He ask me to do a a payment to government of Belize. Unknowing to me, not in my wildest dreams. 1, I thought it would have been for a vehicle, moreover a vehicle that I sold to the government, moreover a vehicle that is in scandal right now, and that is the truth. I know nothing of the vehicle. I don't know who bought the vehicle, I don't know who resell the vehicle, I dont know who they resold it to - I don't know anything. It even came that somebody ask me about the vehicle in terms of value, because they were interested in buying the vehicle from somebody that was selling it and I told them I wouldn't touch if I were me and now my name is being caught up in the whole thing simply because I do a third party transfer for somebody that I owed and it wasn't the person that even got called or anything. As a matter of fact I even got a sworn testament delivered already to the commission of inquiries that I Emil Torres did a transfer for him to the government of Belize."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"So what did you think you were transferring the money for, because you owed this third party, but the third party tells you pay the government of Belize for - fill in the blanks."
Emil Torres, Emil Torres Auto Co., Ltd.
"He said simply do a transfer for me to the government of Belize."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"So you're saying you're just a middle man here."
Emil Torres, Emil Torres Auto Co., Ltd.
"Just a middle that was paying back somebody monies that I had for him, which is legal."
That third party is Kelvin Li - who told us by phone today that he was using Emil Torres's paying back of his loan to extend a new loan to another man, Juvencio Herrera who was the one who ended up with the truck.
Herrera then bought the truck, and took it to a local re-seller, Prestige Auto - which sold it for about 80 thousand dollars.
So, UDP Deputy Leader Hugo Patt never saw the vehicle - but the email sent from Joe Waight to the Prime Minister and the vehicle care unit said that the deal was with him and for the price of $87,200.
But - in the end - that was never the price and he was not the purchaser. Juvencio Herrera bought it from government, reportedly for $65,000 - even though the man who paid Emil Torres said he paid only $50,000 dollars.
And, so what was the connection between Herrera - as the final owner - and then Deputy PM Patt - who begged the PM for the deal? Patt says he is just a friend. And since Patt is the one named in the letter to the PM, the one who leaned on the PM to purchase the pickup - why didn't he buy it? He says after his father in law died from COVID and his mother in law fell sick he had to change his priorities and be ready for more medical expenses.
It's a story with many layers, and Patt says that if called before the commission he has nothing to hide.
