Prime Minister John Briceño returned from the Summit of the Americas on Saturday and today responded to the Freedom of Information request from UDP Senator Michael Peyrefitte. Peyrefitte had asked the PM to disclose how much has been paid to the law firm owned by two of his Ministers of State, Eamon Courtenay and Chris Coye.
Well, tonight we know that the Government of Belize has paid Courtenay Coye LLP $277 thousand, 842 dollars and fifty cents. PM Briceno advises Peyrefitte that the firm still has ongoing matters for which it is retained by the government - so more will be paid.
So, was it done legally? Meaning, did Minister of State Courtenay and Coye get the proper permission from the Governor General to have their firm work for their government? Well, the PM also attaches letters of permission from the then Governor General, Sir Colville Young, granting that permission in the month after the election, December 2020.
But after making this disclosure, PM Briceno quickly moves on to give Senator Peyrefitte much more than he asked for - reminding us of that old adage, be careful what you wish for...
Briceno alleges that firms owned by the former Prime Minister's relatives earned over 20 million dollars in legal fees during the Barrow years. First is the Barrow and Company firm formerly led by Dean Barrow's brother, Denys, which earned a whopping 14 million in legal fees; while the firm formerly owned by his ex wife Lois Young Barrow earned 5.6 million dollars in legal fees. We note that the Barrow and Company firm - in the person of lead litigator, Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck - continues to do cases for government.
PM Briceno's letter also claims that the Government of Belize paid 5 million dollars to Dean Barrow's firm, Barrow and Williams. It says that 1.3 million of that was legal fees and the balance was in, quote, "the former Prime Minister's law firm securing payments by the UDP Government to his law firm's clients for land acquisitions by government." End quote.
We did get comment from former PM Barrow, who told us, quote, "It is utterly and scandalously dishonest of the Prime Minister to count as legal fees payments made by GOB to Barrow & Williams for the account of (its) clients that won compensation for compulsory acquisitions or other actions against the Government. B&W was free to represent clients and sue GOB precisely because (it) had no retainer from GOB to prevent them from acting…against GOB.
I make clear again for the record that GOB, under the almost 13 years of my administration, did not pay Barrow & Williams any 1.3 million dollars as legal fees. That is a false claim being deployed as a red herring. B&W was never given any contract or retainer, never had any standing arrangement to do legal work for GOB. On a few occasions, such as when there was that unanticipated need for local senior counsel urgently to seek a Court of Appeal stay of CJ Benjamin's injunction against the ICJ referendum, Barrow & Williams was pressed into service. But that was very much an exception to my rule that B&W was not ordinarily to represent GOB.
What a far cry from the situation now in which Ministers needed, immediately after taking office, to get exemptions from the GG in view of the plan to give their law firms voluminous and continuous GOB work..." End quote.
As for the claims relating to Barrow and Co, we did reach out to Denys Barrow and other principals of the firm, but got no comment.
Lois Young Barrow did comment; she said her firm received about $1.5 million dollars in legal fees from the time of the BTL acquisition until she left in August of 2012. She adds, quote, "I definitely did not receive $5+ million!"
