And while Saldivar was only Minister of Immigration from March to June of 2012 - his relationship with Lev Dermen did draw scrutiny form the state department. As we told you, the corruption designation refers to misusing a U.S.-donated Coast Guard boat for his personal gain.
And that takes us to a famous secret recoding made of John Saldivar when he was speaking plainly about taking Dermen on what he called a fishing trip, and getting a lot of money from him. Today he owned up to the recording - which we will play a portion of before his remarks about it:
Voice Audio
"Now I understand why when Lev came to Belize, when I took Lev and all of these Mormons on a finishing rip out there in the Coast Guard boat, that is how he was, according to Jacob, asserting that I listen to him or else because I have friends all over the world with my network of powerful people. That is how my name came to be mentioned, because Jacob saw me as one of those powerful friends that Lev Dermen had. That is how I got the $25,000 every month and that's how my name came into it. I got a lot of money from it."
Reporter
"That is you in the recording, plainly speaking about taking Lev Dermin on a joy ride in a coast guard vessel."
John Saldivar, Rejects US Designation
"Not necessarily a joy ride, we went to visit installations. I didn't think of it then but let me say Jules it appears that there are people besides the US government because I really don't give much weight to them trying to complain 'we gave you this boat so you must only use it how we tell you to'. That is rubbish we are a sovereign government and as the Minister, I authorized for that to happen, I take full responsibility for that."
Reporter
"You see it as an error of judgment?"
John Saldivar, Rejects US Designation
"I prepared to concede that it was an error of judgment in terms of - only because we now know what was the perhaps reasoning behind it. But for me there was nothing in it, but I do apologize and I take this opportunity to say that it was possibly an error of judgement and I don't know that it rises to the level of criminality and certainly does not rise to the level of corruption."
Reporter
"Using a public asset for a personal advantage because you wanted to fund your sports team according to you, you wanted to sweet up the man so that -"
John Saldivar, Rejects US Designation
"No no, you are trying to get into my head. That clip that you heard was me trying to explain Jacob Kingston's testimony, that's all that it was."
Reporter
"But you had something to gain."
John Saldivar, Rejects US Designation
"Out of that trip? No"
Reporter
"Out of your relationship with Dermin."
John Saldivar, Rejects US Designation
"No, that trip was not done in that spirit."
