For weeks we've been reporting on those big money airport security contracts awarded to companies with political connections: ISECURITY and Four Diamond.
Tonight, thanks to company documents leaked to 7News, we finally know who are the owners and past owners of those companies - and those names illuminate a cascade of political connections - all the way to a ranking government Minister.
Jules Vasquez reports:...
This is the Board of Directors appointed to the Belize Airports Authority in 2021. The Chairman and Deputy were close associates to then Minister Andre Perez - Chair Ricardo Martin is his divisional Chairman and Sandy Roberts is his brother in law.
Nigel Bouloy was named a member of the board. His wife Marcia is sister to the Minister of Tourism, Anthony Mahler.
Company documents obtained by 7News show that Bouloy is also the co-owner of Four Diamond Security - along with Mike Estephan and his wife, Sviatlana.
Bouloy was a board member when it approved the 10 year, 15 million dollar contract for Four Diamond. We cannot say if he recused himself from the meeting when the vote was taken - we have applied to see the minutes of that meeting.
Bouloy has been reappointed to the board whose new Chairman Naim Briceno says "proper procedures may not have been observed in the
award of these security contracts. The new Board has taken swift action to rectify this matter and ensure that all future contracts are awarded in full compliance with Belizean laws and best practices."
Best practices. That will surely be put to the test knowing that Four Diamond - whose co - owner sits on the board - may re-apply, or may take out legal action to block the suspension of its contract.
The case of ISECURITY is a little more intriguing.
They received a 13.5 million dollar contract with an advance payment reported to be at least 750 thousand dollars.
New company documents obtained by 7News show that the company is owned by Ian Cal - he holds all 10,000 shares. The Prime Minister's E-Governance CEO Jose Urbina is a Director.
But, when it was founded in March of 2021, the company was co-owned by Cal's political boss, Minister Kevin Bernard. CEO Urbina was also a co-owner at that time.
Company records show that In August of 2022, Bernard, Urbina and another shareholder sold off their shares to Cal, who became the sole owner of record.
But, with the Minister who is also Cal's political boss being so prominent in the company's history, actually a founding member of the company, his name signed to the articles of association - and with such close political proximity to a lucrative contract which included a massive prepayment before the general election - with no discernible work done in the first five months - the public can fairly wonder what political levers may have been actuated behind the scenes.
In the past month, we have tried twice to interview Minister Kevin Bernard to ask about his past history with ISECURITY - and on both occasions he dodged our interviews. One the second occasion we told him it was about the airport security contracts and he said that doesn't involve him.
We note that Kennedy Carillo was replaced on that BAA board by Narda Garcia when the PM took over the Ministry in 2023.
