Michael Ashcroft continues to attempt to bleed the country of Belize on multiple fronts using the same suspects doing this. In Belize, he is using Eamon Courtenay who after voting as the Opposition’s lead Senator on Monday, January 30, to pass laws to secure the country’s assets from Predator Ashcroft, he has now turned around and filed a suit in which he is challenging the legislation which he helped to pass.
Courtenay filed an application to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation. The Guardian got a copy of the document which Courtenay filed on Friday February 3 where he is challenging the legislation.
Claim 66 of 2017 was filed by Courtenay and Coye LLP where Caribbean Investment Holdings Limited is taking the Attorney General to court claiming that:
1.) ‘both the Crown Proceedings (Amendment) Act, 2017 (the “CPAA) and the Central Bank of Belize (International Immunities) Act; 2017 (the “CBIIA”) are void for being inconsistent with Sections 2,3,5,6,12,17 and 68 of the Constitution.
2.) “the Acts are ad hominem, and the true nature and purpose of both the CPAA and the CBIIA is to prevent a small group of entities with arbitral awards against the Government of Belize (“the Government”) from taking steps in legitimate enforcement proceedings before the courts in the United States of America. Being ad hominem, the CPAA and CBBIA are inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore void.
The claim then seeks the new laws to be declared unconstitutional and that they be struck down. While the claim is signed by Lyndon Guiseppi, it was filed by Courtenay Coye LLP. The very principal Courtenay, had just a few days prior voted for the legislation to be instituted. Even the entire PUP party in the national assembly voted for it.
And while Courtenay does the bidding of the lord in the home front, Belize, in the U.S. the fight against Belize also continued. One day earlier on Monday February 6, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly allowed a motion by BCB to enforce a judgment against Belize for an arbitration award of 27.4 million U.S. dollars. In her ruling the U.S. judge stated that “This court has confirmed petitioners’ arbitration award, entered judgment in favor of petitioners, and now authorized petitioners to proceed to seek to enforce this judgment in the appropriate jurisdiction in which it can find attachable property of the GOB. Presently there is no issue left for this court.”
Courtenay’s actions in Belize’s Supreme Court are specifically targeted so that the enforcement can actually be carried out. As it is, the government passed legislation preventing persons to seek enforcement of awards against the Central Bank of Belize by criminalizing such actions. Courtenay is now trying to do away with it in order for Michael Ashcroft to have his way. For us at this newspaper, his actions are not in the least bit surprising as he has proven time and again that when it comes to having a choice between money and Belize, he has always chosen the money.
