PM Barrow exposes Sanctuary Bay web of lies Over the past few months, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) investigation into the Sanctuary Bay scam has caused major problems to Belize’s international financial sector. This is especially so after the Atlantic International Bank Limited (AIBL) had to close its operations as the project exposed the bank to major financial losses. Since this took place, the government has had to intervene to bring an orderly winding up of AIBL becoming party to negotiations between the FTC and AIBL. Those negotiations were proceeding but when the Central Bank’s representative was unable to make it to a meeting between the two parties, it caught the ire of the FTC prompting them to file claims in a Florida court to prevent the liquidation of AIBL from being dealt with in Belize’s jurisdiction.
In their filing on June 10th, FTC presented a 50 page document that read like a tabloid, making all manner of outlandish claims against the Government of Belize, the Judiciary, the Prime Minister, Hon. Dean Barrow and at least one other Cabinet Minister, Hon. Erwin Contreras. The document attempted to paint an awful picture against Belize and relied on information given by some of the very fraudsters that were behind the Sanctuary Bay scam.
Prime Minister, Hon. Dean Barrow on Wednesday July 10, called a press conference to put to rest what can only be described as a web. PM Barrow stated that the objective must have been to cast all sorts of doubt on the integrity of the Belize jurisdiction and to show that they would not get justice in Belize. In so doing they, “relied on utterly unjustified innuendos, imputations and in some cases outright and complete misstatement of facts,” stated PM Barrow.
According to the document, there were meetings with Sanctuary Bay principals and the Prime Minister which never took place. There were claims that the Prime Minister himself owned land at the development site. There were also claims that there were meetings and undertakings given by PM Barrow to the Sanctuary Bay principals which never took place. There were even claims that Hon. Erwin Contreras was the project engineer for Sanctuary Bay. PM Barrow explained that, in fact, there was an Erwin Contreras but it was not the government minister.
During his press conference, the Prime Minister addressed each of the allegations making it categorical that he had no meetings with any of the Sanctuary Bay officials or that he even knew where the project was located. “I have never in my life met with this Mr. Pukke! And with nobody concerning Sanctuary Bay!” said PM Barrow. He went on to say that Sanctuary Bay has never been discussed in any Cabinet meeting classifying the entire document ‘Yeri-so.”
While the entire allegations are outlandish, P.M. Barrow said he was not inclined to take any action against the FTC which he described as one of the most powerful arms of the U.S. Federal Government. The only semblance of an apology came at the end of a filing by the FTC in a U.S. court in Maryland. The document reads that, “The Government of Belize, including Prime Minister Dean Barrow and the Central Bank of Belize, provided substantial assistance in helping achieve this agreement in principle.”
The agreement in effect is a settlement between the FTC and the AIBL. Through the document filed in the district of Maryland Southern Division, the FTC asks for a stay of proceedings in the U.S. court. The filing says that, “FTC staff and Settling Defendant have negotiated a written settlement, in the form of a Stipulated Order, which would resolve all matters in dispute amongst the FTC and Settling Defendant.”
According to Julian Murillo who is the liquidator of AIBL and who was present at the press conference, “The settlement agreed upon resolves all allegations against AIBL and paves the way for the optimal and most expeditious possible return for depositors and creditors in the liquidation process.
Full details of the settlement will be provided once the FTC completes their internal approval process.”
It is noteworthy and the Prime Minister made it clear that the entire saga was, “a real estate development scheme run by Americans in which only Americans invested.” He noted that Belizean taxpayers are in no way involved in settling this problem.while AIBL and FTC settle
