We reported last week that former PM Musa was cleared by the court of stealing the Belizean people’s money. Upon further examination however, we realized that this was not a clear-cut case of an executive making a decision for the good of the country. Once we realized that Michael Ashcroft was a key player in the ordeal we knew that more reporting was in order.

A round of applause for Mr Ashcroft?

A Little Background

So let’s begin with a little background on Ashcroft. Mr Ashcroft spent some of his childhood in Belize while his father was colonial civil servant. Apparently he took a liking to Belize and has been heavily involved in Belizean business for most of his adult life. He is the 65th richest man in Britain and also holds Belizean citizenship, making him by far the richest Belizean in the world.

Ashcroft is the chairman of BB Holdings Limited, the parent company of the biggest bank in Belize: The Belize Bank. BB Holdings also has a 26% holding in Belize Telemedia Limited, more commonly known as BTL. Mr. Ashcroft essentially controls both telecommunications and finance in Belize, and by proxy, arguably, the country itself. BTL’s monopoly over internet service in Belize allows them to block Skype, an issue we are continuously covering. Ashcroft, through BTL, has also convinced the government of Belize to allow such raptorial practices. Though a government commission has declared that this blocking is illegal, no change in policy is foreseen.

Protesters demanding that Ashcroft give back their money!

Who is Michael Ashcroft?

Michael Ashcroft’s billions have garnered him much influence in Belizean politics and British politics. He has given over 3 million pounds to the Tories. The amount he has given to Belizean political parties is unknown to us but political power is surely much cheaper in Belize.  His paid-for political connections allowed him to become the Belizean Ambassador to the United Nations under the previous administration.

The Scam

Now for a little background on the mess that Mr. Musa is embroiled in, dating back to 1998. The Musa government decided to finance the building of a private hospital called Universal Health Services (UHS) along with loans from The Belize Bank. This was a private hospital outside Belize City.

Why did the government agree to use the people’s money to build a hospital? What is the likelihood that the private entity would pay back the funds?

By December 2004, UHS owed the Belize Bank $29 million Belize dollars. Then, against all odds and common sense, the government of Belize agreed to guarantee all of UHS’s obligations.

The guarantee was signed by Mr. Musa and by Francis Fonseca, but this signing was done privately. No one was told of the secret deal, not Mr. Musa’s cabinet and certainly not the Belizean people.

It did not stop there; GOB kept giving UHS funds. By March 2007, UHS debts had risen to over Bz$33M. On March 23, 2007 the government signed a new agreement in the form of a settlement deed between GOB and The Bank of Belize. In this agreement the government promised to pay all of UHS debts to the bank, despite the fact that their entire budget for the health ministry is just $40M. Furthermore, the Belize Laws (section 7 of the Finance and Audit Reform Act of 2005) state that the government needed the approval of the National Assembly before any such disbursement agreements could have been agreed to, but no approval was granted.

Mr. Musa, with an election looming, went to his allies asking for funds. He used these funds from his diplomatic friends to pay his debts. The Venezuelan government gave $US10M for housing developments. The Taiwanese government gave $US 6M dollars. Both amounts ended up being transferred to an account of the Belize Bank in Turks and Caicos.

The government attempted some magical accounting with the money from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.  They said that they had been given $Bze 10M, which they dutifully dispersed to the housing development, while they had in fact been given $US 10M.  So at a 2:1 exchange rate, $10M Belizean dollars had been surreptiously transferred to the Belize Bank with the Belizean people none the wiser.

Finally, a watchdog group led by current Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s wife, Lois Barrow filed suit saying that the Mr. Musa had broken the law by handing over money to the Belize Bank.

It seems that Mr. Ashcroft used UHS to siphon money from the government of Belize and from foreign donors to the vaults of the Belize Bank and the pockets of the Mr. Ashcroft.

When Mr. Barrow came to power he demanded that the Belize Bank give the money back. Barrow said :“The days of doing things in the dark behind the backs of the Belizean people in order to screw the Belizean people are over.”  However, as we can see with the BTL’s blocking of Skype, Dean Barrow has not done very much to cross Mr. Ashcroft’s business ventures.

With Mr. Musa’s not guilty verdict it seems that the Belizean people will continue to be screwed and Michael Ashcroft will continue reap the reward of being the most powerful man in Belize.

For more information go to the Economist.

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