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Broke Bank Benque: Mount Carmel Folds, Members Will Lose Deposits
Thu, July 28, 2016
The Mount Carmel Credit Union in Benque Viejo Town has been in financial trouble for more than 15 years now - and last night members were told that their Credit Union would be closing down. Why? Well, Mount Carmel is bankrupt, and the credit union is about to lose its headquarters to the DFC, to which it owes 454 thousand dollars -and cannot pay.

And the bottom line for the hundreds of members? It's really bad news….they will lose all their savings just like that (poof) gone! The few dozen members who showed up to a meeting with the Credit Union League were given the bad news last night. Today in Benque Viejo, long time member David Ruiz told us it was like a sudden death:

David Ruiz, Mt. Carmel Credit Union Member
"Well very disheartening news Jules, that the credit union will just stop functioning, the DFC will come and sell the building, close it down and that's it. That's basically it. It was very disheartening and presented in a very de-humanized form. I mean there is no money to give you or shares back to recover your shares. So that's the news we have to say. The league just say that we can't do anything - it your credit union - as plain as that."

Jules Vasquez
"So what happens to your savings?"

David Ruiz, Mt. Carmel Credit Union Member
"Well we lose our savings and there were some people at the meeting that worked their whole lives in the US. There is this lady who lost this money that she had to build her house."

Jules Vasquez
"I heard she had $50,000 in there."

David Ruiz, Mt. Carmel Credit Union Member
"About that. The elderly, which hurts my heart, the people with pension, pensioners - people that were just living from day to day getting their savings and that's it. At no point did the league come and meet with the members, call a meeting. Why last night until the very end when we are about to lose the building. I mean what can we do in a matter of days you know? People were just shocked and people couldn't even plan, a follow up thing to say we're going to do this. We need time to synced in - it's like a sudden death. This is simply a failure of the whole structure. We as members who failed to demand accountability when it happened, the failure of management, board of directors, because it was not an overnight thing and then the big embezzlement, the people who stole the money. There are elements that want the credit union to die, so that the evidence dies with it. Because if there is a forensic auditing, many people would have to account and respond - what happened to that money? The poorer people just put up. The amount I had which was $7,000 which is significant for me at this point. You can't find $7,000 out there. I mean for the poorer people. Benque is not an aggressive community and its part of our culture, but also part of our culture is we have the indigenous part where people can take many things, but when the cup runs over, that's when things can become really bad."

Ruiz says they are trying to take up a petition to the Prime Minister to ask forgiveness for the DFC loan. The Executive Director of the Belize Credit Union League, Corrine Robinson-Fuller did not return our calls for a comment. We are told she delivered last night's bad news.

Mount Carmel began running into trouble from at least 2001 when two employees, Martita Duarte and Julio Santos were accused of embezzling more than five hundred thousand dollars form the institution.. They were charged but the prosecution fell through, and nothing was repaid. Later reports said the sum lost may have been closer to a million dollars.

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