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Mega Malice At Mega Bingo?
posted (March 25, 2011)
The next story involves allegations of theft, arson, sexual assault and just pure malice. Publicly, the dispute began two days ago when Joseph Marinan, the owner of Mega Bingo woke up to find his yellow Jeep Wrangler engulfed in flames.

Now that came after he had suspended a former employee on the allegation of theft - and - in view of the arson - fingers began pointing at 2 employees of the company who were suspended after being accused of stealing from the company. Well this morning, the fingers started pointing back: one of the accused employees came forward accusing the mega bingo owner of sexual assault. We spoke to them and the mega bingo owner…

Rachel, Employee of Mega Bingo
"50% of it is owned by Mr. Joseph Marinan - the person who suspended me so to speak because that's the word he used."

Reporter
"For what reason?"

Rachel, Employee of Mega Bingo
"Supposedly I am criminal investigation for something that went missing from his office."

Reporter
"Could you tell us because we are hearing that this man might have sexually harassed you - I mean I have to be very up front, Could you tell us more or less the circumstances around him because his vehicle was burned and the rumor is that he believes the suspension of you is somehow related to it. Could you tell us?"

Rachel, Employee of Mega Bingo
"First of all I was in my bed when his vehicle got burned up. I didn't know anything about that. I don't know how he come up with that and yes he made passes at me, I have certain evidence I could bring forward to prove this and I just really want to clear my name because this is very embarrassing for me and my family as you know we are a well known family. Everybody knows who is my aunt and because of the show most people know who is me now and it's just very tiring and exhausting."

Reporter
"You feel like you were disrespected or violated as an employee?"

Rachel, Employee of Mega Bingo
"Yes very violated."

Yolanda Schakron
"I need to speak up because Rachel is my niece. We Belizeans for Justice would have been here for any woman that is sexually harassed on the job. My ex-husband owned 60% of Mega Bingo, I would not go against my ex-husband he and I are very good friends, I have two children for Mr. Schakron. Mr. Schakron is an extremely good person; he didn't know what was going on in Mega Bingo because Joe is the one in charge of Mega Bingo. Joe likes to sexually harass the employees. I have witness Joe has call his employees idiots. It really to me is demeaning for someone to come in and do this to our Belizean people. I am very upset, I spoke to my husband this morning - he told me if your niece has been sexually harassed by Joe - you go ahead because this is wrong. I know that Joe is out there meeting with certain gang members to put a hit on me, my niece and her boyfriend. These are serious threats on my life. For the first time I am afraid because I don't know who Joe Marinan is. I know that Joe Marinan sexually harassed his employees. There are afraid to come forward but today I told my niece you need to step forward and be an example for the other young women in this country who are going through the same thing by their employers. I want the police to take that very seriously. They are not taking it seriously but I ask Mr. Singh to take it very seriously and you know what Mr. Singh knows who Joe Marinan is."

Rachel, Employee of Mega Bingo
"And further more right I just call the balls on the show. If anybody is to rig that it would be Mr. Marinan himself along with his technicians because all I do is read balls and call it out. I have no control over which balls come up or anything that have to do with that machine. As I said again I will say it - all I do is read the balls and call it out."

Joseph Marinan, Co-owner Mega Bingo
"Well I didn't fire any former employee, I suspended two employees because of a possible investigation for a theft that occur in this establishment and base on general accounting principles, base of full accountability and base on my license for lottery I cannot have any suspicious characters working in my premises until they are cleared of any charges or any investigations. So I think the general public would stand behind me on that. We need to make sure that we have full accountability with Mega Bingo, with the Pull Tabs and with the Instant Tickets. Any allegations that are made against me - people should be careful because of defamation. I am not making any allegations against anyone. I feel that anybody who works for me or works for JD Financial is happy and supportive of their job. Anybody who is involved in criminal activities will not work for me and will be suspended unless they are clear. It's pretty simple."

Daniel Ortiz, Amandala
"I have heard you say the words criminal activities. Can you be more specific? I know there is an ongoing investigation but can you comment on the actual criminal which the investigation have been prompted for?"

Joseph Marinan, Co-owner Mega Bingo
"Well definitely, someone came into our establishment. They bought some Pull Tabs and those Pull Tabs were brought back by an individual and they tried to redeem those tabs. I was notified, I notified the authority and the authority took somebody into custody - that person in custody gave a statement, that statement lead back to the possibility that it is an inside job. With that two employees were `suspended pending an investigation because their names came up."

Reporter
"Did you sexually harassed Rachel?"

Joseph Marinan, Co-owner Mega Bingo
"Well I am not sure what you definition of sexual harassment. I absolutely not, of course if it occur in the United States it is absolutely not but there is no sexual harassment done in my office what so ever and if there are any accusations made towards that especially in the media and the public I can understand - people that want to take the light off of them and put the hot light on somebody else so that's understandable at some point in time. If it continues then definitely I will have to take private actions which come to defamation. I am not sure about the laws in this country but I know the laws in the United States - you can't go around accusing people unless you have proof behind it."

Both sides have filed official police reports at the police station.

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