7 News Belize

Penner’s Peculiar Predicament
posted (October 3, 2013)
And while Chang is away, Cayo Northeast representative Elvin Penner is in the hospital. 7news has confirmed that he is in a private facility in Belize City receiving treatment for high blood pressure and other related ailments. We note that Penner has had quite significant health issues in the past while in office and at one point he even went to Cuba for specialized attention. As we understand it, his present condition is not considered life threatening.

But if he is under extreme stress, it's understandable. Yesterday Penner had to face down a throng of media as he was leaving the Prime Minister's office - where he had gone to ask about his pay as an area representative. He didn't give any comment other than the obligatory "I continue to serve my people."

Indeed, Penner's world has been turned upside down since he was forced to resign exactly two weeks ago on September 19th. Since then more and more has become known about the man he helped get a passport, Wonhong Kim. And much of what we know pivots on two things: Penner's email that he sent to 7news last Friday, and Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse's interview yesterday in which he outlined a mass breach in procedure.

Tonight, Jules Vasquez has put together all the information that we've found out so far about Citizen Kim:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
Citizen Kim - so far we know that the date on this nationality certificate was falsified. It says April 22, 2013, presumably to form some connection with the date of a swearing in which was held on April 26, 2013. Penner told the Prime Minister he signed it on September ninth, but never put the date on it.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"And so the question of who backed dated that certificate remains very much in issue."

"Whether you believe him or not that he didn't put in the date of April 22nd you will never be able to establish that in fact he didn't."

The dubious date aside, we know that no fingerprints were collected from Citizen Kim, nor did he get any vetting from the Special Branch.

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"The finger prints are not on the document."

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"Having to clear all names in the nationality?"

Jules Vasquez
"Yes."

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"That system still exist."

Jules Vasquez
"So was that bypass as well?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"It looks so, we don't have the file and that's the problem. We don't have that part of the file, so we can't say whether in fact there was any police record in there to other things because we don't have that part of the file."

The picture, which appears in the passport, is the same as the one on the nationality document. It was not taken - as is required - at the Immigration Department. It resembles the picture that appears on WonHong Kim's South Korean Passport issued in December of 2008.

A close look at the image on the nationality certificate shows that it is not an original - nor is it from the immigration system. The top of the head is cropped out and the appearance is irregular.

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Immigration
"The difficulty we are having is how the picture got into the system, that is the difficulty we are having and so that is a technological thing we are working through, and we have to solve that."

Jules Vasquez
"So then there is a high level of fraud and complicity within the Nationality Section because, there is no way the minister on his own could have imposed that picture into the system."

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"Passport area you mean. That is what we are investigating."

Jules Vasquez
"But it is on the nationality certificate as well."

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"Yes it is on the national certificate also."

Jules Vasquez
"Which comes from the Nationality section?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"Yes, that picture is the issue."

That picture is the issue - but it shouldn't be really, this is Wonhong Kim as he arrived in South Korea from Taiwan tied up in rope. It is the same person who is on the nationality certificate and the passport.

This is the man who Penner described in a mail as "a Asian person...I have known through business trips, even before I entered politics."

On the passport application, he writes that Won Hong Kim is his friend who he knew, for 3 years - which differs from the time he entered politics, which is at least six years.

But that is just one small deception within a much larger one. Penner said he was tricked by an imposter. He seized on the opportunity to do that based on the confusion started by this picture which was posted on the Interpol website and passed into Belize Media. But it is not Wonhong Kim - this is the same man in the nationality certificate; Interpol made a mistake, and Penner thought he could use it as a lynchpin to slip out from under a case of what appears to be wholesale fraud.

But in so doing, he dug himself an even deeper hole.

In his email, Penner says he had direct physical contact with Wonhong Kim - a person who was in a Taiwanese jail at the time. He writes of their meeting which took place presumably in early September when he signed Kim's application, ("Mr. Kim)…came to me for a signature so he could get his passport. He also mention that he needed it urgently since he was about to go on a trip and was more than willing to pay the regular one day service fee."

And then Penner says, Wonhong Kim presented the picture himself:

"The picture on the nationality document he presented to me, the Korean passport that he had with him…where (sic) all of the same person. The person whom I knew as Mr. Kim."

And then Penner says he even helped facilitate Citizen Kim. He writes, "Wanting to help a business person I made sure that everything was in order on the application form and personally went with him to the passport office to see to it that he would get proper attention and would get his passport the same day." That same day would be September ninth when the passport was issued.

Now let's got back over that: Penner "personally went with him to the passport office." But how could he go with Kim to the passport office when

Wonhong Kim was on a Taiwanese jail awaiting extradition? That statement is the central confusion in this case:

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Immigration
"Persons have said, minister have said that a person came and sat there and the person was known to him and that that is the person appearing there. If that is so then we have a difficulty, we have tried to find out if the guy had twin."

Of course, that is remote in the extreme - he doesn't have a twin, it is all a tissue of lies and Penner's last shred of plausible deniability is vaporized.

Bottom line? The man Penner got the passport for is the international fugitive; the man he got the passport for was in jail at the time he got his passport and at the time the passport was applied for.

Jules Vasquez
"Wouldn't then invoke consideration of criminal charges; uttering upon a forge document, something must arise?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"The DPP will pick that up."

Jules Vasquez
"One hopes."

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Immigration Minister
"One hopes."

But, the Penner Production of Citizen Kim goes deeper. His political ally and former UDP Cayo Mayor Alfonso "Ponchis" Cruz signed the application Penner's driver picked up the passport.

So, if Penner was at the beginning, middle and end of this process, the question then logically arises what role if any did he play in getting the bogus picture inserted on the passport?

Indeed, it would require a level of technical knowledge of the Immigration operating system - one which Penner likely does not possess. But what role did he play in getting it done, in pushing it through?

In his email to 7news, Penner says: "I am certain that the officers did nothing but there (sic) job to the best of their ability and made sure that this gentle man (sic) was properly taken through the application procedures and given his passport before the end of the day."

The statement is odd because as Penner should well know there was no "gentle man" to be "taken through any procedures," there is only Wonhong Kim, international fugitive, safely behind bars at the time while Penner and select Immigration staffers pushed through his fraudulent passport with a complete disregard for procedure: no picture, no fingerprints, no vetting.

Penner says in his email he "went with him to the Passport office" - it is a telling remark, because while there was no "him" to go with, since "him" was in jail - Penner writes that he would, quote, "see to it that he would get proper attention and would get his passport the same day." And indeed that is true to form, because Penner's senior minister told us:

September 30, 2013
Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Immigration

"Minister Penner as an individual has always been personally involved in getting files and getting them signed and taking them to director for vetting etc. He's been aggressive on this front."

Did that "aggression" extend to arranging for a fraudulent photo to be inserted on a passport?

The Prime Minister bristled at the suggestion that Penner could have been involved in inserting the fraudulent picture unto the passport:

October 2, 2013
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"I am not disagreeing with you that when the application is being process those in the passport office who have to do the data capture should have that applicant in front of them so that the picture can be taken so that the finger print can be attached, but that's not Penner's job and that wasn't Penner's role."

Marisol Amaya, KREM Radio
"But he influenced them."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"How do you know that ma'am?"

Marisol Amaya, KREM Radio
"A Minister appearing at an office telling an employee that they need to process this passport. Of course they would have done it."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Ms. Marisol, where is the evidence of that? That Penner went there himself and told them to process it."

The evidence we have of course is Penner's own words when he says, and we repeat: "(I) personally went with him to the passport office to see to it that he would get proper attention and would get his passport the same day."

It is a damning statement since the "him" in this question is Kim, a man Penner is saying he had direct contact with, who was in fact an international fugitive and in jail at the time.

It is a tough one for Penner to dance his way out of - and now he faces the likelihood of a recall vote.

The next move then is for the UDP - to see if they will protect the two term representative and fall in behind him, or cut him off as a public piñata tuned political pariah.

The party is expected to get a sense of the way forward politically when the UDP has a Central Executive meeting this weekend.

As we've reported, the PUP have called for Penner to resign by Monday or face a recall. Well, Penner can't answer right now because he's in the hospital. But the recall - while appealing in name is not that simple - and requires the opposition to pass three tests. First, it requires the collection of the signatures of 30% of the registered voters in that area - and, importantly, those signatures have to be verified. And then 65% of the registered voters would have to vote - which, strategically, the UDP could undermine by just urging their voters to stay home - making sure the 65% threshold is not met. But, if the threshold is met, , the PUP would also have to win a bye-election. Certainly not impossible, but, to be sure, a costly venture for a party that's been low on cash flow recently.

We wait and see how it goes for that Monday deadline.

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