Email

Print

After seeing it, he went to pay the annual rental only to find that in its second year, his 7 year lease was gone. It hadn't been taken away by government, in fact it was swindled from him in a fraudulent transfer orchestrated by seasoned land hustlers with connections inside the Department. He explained:..

Eric Bowen, leased land was swindled
"I got the lease paper and I took it to the cashier to pay the rent and I gave it to her. She start clicking in the machine, 10 minutes go by, 15 minutes go by, she didn't say anything to me - she just clicking around and all of a sudden she called another gentleman and she whispered to him, showing him stuff and they clicking around another 5-10 minutes and then the gentleman says to me "excuse me Mr. Bowen, we need to talk to the supervisor, can you come with me?" - He said "Mr. Bowen it looks like your land has been transferred to another person." I said transferred? - I just came to pay the rent today, how is it going to be transferred? He says it shows that you signed for a transfer. I say I didn't sign for a transfer. He said let me see your social card and so he look at the social card meanwhile the other gentleman still standing there - so they both clicking around looking at the thing. He look at my social card and he pulled up the application for the lease and he told the guy, see look, that's not his signature. So then he made a phone call to Belmopan because someone Okayed the transfer, so he called up there and ask if they check to see if the signature was valid because the signatures are not matching and somebody processed that through."

"At first when I was talking to him, it's like I just had this feeling like, he was starting to sound like - I couldn't believe it - the land has been transferred - like it doesn't belong to me anymore, it belongs to someone else and I am like how is that possible. I mean what's going on here. I didn't put any signature."

"It appears that this transfer was done express, it may have been done in one day, like it bypasses all the normal procedures and so he was even alarmed. Luckily I got hold of Mr. Vallejos and he was able to remove that illegal transfer and he send me some documentation putting the land back in my name which is great for me, but I know of other situations - my mom had something going on like that years ago. When you hear about, it's like one thing to hear about right, but then I walked it and then it happens to you and you say how could something like that happen so quick, I mean I just got the lease 2 years ago. I live in Belize; I am not in the States. How can they move so quickly while you are right here?"

Lands Commissioner Wilbert Vallejos, moving with uncharacteristic swiftness revoked the permission to transfer. He could not cancel the transfer because it had already been fraudulently processed most likely by corrupt elements within the department - working along with UDP-connected political operators who frequent the department looking for any opportunity to set up shady transactions - even if it means dispossessing rightful lease holders. In this case, the person who was tricked into buying the leased land in an under the table transaction is the one who lost out - as she reportedly paid over one thousand dollars to get the lease in her name. She declined comment and asked to be left out of the story.

Best information suggests that Bowen was not the only lease holder who got gypped in this particular scam.