And that's why we viewed with interest a press release which came out today from the ministry. It says that the ministry has launched an investigation into fraud cases involving land titles that were recently discovered. IT continues, quote, "there is a systematic effort being orchestrated by persons of both foreign and local nationalities to obtain property by fraudulent means." It explains, quote, "The perpetrators use fraudulent international passports and other forms of identification to usurp the identity of real land owners to obtain property and subsequently proceed to fraudulently transfer land titles to prospective buyers by forging signatures of (Ministry) officials in an effort to make the documents appear legitimate." We called the ministry and found out that the fraud cases center on lands on the Placencia Peninsula called planation palms in a subdivision of about 30 lots. Preliminary investigations suggest that the fraudsters may be former employees of the Ministry. We are told that the fraudsters have gone so far as to fake passports - in one cases two different bogus passports form two different countries appeared for one applicant. They are also investigating a scheme where persons were sold properties in the Iguana creek area for a subdivision that does not exist.

The official release says, quote, "the Lands and Surveys Department warns the general public to BEWARE of internet websites that purports to sell land in Belize."