7 News Belize

The Panama Papers And Belize
posted (April 4, 2016)
If you've been following the international news this weekend, you'll know all about the release of the Panama Papers. It's 11.5 million financial and legal records from a Panamanian law firm known as Mossack Fonseca and Company. The investigative journalists who reviewed these documents say that it exposes a global network of tax-evasion, which, quote, "enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore companies."

They say that the leak from Mossack-Fonseca shows how 140 politicians, public officials, and prominent business persons from 200 countries and territories around the world, have attempted to hide a total of about $2 billion in offshore banks and shadow companies. The entire financial network, according to the Panama Papers, hinged on Mossack Fonseca and Company, which was the law firm allegedly hired to hide the monies of these 140 prominent individuals, including current and former world leaders, and politically or financially well-connected persons.

So, what's the link to Belize? The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists list Lord Michael Ashcroft as the connection to Belize. They say his Belize Corporate Services, a subsidiary of Ashcroft's company BCB Holdings, began using Mossack Fonseca to provide shell corporations for its clients in 2006 when Ashcroft was in the U.K. House of Lords. BCS also owns Belize Bank International and Belize Bank Limited.

This document, from Belize Bank International, an Ashcroft Allied Company, made up part of the Panama Papers. It's a due diligence form from Belize Bank International in which Jurgen Mossack, one of the founders of Mossack Fonseca, applied to do business with Belize Bank International.

According to an email sent in November 2013, Belize Bank International established a new company whose owners were the Panama firm's founders, Jurgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca and partner Christopher Zollinger. The new firm was called M.F. & Co. (Belize) Limited and cooperated with BCS in creating companies and acting as registered agents in Belize." End Quote.

A check of Belize's International Financial Services Commission website say that M.F & Co. Belize Limited is located #15 "A" Street, Belize City, which is also the law office of Eamon Courtenay.

Today, when we contacted Courtenay for comment, he told us, quote, "Like many other Belizean entities, Prudential Trust Corporation Ltd, is licensed by the IFSC and provides registered office service to MF & Co. (Belize) Limited. For any further information, please contact the IFSC or Mossack Fonseca in Panama directly." End Quote.

Aschroft has been contacted by the ICIJ, who released the Panama Papers,, and Alan Kilkenny, writing on behalf of Ashcroft called it "entirely false" that "Lord Ashcroft either personally, or through a corporate entity in some way connected with him had "'partnered' and 'done business'" with Mossack Fonseca. Kilkenny is quoted as saying, "These allegations are completely untrue, and the events as described never happened. The records upon which you claim to rely for those allegations either do not exist or have been falsified."

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