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Throughout the news, you've heard all of the angles related to William Mason, also known as Ted Oulette, among many other names.

7 weeks ago, we were introduced to him, William Mason, businessman and supposed philanthropist extraordinaire as part of the City Emergency Management Organization's rescue and evacuation response

He claimed back then at the CEMO press conference that his outfit was equipped with generators which could quote, “light up a place like a football fieldâ€￾. For reference, we re-air a portion of that interview in which he claimed to have a 25 member staff who were able to deploy a drone service at a moment's notice:

FILE (June 1, 2016) Phillip Willoughby - City Council, CEMO
"Whenever we hear the term emergency management, emergency planning, yes you hear at the head from NEMO then normally you would hear directly from myself and it would always me making these comments. So this time around I want you to hear directly from the experts who will be directly responsible for providing the actual safety, the actual ground work."

William Mason - Belize Medical Technology
"We have been invited many times to come out and provide the technical services like drone services, medical services and various different forms of evacuation services for the people within those areas. We have managed to have tremendous success with our team about 25 volunteers and we've always been known as being the guys who is on the scene any time as the first responder. We're fully equipped with all kinds of equipment; we have about 4 generators right now, lighting capacity to light up a place like a football field. We're ready to mobilize with our drones services as well."

So, how did CEMO get mixed up with a man who has a shady background and allegations of being a scammer? That's what we asked City Councillor Phillip Willoughby today. He’s in charge of CEMO and told us that they thought Mason was legit, given that he came as part of the package deal of the Belize Disaster and Rescue Response Team, BDRRT. That's a volunteer rescue organization that has worked closely with NEMO many times. Here's how he explained the connection:

Phillip Willoughby - City Council, CEMO
"If you recall the flood event of 20th October 2015 when the country not limited to but in particular Belize City took a heavy hit with floods and rain etc. The search and rescue group from out of Spanish Lookout and the wider Cayo area that's known as BASAR or the search and rescue team that group of individuals was referred to us at the time by NEMO to render aid and assistance during the disaster. It was then that upon arrival to Belize City I formally met with the group, the team and the gentleman was a part of that group at the time. When the group came he came as a part of the group not as a single entity or an individual, he came as a part of group. That group like I mentioned provided the search and rescue during that disaster time for the Belize City area. Well after that you know make links with various group, organisations, volunteer groups. You keep them in your database that in your time of need if you need any assistance and it's voluntary you access these people or committees or agencies."

Daniel Ortiz
"Does this particular situation sort of put you on the spot to start to do background checks in all persons who want to offer their services so as a situation like this not to be repeated where your organisation that is doing all of this great work for Belize City is dragged in the mud?"

Phillip Willoughby - City Council, CEMO
"Most definitely I would agree with you there that background check needs to be done where groups are concerned and where individuals are concerned."

This afternoon, we spoke with Loyda Martinez, who was the Executive Director of BDRRT, which has now been renamed Belize Association for Search and Rescue. She told us that she has since resigned from the organization, but indeed he approached them to fund their organization. He appeared to be a legit businessman, but they did their background check and found the rip-off report allegations that he is a con-artist. She told us that BASAR started to distance themselves from William Mason, who insisted on telling people that he was a member of their organization. She told us that though he has continued to put on the facade, BASAR has put a great deal of distance between themselves and him.