And from all that has been disclosed, we know that Saldivar introduced Mason to two of his Cabinet colleagues: Deputy PM Patrick Faber and Minister of State Frank Pawpa Mena. Saldivar, though, maintains that his dealings with Mason were strictly professional and kept to a bare minimum. But in hindsight, he says he would have never associated himself with a man of such questionable integrity and regrets ever meeting him.
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"In hindsight I am sure that all of us are regretting that we met this gentleman and had any dealings at all to do with him. the question that has come up in my mind, if you want to ask, is what more could we have done in terms of finding more about the background of this gentleman? I personally had googled him name and saw nothing negative about it and if somebody had not seen it fit to alert us, somebody who either found it on the internet or knew of him before, to tip off somebody and said 'hey you need to look further into this', if somebody hadn't done that, I'd probably still be his friend today. How much more can we do in terms of finding out about the backgrounds of these people? That part I regret, that I wasn't able to know more about this gentleman before I even accepted for him to help my football team. To stretch it from that to the other absurd things that I see appearing in videos and all sorts of other things is Ludacris and unfair to those of us who are in public office. The fact that I and other ministers knew this fella, cannot be taken to mean that we have been a part of any conspiracy, that we have been a part of any murder or any kidnapping. It just happens that we knew the gentleman."
Reporter
"How many times would you say you've been to his house?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"Marisol, many times."
The Minister asserts that he met the Mason in his capacity as the owner of a popular football club.
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