Just over a year ago, Bahamians Rohn Knowles and Kelvin Leach won a huge award of damages against the Government of Belize to a total of 8.8 million dollars. That's because the Supreme Court ruled that the Government was excessive when the Financial Intelligence Unit and the police raided their business headquarters, Titan Securities in the Matalon Building on Coney Drive. Well, these 2 business partners have won another judgement in their favor, and this time it's against the Central Bank, which has been ordered to pay them back 1.4 million US dollars, which they seized from their bankers.
The pair's troubles in Belize started back in September 2014, when they were thrust into the public eye after an indictment from the US Treasury Department which accused them of securities fraud. During that time, the Belize Bank handed over their 1.4 million dollars to the Central Bank, which didn't want to give back.
So, the men sued the Belize Bank and the Central bank, and their case was argued by attorney Leslie Mendez before Justice Courtney Abel (ABLE) on January 26th. Their argument was that in an arrangement between a bank and a customer, whenever a customer hands over money, that money becomes the property of the bank, and a debt of equal amount is created, a debt which has to be repaid. Their attorney argued that the money which Belize Bank handed over was the bank's funds, and not actually their money.
The Belize Bank submitted to the court that they lost their correspondent banking relationships, they could no longer deal with and protect the US dollars. The bank's position is that they handed over the money to the financial regulators, and they are relieved of all liabilities. The Central Bank's position is they did not want to hand over the money because there is a reasonable suspicion that this 1.4 million US dollars is tainted.
4 days ago, Justice Abel delivered his judgement rejecting the defense of both the Belize Bank and the Central Bank. The judge reasoned that although the Central Bank claims that there is reasonable suspicion that these are tainted funds, they provided no actual proof for the court to substantiate the suspicion. He also noted that the indictment from the US Treasury Department is not enough.
With that, he ordered that the Central Bank hand over the money to the Belize Bank, which must then return it to both men. There is a small outstanding matter before the judge for legal cost and interest, and the court will hear that on next week Wednesday.
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