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Officer Reynolds and The Missing Visa’s
posted (February 15, 2017)

In the afternoon session, the Senate called Senior Immigration Officer George Reynolds who has been at the Department for over 26 years. He’s currently a port commander in Independence Village, but during the audit period he was in charge of the Immigration Services Section of the Department in Belmopan. 

That means that he was in charge of visas and all other temporary immigration permits. 

He was called to answer for that infamous incident with the 8 stolen visas from the Western Border Station. 8 Visas foils went missing in December 2012, and that’s what brought the disappearance under the microscope of the Audit Department  - which now brings us to the Senate hearings.

You’ll remember that the Auditor General quoted in her report from an internal investigation into that matter in which Immigration Officer Vernon Leslie declared that on December 26, 2012, Officer Mark Tench realized that the 8 visa foils were missing. They initiated an investigation, and allegedly discovered that Officer L. Wade removed them without authorization and allegedly sold them to a private citizen. That man then allegedly took them to former Deputy Mayor Eric Chang and City Council Financial Controller Patrick Tillett, who allegedly purchased the visas.

Officer Vernon Leslie’s account continues to say that both men allegedly doubted the validity of the visa foils and so they took them to George Reynolds. Vernon claims that Reynolds allegedly confirmed to both men that they were legitimate, but were illegally issued. 

So, that’s why the Senate called Reynolds to answer to the allegations that he knowingly allowed these men to keep these stolen visas, when he ought to have confiscated it. The Senate put that directly to him, and he said that Leslie’s account is wrong. Here’s how he answered their questions:

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"Vernon Leslie the Auditor General says relayed a version of events in which according to him immigration officer Elwade removed 8 visa foils from the officer M.Tench and gave it to one Mr. Middleton for sale. Mr. Middleton took the visas to Belize City to deputy mayor Eric Chang and the Belize City Council financial controller Patrick Tillet who purchased the visas. He says that both Mr. Chang and Mr. Tillet wrote statements confirming the transaction, both men doubted the validity of the visas so they brought them to you and you confirmed the visa foils were legitimate but were illegally issued. Is this statement accurate as far it relates to your knowledge?"

George Reynolds - Former Port Commander, Belmopan
"Not totally accurate."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"What is inaccurate about it?"

George Reynolds
“The part that I said that they were illegally issued - I did not use those words or I would have acted differently if I had used those words.â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar
“Can you recall what words-â€￾

George Reynolds
"I can recall they were not issued completed because they were missing something. So I did not say illegally because they were missing the stamp and that was something that happened often just with the new use of visa foils because people come back to you in Belmopan that the officer forgot to put the actual stamp on the visa."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Should you have visa foil-"

George Reynolds
“These were in passports already, they were not there because the visa come in fours and two were in passports.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
“That’s what I wanted to ask you Mr. Reynolds. Who came to you?â€￾

George Reynolds
“Mr. Tillet only.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“Which Mr. Tillet?â€￾

George Reynolds
“Patrick Tillet.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“You knew him before that?â€￾

George Reynolds
“Well I saw him around yes.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“So he came to you and what did he come to you for?â€￾

George Reynolds
“He asked me if I could fix this for him because he think the officer did not do it properly. He assumed it was issued at my office which in return I told him yes these are legitimate files because I saw the security feature on it and I told him these were not issued here so you need to take it back to the office where you got it issued. Being that I wouldn’t expect him to steal anything, we did that for more than one people came with different issues and we asked them to go back to the office where it was issued to get it completed and that was it - it was just two minutes the most because I was coming out of my office when he met me and we went in there just spoken briefly and he left.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“This was in Belmopan?â€￾

George Reynolds
"In Belmopan yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“And you said that the visas were in passports?â€￾

George Reynolds
“Yes.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“Did you take a note of the passport?â€￾

George Reynolds
“No I did not.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“Right and he left after that is what you are saying?â€￾

George Reynolds
“Yes.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“Do you know where he went?â€￾

George Reynolds
“No I did not.â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar
“I have been labouring under the thought that these were 8 visa foils and I kept asking myself why would you leave them with the visa foils if they just came and brought 8 visa foils. I said how could you do that that was what I was thinking this entire time.â€￾

George Reynolds
“I think there are many things that are left out in this statement that caused people to have different opinion of what happened because there’s no date here to say exactly when this meeting happened compared to the date when the visas were noted missing to alert me to think that this was possible with one of those. Those data are missing, this happened before about nearly a month before we actually got note there were visas missing from the Western boarder.â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar
“Okay I understand this now, what happened if I can summarize and you tell me if that is the case. They brought these passports to you, 8-â€￾

George Reynolds
“No, two...â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar
“Two passports, so you only saw you two passports with visas in it?â€￾

George Reynolds
“Yes.â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar
“And you were told that, you were asked-â€￾

George Reynolds
“He just asked me to fix it because he assumed that I would just put the stamp on it to complete the process. I did not stamp it because it was not issued at my station because I sign every sticker personally and I stick them in the passport myself at my station in Belmopan. I don’t have anyone issue visas for me unless I’m on holiday.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“So he just came in and said can you?â€￾

George Reynolds
“Yes he just popped up in my office because like I said I don’t know how people just get into that secure area and out just like that because I’m in an office that is closed up and I can’t see outside to the public but he just popped in to my office and asked me these questions.â€￾

Hon. Ashley Rocke - Church Senator
“In hindsight it would have been right to withhold those two documents?â€￾

George Reynolds
“You see we are talking about timeline and knowledge. If you have knowledge of something you act differently on a situation, I had no knowledge of that so I couldn’t be in hindsight whatever to hold something that I didn’t see the necessity to hold.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"I have in my possession - let me ask you, you are aware that there was an investigation by the public service commission into these missing stickers? Visas, whatever you want to call them."

George Reynolds
"Yes I was aware."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"Did you give a statement?"

George Reynolds
"No one questioned me and I didn't give any statement."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"No one asked you to attend?"

George Reynolds
"No one asked me to."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"I have in my possession a statement that was supposedly given by Vernon Leslie, immigration assistant number 2. I want a read a portion of it to you and for you to comment on it. By the way have you seen this before? It’s dated the 15th of August 2013."

George Reynolds
“No I haven’t seen it.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“Alright, it says immigration clerk number 1 Michael Tench, immigration assistant Enida Morales, immigration assistant Andrea Jones received information from port commander George Reynolds Belmopan office that two individuals namely Belize City deputy mayor Eric Chang and Belize City Council financial controller Patrick Tillet had paid him a visit at the office. The express concern over 6 visa foils that they had purchased from an individual from Orange Walk named Middleton. One scrutiny of the visas placed in the Chinese passport, Mr. Reynolds observed visa foils itself was authentic but the issuance protocol was severely flawed. Mr. Reynolds relayed this information after which they both left the office. Is that accurate?â€￾

George Reynolds
"No."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“What is inaccurate about it?â€￾

George Reynolds
“The amount of passports and the amount of persons that came to see me and the information about the-â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
“Seriously flawed.â€￾

George Reynolds
“Yes those information are way exaggerated.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"They are exaggerated?"

George Reynolds
“Yes.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"Why would Mr. Vernon?"

George Reynolds
"I believe he could answer that when he comes here because I won't be able to know why he did so or why they did not call me to collaborate or to answer to what they said there."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"Very well. So I guess we will have to ask Mr. Vernon to come and explain this."

George Reynolds
“I believe you do.â€￾

Leslie has concluded his testimony, but the Senators suggested to him to go over the recommendations from the Auditor General and respond to them in writing. He is also advised to review the documents and indicate whatever there in the report about him that he does not agree with.

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