One week ago 7News broke the story of another Vega family land scandal. Well tonight it is exposed as a case of blatant land fraud, including outright forgery.
The Belmopan resident who supposedly flipped a piece of land to Andre Vega says she never even knew she was in any kind of land transaction until she saw it on 7News.
Amy Forte's attorney has written to the Prime Minister - who is also the Minister of Natural Resources - asking him to cancel the conveyance because her signature was forged. Her attorney says she applied to purchase national land in Caye Caulker in 2007 but never got any title to any property. And, now, suddenly, 10 years later, her name is all over the evening news, saying she got beachfront property on northern Caye Caulker, and flipped it to Andre Vega for thirty thousand dollars.
Her attorney's press release says, quote, "she was only made aware of the issuance of title in her name during the Channel 7 newscast...moreover, Ms. Forte did not pay any purchase price sums to the government...for the property allegedly acquired by her, nor did she transfer any property to Andre Vega." End quote.
It continues, quote, "Ms. Forte has never met Andre Vega and did not receive the sum of thirty thousand dollars or any other sum of money from either Andre Vega or any member of the Vega family."
So then, how is it that her signature is there very neatly on the deed of conveyance? Her attorney says it's a forgery. In a press release, they explain, quote, "Ms. Forte has caused an investigation to be conducted in the producing of her signature on the deed of conveyance...and has been reliable advised that her signature as it appeared in the said document is a FORGERY."
That's straight up fraud, and the release adds that this exposure has caused "extreme embarrassment, loss of personal and professional reputation, emotional distress...and threatened to jeopardize her career."
That's why her attorney writes to the Prime Minister outlining the facts of the land fraud and requesting that the land title of 2009 be cancelled and the conveyance of 2010 be, quote, "set aside for fraud and that steps are taken to publicly clear our client's name in this regard." End quote.
Now, that puts some pressure on the Prime Minister who had expressed a kind of weary resignation when we asked him about these most recent Vega Land deal two weeks ago. He said at the time he didn't even want to look at the documents:
FILE: August 18, 2017
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"What I've seen on the news. Why would I look at those documents? What it is, is what it is. You are able to document that people on the face of it legitimately got land and that they ended up afterwards selling it to particular persons. I don't know that there is any actionable illegality there. But the implications and the conclusions that you have drawn are not anything I will argue with you over at all."
We are told that in the days of naked hustling at the Lands Department, it was not an uncommon occurrence for person's identities to be fraudulently used without their knowledge in land transactions for UDP friends and family. We'll keep following the story.
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