7 News Belize

The Sunshine Saga, Both Sides Now
posted (February 9, 2018)
We would have wanted to ask the Prime Minister for his comments on a few important matters, such as the Sunshine Holdings Limited case that has been started against the Ashcroft Alliance.

As we told you, that's the latest fight between the Government and the Alliance over the settlement for the BTL acquisition.

Sunshine is asking the Supreme Court to order the Alliance to pay them some of the half a billion dollar BTL settlement. Sunshine used to be part of the Ashcroft group of companies, but it became Government controlled in 2009 when the Barrow Administration nationalized BTL.

The problem is that with the acquisition of Sunshine's shares, the Barrow Administration took on a 20 million dollar debt that the company owed to the Social Security Board, and the Government. This loan goes back to when Prime Minister Said Musa and the PUP were in office.

The settlement has been paid out, and Sunshine still has that debt, and now, the company is trying to get the Supreme Court give them some of the settlement money, at least enough to pay back those loans.

Today, we got a chance to speak with Sunshine's only director, Nestor Vasquez, about the reason for bringing this case after the settlement of the BTL is complete. Here's how he explained it to us:

Nestor Vasquez, Director - Sunshine Holdings Limited
"Sunshine is seeking to trace, by way of restitution, the funds wrongly paid over to the first defendant - that's Dean Boyce and the BTL Trust - paid by the government by way of compensation by the acquired shares. When government acquired the BTL shares that was owned by Sunshine, the trust applied for compensation. So they applied for shares they did not owned. Those shares were owned by the company, Sunshine Holdings Limited. That company was then owned by the government on the day it was gazetted that it became a government company, no longer an Ashcroft company. So now if the government has taken money to pay that - whether that 10 million - it is more with the interest now. That money belongs to Sunshine, because if you took the assets of Sunshine, you have to pay the liabilities. You just can't take the assets. You took the company; you took the assets; you took the liabilities. So, you need that money. How on earth can it be logical for the trust, that never owned the company, to actually go and claim the company and be paid those shares that were acquired, when they were never the owners of those share? That's what the issue is about. Now I am saying wrongly paid."

Daniel Ortiz, reporter
"Okay, so the government wrongly paid them?"

Nestor Vasquez
"Exactly, it should have been paid to Sunshine. It still exists. Sunshine Holdings Limited still exists. It still has a director. Errors are made in this world. We are all human beings. Errors are made, and I am saying it was paid in error. The first defendant is Dean Boyce as trustee for the BTL Trust, and the second defendant is the Attorney General of Belize-"

Daniel Ortiz, reporter
"- Because they made the error."

Nestor Vasquez
"Exactly."

Daniel Ortiz, reporter
"The attorney Eamon Courtenay makes the point that this is already handled, already dealt with in this settlement agreement, and that you - Sunshine is trying to undo a signed agreement through this court case. Do you disagree?"

Nestor Vasquez
"It's not that we are trying to undo anything. We are trying to get it right, to deal with it the correct way."

As we showed you last night, the Ashcroft attorney, Eamon Courtenay, asserts that this case is late because there is a signed settlement agreement. In it, the Sunshine loans were already addressed. In fact, it appears that the Government is accepting liability for those 20 million dollars.

Clause 5.4 reads, "The Government and the Trust acknowledge that the loans to Sunshine Holdings Limited… remain outstanding, and that the principal balances owed under these loans… and further that any liability for the investment loans is for Sunshine… which will continue to be wholly owned by the Government."

So, if the Government accepts that these loans are still owed, and that Sunshine is Government owned and controlled, then, it stands to reason that the Government is accepting that they owe this debt.

But, there is a distinction being made between Sunshine and the Government. In fact, Sunshine is suing Dean Boyce and the BTL employees Trust, which is an Ashcroft entity.

This evening, we challenged Sunshine's director about the merit of doing this, and here's how that back and forth went:

Nestor Vasquez, Director - Sunshine Holdings Limited
"I've been a director of Sunshine from the time the government took over those two shares, the one that was owned by Boyce and one by the trust. We all know - and this has become public, when it was printed in the gazette that the government acquired the 2 shares: one owned by Boyce and one by the BTL employees trust - took that company and then it became one of the companies that was owned by the government, no longer an Ashcroft company, or an Ashcroft Trust. They may have carried the same name, but that's how it went. Those 2 shares and it took BTL - a little over 11 million BTL shares that was owned by Sunshine."

Daniel Ortiz, reporter
"I see you making a distinction between Sunshine Holdings, being a private entity and the Government of Belize. And specifically in the law suit, you're suing both the Employees Trust and the government of Belize through the attorney general's ministry. Do you disagree that while, legally ,that is the true picture, at the end of the day Sunshine Holdings is still a government control company and that you suing the attorney general's ministry is the government suing itself?

Nestor Vasquez
"I disagree, because Sunshine Holdings Limited is a separate entity for the Government of Belize. That's a different institution and there is an agreement between this separate entity and that institution and you need to pay this institution - this one. SSB needs to be paid for the money it loan you."

And in yesterday's interview, attorney Eamon Courtenay took a swipe at Nester Vasquez for this push. We have Courtenay's comments, and Vasquez's response. Here's what they both had to say:

Eamon Courtney, SC - Attorney for BTL Employees Trust
"The sad thing about all of this, is that there is a trust for the benefit of the employees of Belize Telemedia. Mr. Net Vasquez is a director of Belize Telemedia and he is seeking to take the money that is for the benefit of the employees and take it and pay it to the Government of Belize. Something must be radically wrong with that. How can he be a director of a company that has millions of dollars for the benefit of the employees, in a trust and he is fighting to take away the trust from the employees of that company? Its stupidity on stilts."

Nestor Vasquez
"That phrase is more applicable to them than it is to us. The name given to the trust, "BTL Employees Trust" - that was a sham. That was just meant to deceive the people of Belize, the shareholders of BTL, and the employees of BTL. The BTL employees have known from the beginning that they did not owned shares. They were never made directors of the company. They were never in control of anything. And they were really serious about trying to make the people believe that we - or I am trying to deprive the employees of that, the employees knows better. Besides that, in one of their affidavits, which I don't have before me right now - they have said in one of the affidavits - and that was said in trust - that most of the money has practically been spent already, the money that they got, for the shares that they did not own. How can they be serious to believe they can convinced anybody?"

The case goes for full trial starting on April 24. We'll be there to tell you how it goes.

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