 There’s still an arrest warrant out for president of the Belize Bank
Phil Johnson – but he hasn’t returned to the country. As we told
you, on Friday afternoon, the Central Bank sent a directive to the Belize Bank
demanding compliance with its March directive by 4:00 pm. Well, the Belize Bank
claims it received that directive at 3:30, without any wiring instructions,
giving it only half an hour to comply and nowhere to send the money.
And we would imagine, Central Bank’s rebuttal would be that yes, the
bank had 30 minutes, plus the 18 weeks from March 14th when the directive was
first given. Additionally, it is the position of the Central Bank that the Belize
Bank knows full well that government monies should be wired to its account at
the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
And what about the fact that the Belize Bank had notified both the Central
Bank and its attorney Lois Young of its application for a stay of enforcement?
Well, the Central Bank’s position is that it was an application, not an
actual stay. And after all this bickering and back and forth, the news tonight
is that the Supreme Court will decide tomorrow whether or not the Belize Bank
gets that stay. That pivotal hearing will be held tomorrow before Justice Samuel
Awich. The Belize Bank is asking for a stay of enforcement on the Central Bank’s
enforcement order.
If he refuses to give that stay, then all bets are off and the Belize Bank
would we imagine be under some real pressure then to come up with the ten million
U.S. dollars in Venezuelan grant funds. If he does grant the stay it would be
a massive setback for the Government of Belize – which would be put right
back to March 14th and thus extinguish the victory it won before the Chief Justice
on Friday. We’ll tell you how that goes in tomorrow night’s newscast. |