7 News Belize

Belize Bank President Phil Johnson Still Wanted by Police
posted (August 5, 2008)

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.

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7 News Belize