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Chairman of the Belize Bank Phil Johnson flew into Belize today. And he was free to do so because the warrant for his arrest was dropped on Friday after the Belize Bank agreed to refund US$10 million in Venezuelan grant funds to government. So he jetted into the country, met Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington at the airport, delivered the cheque to him personally around noon and according to reports, he then flew back out.

It is a major victory for the Barrow administration because while government’s hold on the money is tenuous, possession as they say is nine-tenths of the law – and now that government has the money, it will be that much harder for the bank to get it back. But will it be spent on housing for the poor, or will it be held in escrow pending the outcome of ongoing litigation between government and the Belize Bank? Well, that’s the decision that the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance will have to make when he returns to the country later this week. Acting Prime Minister and Finance Minister Patrick Faber confirmed that the cheque has been deposited in a Central Bank account but the matter of what to do with it has to be decided at Cabinet when it meets next week.

But if government thinks it’s going to get away from the bank that easily, it has another thing coming! A release from the Belize Bank this afternoon alleges that “it is improper for the Central Bank to be acting as government’s debt collector.” According to the Belize Bank, it will still “pursue its claim against the government at the London Court of International Arbitration.” And that claim will be for “the full amount outstanding under the government guarantee” signed by former Prime Minister Said Musa. What’s the dollar figure? Well according to the Belize Bank, its claim, including the US$10 million refunded today, is in excess of US$15 million when one adds in interest, accruing at a rate of 17% per annum and the mounting legal fees. It closes by saying that, quote “the bank is highly confident that its claims against the government will eventually prevail.”

And while all that banking bombast may make your head spin, we get the impression that it doesn’t really move the government’s decision makers who have gotten used to the Bank’s hard talk and are satisfied at having won this battle, even as the wider war with the Ashcroft business empire continues on many fronts and in many theatres.