Julio Santos – he should know the inside of the holding cell at the Benque
Viejo police station well enough from when he was charged for the theft of half
of a million dollars of credit union money back in 2001. And shortly, the recently
terminated Western Border Management Office site manager will have a chance
to reacquaint himself with the surroundings as Benque Viejo Police today confirmed
that he will be arrested this evening or tomorrow.
General Manager of the Border Management Agency Gonzalo Rosado finally went
to Benque Viejo Police this morning to make a compliant that thirteen thousand
dollars had gone missing form the western border management office. We note
that he did so only after we broke the news and the Prime Minister pushed for
criminal charges to be brought. Benque Police confirmed that a team of investigators
were at the Western border for much of the afternoon getting information from
the accountant.
A long-overdue release from the border management office states that On July
second general Manager Rosado received the report that deposits totalling thirteen
thousand seven hundred and fifty one dollars that were sent to the bank in June
had not been deposited. The statement goes unto say that the Site Manager Julio
Santos was assigned with the responsibility of making all bank deposits for
that border station; Santos was terminated on Friday July third. The statement
concludes by saying that the Border Management Agency has contracted an external
auditor to verify the missing funds, and to make recommendations to ensure avoidance
of future breaches of procedure. We would hope that the recommendations might
include a warning not to trust deposits to a man who was accused – but,
indeed, never convicted - of the largest credit union embezzlement in Belize’s
history.
On Tuesday, a defiant Julio Santos told us that he knows nothing about the
missing money and that if charges were brought against him, he would similarly
produce evidence of misconduct against his former border management boss.
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