And while PM Barrow claims the former owners will not get what they want on the compensation - today's prospectus also dropped a bomb on the Belize Bank.
It states that a 22.5 million US dollar loan that that the Belize Bank had made to Telemedia is considered null and void. Straight like that, no loan!
That's a mighty giant stroke of the pen! But it means the country's most profitable bank is out 45 million Belize dollars.
Today the Chairman and the PM explained how it came to pass.
Net Vasquez, Chairman
"We have solid legal opinions that that loan was incurred unlawfully and it is void and to answer your precise question what happens to that in the books of Belize Telemedia? Well, we also mentioned in its offer for sale that that liability will be removed."
Jules Vasquez
"How does one void $45 million and can you say on what grounds, or what pretext? And at the end of the day someone is owed, someone has to be paid, I imagine. So who shall do the paying?"
Net Vasquez, Chairman
"Well let me attempt the answer there. I don't agree that someone has to be paid. If an event or a transaction is void, it means it's a nullity, equivalent to it not having happened."
PM Dean Barrow
"But Jules you suggested that the money was received and the bank which loaned the money is out of pocket and so somebody would have to repay the money. You are asking who? May I suggest a delicious possibility to you perhaps the previous board of directors."
Jules Vasquez
"Are they individually liable?"
PM Dean Barrow
"May I suggest a possibility to you that perhaps the previous board of directors individually might be the ones that have to repay."
We can already see the legal paperwork piling up on that one….
But, for context, we note that the former owners of Telemedia made the loan to purchase shares in the same Telemedia that were owned the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. Government claims that the transaction was unlawful.
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