Paradise Energy Limited has been under sustained fire for weeks now since it was revealed that the Prime Minister's nephew owned 50% of the company which has a concession for oil exploration in the Maya Mountain Range, over a million acres that's home to 14 protected areas.
The temperature of that public fire went up a few hundred degrees when it was revealed last week that the supermajority of shares had been transferred to a company owned by American oil men.
The story was broken in the Belize Times, but the documents were legitimately filed in the companies register in Belmopan, so it was also picked up by independent media and this station.
Justifiably, based on the registry documents, the spin was that Paradise's owners Kimano Barrow and Alfredo Acosta were just fronting, using one well connected local name to get the license and then selling it off.
But what if those documents, duly filed and certified at the companies register in Belmopan, turned out to be bogus?
Well that's just what owners Kimano Barrow and Alfredo Acosta are alleging in a criminal complaint made this afternoon.
Police sources tell us that both men have filed complaints saying that those documents are false!
The documents are titled "Return of Allotments" and another entitled "Extraordinary Resolution" and were signed by Allen Saum.
In their statements to police, Barrow and Acosta allege that Saum concocted the bogus documents and through some complicity they ended up duly filed in the companies registry. Now that's an allegation of major corruption at the registry and the allegation of possession of a false document and falsifying documents against Saum, who we understand is now being sought by Police for questioning.
We were unable to get comment from the companies registry as the details of the statement came to us late this evening.
But while that's a starling twist in that story - it doesn't change the terms of engagement for the ongoing assault of Paradise Energy by Environmental Groups - who are none too happy with having an oil concession over so many protected areas.
Before the revelation of major fraud came to our attention - Audrey Matura Shepherd of OCEANA - called us to make another point - that Paradise Energy's concession was approved in June, not October of 2010. We asked, what's the big deal about that?:..
Audrey Matura Shepherd - VP OCEANA Belize
"Yesterday I finally got a copy of the production sharing agreement which we requested from the Department of Petroleum and Geology and Jules when I got it I was surprise to find out that we had been wrong that according to the document we got Paradise Energy Ltd. sign contract with the government on June 21st 2010 and then even more amazing is the fact that this happens since June. July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February we've been talking about this issue. We just found out now 8 months later that hey the contract was from way then."
Jules Vasquez
"It's not like the government every time a production sharing agreement is sign 'okay, you all call Audrey now' that's not a part of the procedure."
Audrey Matura Shepherd - VP OCEANA Belize
"There is a provision in the legislation and i am quickly trying to get my hand on the act that tell you - you need to publish that an area has been issued under the regulations, so it's not as though we don't have a right to know. We do have a right to know. I disagree with you that the don't have a duty to tell us. They don't have to call me personally and tell me but we've been going and asking because how wild we even know there is a company named Paradise in the game now, we would not have known that and we've been going to presentations being on forums with them. Recently we were on one of the TV shows with the minister; this was an issue and they did not offer the information. If we've know it we will say it. Our policy is as soon as we have access....."
Jules Vasquez
"But that information isn't consequential."
Audrey Matura Shepherd - VP OCEANA Belize
"(laughing) Coming from you Jules I am surprise that a huge contract would not be consequential and all we've been asking for at the start is openness, transparency and accountability. Tell us man, there is nothing bad about it. Just let us know that there is such a contract."
We'll keep following the investigation into the alleged fraudulent documents on Paradise at the Companies Registry.
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