7 News Belize

Coye Family Back In Court
posted (March 30, 2015)
The Coye Family… they've been in an out of court since 2009. First, they had to defend themselves against a criminal charge of money laundering for years. Melonie and Michael Coye were convicted in 2012 for the offence, and they had to spend several months in jail. Michael Coye died while serving that sentence due to complications from his diabetes and his declining health.

Then, the family had to appeal the money laundering conviction which they won at the Court of Appeal. The sentence was quashed, and the conviction was set aside, but that set the stage for yet another legal battle.

They had to challenge the Financial Intelligence Unit for months to get their money in different bank accounts unfrozen. And then, when they finally won that battle, Melonie and the longtime family attorney Arthur Saldivar had a legal dispute. She claimed that Saldivar made off with almost a million dollars of her family's money. That took a few more months to be settled out of court to avoid litigation.

Well, Melonie Coye was back in the Supreme Court, and this time, we understand her purpose is to challenge assessment of the Income Tax Department, which was made in 2014. The then Income Tax Commissioner assessed the family's fortunes and determined that they owed the government 3.212 million dollars in unpaid taxes. They believe that it was arbitrary and exorbitant, which the Income Tax Department disputed.

So, Melonie Coye is now trying to find out if the court agrees that the assessment was unfair. There was a case management this evening before Justice Courtney Abel, and we tried to get comments from Coye and her attorney Eamon Courtenay. They both declined, but we'll keep following up.

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