7 News Belize

Public Officer Charged For Treasure Theft
posted (April 24, 2015)
The media has been reporting on the theft of $550,000 the Treasury Department since last week - and while we knew the amount and the how it was done, we could not find out whodunit - because of the tight lid police kept on the investigation.

But today, it all came out when one public officer was formally arrested and charged for half of the missing money. He is 28 year-old David Enriquez, a clerk at the Treasury Department. Tonight, he's in jail, facing 3 counts of theft.

Enriquez was arraigned this morning before Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith, and because he will be tried on indictment, no plea was taken.

The first theft occurred on March 14, 2015 and the amount was for $225,296, which was supposed to be deposited into the account set up to receive the monthly subvention funds for the Toledo Community College. Somehow, the money was diverted from that account to the Siene Bight Community Training Program's Belize Bank Account, which was then withdrawn at the Dangriga Branch over a period of time. Police believe that Enriquez was somehow involved in that diversion of funds, and a check of the system reveals that he was involved in another diversion for just over 47 thousand dollars.

But he's not the only one. Police say that another $225,296 also intended for the Toledo Community College, Punta Gorda Town, were diverted. This one was sent to a Belize Bank Account registered under Octaviana Lopez of #24 Magoon Street Dangriga Town. The monies were withdrawn from her account over a period of time.

So, 39-year-old Octaviana Lopez has been charged for Handling Stolen Goods.

These fraudulent transactions happened in March and were detected on April 7th. How did they do it? That's what the media tried to get out of the Financial Secretary on Tuesday. Here's his comments in that interview:

Joseph Waight, GOB's Financial Secretary
"The reconciliations, when we dealt with it, a flag popped. And then what they did was went back further and further and found I think its 3 or 4 payments which aggregated to the $500,000."

Daniel Ortiz
"Can you explain to us exactly how this happened, to the layman, what happened, so that $550,000 went missing from the treasury?"

Joseph Waight, GOB's Financial Secretary
"There were two large payments, as I understand and what happened really was that some ingenious person discovered that substituted, manipulated bank account numbers. To take out a bank account number and put in a wrong one. And the payment went through."

Reporter
"Sir, has anyone been put on leave or administrative leave as a result?"

Joseph Waight, GOB's Financial Secretary
"Yes, we sent one gentleman on leave. But I have to say, innocent until proven guilty."

Enriquez has been remanded to the Belize Central Prison until June 4. He's being represented by attorney Oscar Selgado, and it is expected that an application for bail will be made to the Supreme Court in short order.

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