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Steve Perrera is suing Sanctuary's related company the Sitee River Wildlife Preserve on behalf of a client from Arizona. Coleen Strom says she invested fifty thousand dollars in Sanctuary and got scammed. Perrera told us why they were in court today:

Steve Perrera - Attorney for Land Scam Victims
"It's a claim for the return of funds that she has paid to developers in the development commonly referred to as the Belize reserve which is owned by Sittee River wildlife reserve. Today what has transpired is that the matter was adjourned to give the defendants an opportunity and time to provide us with information as to what's occurring on the larger scale in the US and what's the situation on the ground with respect to the development."

Reporter
"Your client, shouldn't they have a legitimate concern that whatever reward is given or whatever the court awards, everything is frozen. All the assets are related to Sanctuary Belize are frozen."

Steve Perrera - Attorney for Land Scam Victims
"Yes, and this is the concern that we have. That's what was brought to the attention of the court today as a result we asked for an adjournment to give the defendants time to bring more information to us as to what is transpiring in respect to their works and their development and their accounts."

Reporter
"Did the government drop the ball in relation to ensuring that all the procedures were followed and doing their diligence so that people would not be duked?"

Steve Perrera - Attorney for Land Scam Victims
"Again, I can't speak on behalf of the government or their actions to what all they have done. I don't know if they have done anything. It is a situation where the clients are a bit upset about the whole transaction but that's mainly against the developers."

We know that there were complaints to the Lands Department and even the DPP's office about the Sanctuary Belize scam.

Perrera has pointed out in court that the company also ran afoul of Central Bank regulations in conducting land transactions and sending the sales revenue back to the US:..

Steve Perrera - Attorney for Land Scam Victims
"The situation is that central bank requires that all funds in respect to purchasing of a property, be paid into a Belize dollar account here in the country of Belize. Unfortunately, what we have happening is that quite a number of these developments have funds be paid over a period of time like those instalment payments and they are having these instalment payments being made to the US. Now it becomes a problem when you have a situation where you have a local company selling to a foreign national because that requires permission from central bank for the transfer to take place. However, for these types of developments that have been collecting monthly payments for the past 2 years, those buyers have great difficulty getting their title because when they go to central bank they can't prove that all the funds for the purchase including the instalment payments were being paid into a Belize dollar account."

LISSETTE STAINES, An attorney from Barrow and Williams represented Sanctuary Belize in Court today.