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The criminal complaint against Belize's second most senior tax collector Reynaldo Verde has been released and - as you heard last night - it's not pretty.  

An FBI agent says he has recordings of Verde - then the Assistant Commissioner of the Department of General Sales Tax - meeting with American real estate developer Chris Williams.  Verde allegedly asks for a payment of $350,000 BZD - in cash - to make Williams's tax arrears of millions of dollars go away.  Williams was heading a development called called Orchid Bay Belize - which has had difficulties getting off the ground.  

At that meeting on August 24, 2019 in Corozal, Verde also allegedly asked Williams, quote "do you have an initial deposit for today?" 

Williams then told him, quote, "I have a thousand dollars in cash." And the FBI alleges Williams then paid Verde $1,000 USD in cash. 

So, the FBI's allegation is that Verde used his official, very senior position to extort a bribe - and he is now pending trial for that in a Florida court.

8 days ago, we spoke to his attorney in Florida, Tyler Trumbach who says that it is Chris Williams who reached out to Verde:â€Â¦

Tyler Trumbach - Verde's Attorney
"We're quite certain of, is that Punta Alegre reached out to Mr. Verde, Mr. Verde refused to work with them and they refused to register their company in Belize and Punta Alegre has its own legal issues, there are allegations out there that I heard and I've looked into, a whole host of issues with Punta Alegre. So at this point, I will let everyone else decide how we believe these allegations coming from Punta Alegre. I'm not going to make any speculations as to what this means, Punta Alegre tried to bribe him, tried to offer him bribes to do them favours. I can't answer that question in any specificity at this time, but I can say that Punta Alegre had reached out to Mr. Verde and Mr. Verde never on his own to reach out to Punta Alegre. Mr. Verde never ever reached to them and asked for any sort of bribe or accepted any. At the end of the day, he is now in a situation where he has to use his small savings that he has - he now has to stay in the US and incur expenses here by being up here for this trail, which is a very expensive process."

And while Trumbach says it is Williams who reached out to Verde, in the compliant it is alleged that "in early 2017, an intermediary acting on behalf of Verde contacted Williams, allegedly saying that Verde wanted a clandestine meeting to discuss delinquent tax obligations arising from the Orchid Bay Belize project.