Since Monday, the news and social media has been abuzz with reports of high level corruption in the UDP government. This is after court documents emerged form the US state of Utah saying that an Armenian fraudster - who allegedly conned the US government out of half a billion dollars - paid 25 thousand dollars monthly to a high ranking government official. And that another electronic transfer was made to another high official.
The man who allegedly made these payments is Levon Termendzhyan, also known as Lev Dermen - and he was known to rub shoulders with many UDP ministers.
So, who got the money? And for what? This is the question we've been teasing at for two nights. Well, today the Prime Minister held a press conference to squarely confront the issue. So whodunnit? That's what he asked his entire Cabinet yesterday:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"What I did was, yesterday in our cabinet meeting I require each cabinet member to say whether he or she could have any reason to believe that he or she would be the person or that they would be the persons to which the material is referred. Let me put it another way, did anyone in this room (talking about the cabinet room yesterday), received $25,000 US dollars a month over a period of time from this Mr. Lev or Mr. Kingston or some third person that at one time Mr. Kingston said was used as an intermediary and the answer came back no. Other question: Did anyone in this room received funds from Mr. Lev by way of an electronic transfer? And the answer came back no. That is where for the moment the matter must rest. The evidence in this trial will be forthcoming and what I am here to also tell you is this: if it turns out that indeed there is evidence to show that a member or 2 members of my cabinet received funds from Mr. Lev, there will be hell to pay."
"Might be that the minister could make hell of a case saying where is the proof that this was other than a campaign contribution from someone that I knew who supported me and there are no laws in Belize, that regulate campaign finance contributions, but I wouldn't need to get into that sort of an argument nt with the minister, would I? Because even if that could b shown to be true, you lied to me and you lied to the cabinet in saying that you did not received any money. That in itself is a basis for me to say sir/madam you cannot stay in any cabinet that I lead."
"I don't think I can make my position any clearer. Once there is evidence of monies having been received by any UDP cabinet member from this gentleman. GAME OVER. My reaction is going to be axiomatic and I promise the Belizean people that as I have always done I will move swiftly in the face of what I would know to be actionable wrong doing."
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