Turning now to a current UDP Minister who's in hot water, tonight we'll look more closely at what is known about the relationship between John Saldivar and Lev Dermen.
Dermen is the Armenian-American accused of defrauding the US government of half a billion dollars in biofuel tax credits. He is in a jail in Utah waiting trial, while his former associate Jacob Kingston goes to court on Monday.
In July of 2019, Kingston entered a plea deal with authorities in the US - and has given evidence against Dermen - and some of that has to do with John Saldivar.
Last night a major revelation by the Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington has given us pause to ask how close were Saldivar and Dermen? And what did the Prime Minister know of their relationship? Here's his story:
Jules Vasquez reporting
We now know that John Saldivar has - at least - traveled with Lev Dermen to the Gold Cup Games, exchanged text messages with Dermen's criminal associate Jacob Kingston - and, perhaps most importantly, he pressed to get him an honorary consular-ship in Las Vegas - even after the Americans rejected him.
The admission by the Foreign Minister yesterday proves pivotal. First it provides a portion of the Dermen narrative which the Prime Minister omitted from the story:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"He was guided indeed, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by a minister, who never wrote any formal recommendation, a minister whose name I will call, there's nothing to hide: The Honourable Michael Kwame Finnegan."
Now, we know whether the PM didn't know or didn't tell of Saldivar's involvement - but it's a critical piece of the story line.
And that's because one of the main thrusts of the case that the Americans have against Lev Dermen is that he wished to use diplomatic means to launder money. One fo the court documents says, "At some point between 2012 and 2016, Lev Dermen reached out to a Belizean government minister in an effort to be credentialed as a Belizean diplomat to the United States. Dermen undertook these efforts in order to be able to enter the United States with over 10,000 in currency without reporting it to US customs and border protection. Dermen has previously been stopped with 30,000 while exiting the country."
So, we now know that for sure Dermen reached out to government Minister Michael Finnegan, and very likely that he reached out to John Saldivar who pressed on even after the Americans said no - using these words:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"The department regrets to inform the embassy that the recognition of Levon Termendzhyan is declined because the Department is in receipt of derogatory information. It never said the main is a criminal. Why would we be concerned with doing other than saying, sir, this is what the United States has said, let us see the back of you. You cannot get any appointment. Thank you very much for your application. goodbye."
Great advice for any public official who wants to stay on the straight and narrow, but John Saldivar did not say goodbye, he did the opposite, he pressed on:
Hon.Wilfred Elrington, Minister Of Foreign Affairs
"After we got a negative from the United States I was then approached by Minister Saldivar who asked whether we could do anything more for him."
Why did Saldivar press on? What was his motivation? Is that what these April 2015 text messages with Jacob Kingston are about?
Saldivar has said in a statement, quote, "I met American businessman Lev Dermen in 2013 and last saw him sometime in early 2015. Mr Dermen was known to many in Belize as a wealthy businessman. I interacted with Mr Dermen on several occasions and did so publicly, including as is already public knowledge at the Gold Cup in 2013. However, I categorically reject any suggestion of my involvement in any act of fraud or bribery with Mr Dermen. At no time have I used my office for any such vile quid pro quo activities...".
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