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The preliminaries are over and the first witness in the Lev Dermen trial was called today in a Federal Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The prosecution's first witness was an executive who did business with Washakie Renewable Energy - the company at the center of the half a billion dollar tax fraud case.  Her testimony had no connection to any payments made to any minister in Belize. 

The man who's supposed to have a whole lot to say about that is former Washakie CEO, Jacob Kingston and he is expected to take the stand on Monday.    As you may recall, court documents says he will "testify that a government official from Belize was routinely paid $25,000 cash a month by Dermen and that when Dermen could not make the payment himself he would ask Kingston to make the payment on his behalf."

Well, today's Salt Lake Tribune has a bombshell that detonated right on John Saldivar's doorstep.  The article says,  quote "Jacob Kingston also is expected to testify about how he and Dermen bribed a Belize security minister named John Saldivar. According to documents released before the trial and discussion from lawyers during a Jan. 13 hearing, Jacob Kingston will testify Dermen was making cash payments to Saldivar and that Jacob Kingston later took over making those payments." End quote. 

Saldivar sent out a statement half an hour ago saying, quote "a publication today in the Salta Lake City Tribune…is totally untrue and leading without basis.  The article suggests that Jacob Kingston will testify that Lev Dermen bribed me, but does not say in exchange for what.  No one knows what Jacob Kingston will say and to anticipate his testimony now is malicious and mischievous.  There is no court document that points to any bribery on my part and I continue to maintain that I have never done any favors for Lev Dermen in return for any cash, and there will be absolutely no evidence that Jacob Kingston can truthfully provide to prove otherwise."  End quote.

That is Saldivar's statement this evening where he completely rejects any claim of bribery.  And while he says he did no favors in return for cash for Dermen, we do know atet Saldivar did press the Minister of Foreign Affairs to review his application for an Honorary Consul-ship in Las Vegas, even after the US rejected it.   Here's what the foreign minister told us last week:

Hon.Wilfred Elrington - Minister Of Foreign Affairs
"Well I do know for a fact that 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 and again I referred him to the protocol section of the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs who took it from there."

Again, Saldivar says, quote, I have never done any favors for Lev Dermen in return for any cash, and there will be absolutely no evidence that Jacob Kingston can truthfully provide to prove otherwise."

We'll be following this one very closely.