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The Fibs Over The Foils
posted (July 22, 2020)
On last Friday's news, we gave you a small peek at the 160 page final report on the 2017 Senate Hearings on Immigration. This was the 13-month-long inquiry that the Senate Special Select Committee conducted to investigate multiple instances of hustling at Immigration which the Auditor General found during her audit of the Department from 2011 to 2013.

We've been reviewing the Senate's findings, which we'll be sharing with you over time. For tonight, we focus on the Senate's review of the incident which first led to the need for an audit of Immigration. Back in December 2012, 8 unused visa foils went missing from the Department's Belize Western Border Station.

An internal investigation from officers within the Department presented a narrative in which, someone with access to the Western Border Station, simply stole the visa foils when no one was looking.

Tonight, we take a look back at the Senate's best attempts to find out the truth. Daniel Ortiz has that story:

It was the red flag that prompted the Auditor General to investigate the Immigration Department. But, at the end of it, there were still more questions than answers about the mysterious case of 8 visa foils, which were stolen from the Belize Western Border Station in December 2012.

The Senate Committee doggedly pursed the truth and found it to be a constantly moving target:

Mark Tench - Former Supervisor, BWBS
"Those visas were in a sheet like this, and somebody pulled 2 from the bottom, so those visas were being sold day by day until the morning that I went in and found that it was not there..."

"All we are saying is that any officer who had the intent, they would have just waited for the opportunity to take it. And because they have been officers for over - most of them a long - nobody would have looked at them in any kind of suspicious manner. They had access to Mr. Cano's office. They had access to the office that we worked in. They could - anybody - as soon as anybody could have been distracted, they could have done it."

Tench and other immigration officers went on a clandestine investigation of those 8 missing Visas, which somehow ended up in the possession of Patrick Tillett, an accountant who was employed at the Belize City Council during former Mayor Darrell Bradley's administration.

Mark Tench
"We met Mr. Tillett, and with him was Mr. Chang, who was the Deputy Mayor at the time, I think - if I am not mistaken - of Belize City."

"What they wanted, they wanted us to help them get back their money. That was why they chose to meet with us. They wanted to see if we could help them get back the money that they had lost through that deal that they had made."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Do you know the amount of money?"

Mark Tench
"According to them, it was $5,000 per visa."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"They wanted their money back?"

Mark Tench
"They admitted that they had bought the visas. They paid $5,000 per visa, and that the visas were not done properly."

Eric Chang - Former Deputy Mayor, Belize City
"That is a lie. That's definitely a lie. Why would I go meet an immigration officer and tell him I'm involved in all of this? I'm a politician, I was a public figure. If I do something wrong, why would I show my appearance to the investigating officers and say 'listen I am a part of this, yes I get them for my friend'? That doesn't make any sense."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"The testimony of Mr. Trench suggested that you were involved along with Mr. Tillett."

Eric Chang
"See, I can't control what he says I can only speak what I know. I am not involved in this visa purchasing, or whatever."

So, the Senate's probe revealed that not only was big money being paid to "agents", some of the persons who engaged in the visa procurement business, were willing to pay handsomely for secrecy and discretion to the sphinx-like Barton Middleton:

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Okay so Mr. Middleton, how much did you charge for the service?"

Patrick Tillett
"6 thousand."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"6 thousand, so that's a thousand each?"

Patrick Tillett
"6 thousand per visa application."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"You charge 6 thousand dollars per visa application?"

Patrick Tillett
"That's inclusive of the government fee of 2 thousand dollars, so really my fee is 4 thousand."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"So you charge 4 thousand to make sure the visa application was filled out properly?"

Patrick Tillett
"I actually paid the agent 3 thousand."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"And what was he supposed to do, the agent?"

Patrick Tillett
"He was supposed to file the visa application with the immigration department and follow it through until the completion."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"And then for the agent to take it to the immigration department and follow up is what you said, 3 thousand dollars for that?"

Patrick Tillett
"Yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"And the fee to the government is 2 thousand. All of this was above board."

Patrick Tillett
"Yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"So what was the necessity for paying you a thousand and paying 3 thousand to this person if it's all above board?"

Patrick Tillett
"I suspect that when they don't have confidence when they apply they will get one."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"But it's above board, they have fulfilled the requirements, you have assured them of that, so what are they paying 3 thousand dollars for?"

Patrick Tillett
"People are willing to pay."

And Tillett was willing to pay and suffer tens of thousands of dollars in losses because he couldn't deliver value for money to his "clients". Because 6 of the 8 stolen foils -which were now useless - ended up being used in his clients' documents, he quietly reimbursed them and did not report Barton Middleton to police.

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"You lost $30,000, but you were only making, personally, $6,000. But you decided you would suffer $30,000 in losses."

Patrick Tillett
"Yup."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"And where did you get the $24,000 to cover those loses?"

Patrick Tillett
"From my personal resources. Where else would I get it?"

Hon. Carla Barnett
"$24,000 is an addition to a house. It's a car, it's not a runner to deliver visa applications to immigration. It just doesn't add up. Not only do they not deliver on the visas, but they kept your money. That's not a nice place to be. Why would you accept that? Why would you go along with that? Because that's what you did by not reporting it."

Patrick Tillett
"I expected that immigration was well aware of the situation, doing their investigations and that this matter would have been fully investigated and those involved dealt with."

Barton Middleton, the man who allegedly profited from Tillett's write off, was of absolutely no help to the Senate when he was called to testify under oath.

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Senator, Business Sector
"But you said you've never signed for the delivery of recovery of any documents at the passport. Is that correct?"

Barton Middleton
"I can't recall, I can't recall whether or not I did."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"But this morning you said you never signed, were you lying?"

Barton Middleton
"I can't recall."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"You have selective memory Mr. Middleton, that's what you have."

Barton Middleton
"My duty as a citizen in Belize is to come here and answer your questions because it was a summons and when someone is summoned they must appear by law. I'm here today and I feel that based on testimony given by different people that it's a right for this committee to question me but I also believe that I am being badgered and I have explained. I don't know anything about any visas and as long as the questioning goes on, I remain to tell you that I don't know anything about any visas. And what people have been saying about me, that's their statement. I don't know these people, and I resent the fact that - to come here today and I feel like my time is being wasted because I don't know anything about any visas."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"This fantastic story about Mr. Tench is telling a lie about you, Mr. Tillett is telling a lie about you, Ms. Casanova is lying about you, that is absolutely unbelievable from where I am sitting. I'm sure that the majority of the people watching this are as flabbergasted as I am. Clearly there's no brain surgery done at Corozal Town. I don't see how the removal of a growth outside your skull would affect your memory in such a significant way."

Barton Middleton
"I never said it did."

And after ALL that, in the end, the Senate report concluded, quote, "Despite its best efforts it was impossible for the Committee to conclusively determine who was responsible for the theft of the visa foils from the Western Border Station."

The Committee, like the Auditor General, remains puzzled as to why no one at the Immigration Department, but specifically the then Director of Immigration, Ruth Meighan, reported the 8 missing visas to the police.

In the Report, the Committee said, quote, "The question arises; why the matter was not reported to the police for a thorough criminal investigation to have been conducted? Why the matter was never escalated beyond the Port Commander to the office of the Director? …the only answers could be that there was either a serious dereliction of duty by those vested with the responsibility or a calculated decision not to draw the attention of law enforcement." End quote.

The Committee thinks that at the very least, this act by the Immigration Officers involved "constituted a highly improper manner of proceeding."

The Committee is recommending that the relevant authorities quote, "consider seriously the issue of whether charges for perjury should be brought against any of the individuals who gave testimony before the Select Committee… The message should be sent that any future inquiry before the Senate should be taken very seriously as it will have the full weight of the law behind it." End quote.

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