| Ralph Fonseca Was Linked to Money Laundering in 1998 |
| Tue, February 20, 2007 |
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Cal is not the first PUP candidate to be linked to money laundering. In
August of 1998 - one week before the general election, outgoing police minister
Dean Barrow held a press conference saying that an Interpol query had come to
Belize from Panama asking about Ralph Fonseca in connection with a money laundering
investigation. Fonseca responded by saying he had no involvement with money
laundering but he had done big business in Panama.
Ralph Fonseca,
[August 20th 1998] "I have been working as a financial consultant for
over twenty years."
Daedra Isaacs,
"Have you done business in Panama?"
Ralph Fonseca,
"Never ever had any problems with the authority but obviously I have
dealt with people that have very large portfolios. I have never had any problems.
Yes I have done business in Panama. Most people in Belize that know me know
that after the last elections I was involved with the campaign in Panama and
we helped, a group of us helped to Balladares elected. Everybody knows I am
a financial analysis and I do financial risk calculation so we use computers
to determine where risks lie and we have nothing directly to do with anybody's
account or anything like that."
Daedra Isaacs,
"For people like who and for companies like who, can you call some names?"
Ralph Fonseca,
"We do it for firms, not for clients directly."
Daedra Isaacs,
"What are the firms?"
Ralph Fonseca,
"That we can't disclose."
The PUP later produced a statement attributed to Panama's head of intelligence
Jorge Ottley who said that Fonseca was not being investigated for money laundering.
Again that was from August 20, 1998.
In a neat historical dovetail, also in 1998 then Panamanian president, who
Fonseca refers to, Ernesto Perez Balladares, held his own press conference
implicating his political opponent Alfredo Oranges in an international money
laundering scandal. Oranges was never convicted of any charges but his run for
the presidency was derailed.
Orange's name would later become known in Belize as an investor in Intelco,
and a very disgruntled one when the company failed to get interconnection.
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