Stage set for next act in B.T.L. drama
With the long awaited B.T.L. board meeting and the related crippling contempt fine now behind us, the key question in the telecommunications fiasco has become: is this the beginning of the end… Or the end of the beginning? Why? Because the wrangle over who sits on the B.T.L. board is really a side show compared to the issue of whether Jeffrey Prosser, who claims he was conned by the Government of Belize, is entitled to go through with the purchase of majority ownership in the company. And while that question may be left untouched by Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages, there is no doubt that Prosser will use every means at his disposal, both in and out of the courtroom, to humbug and harass the Musa administration. Today I spoke to Belize’s attorney in Miami, Barry Davidson, to find out where we may be headed.
Barry Davidson, U.S. Attorney for Belize
?We filed a notice of appeal the middle of last week in regards to the contempt issues. On Friday, we filed a motion to stay any further proceedings on the contempt, including any attempt to collect any fines. We also filed on Friday asking her to request intervention by the State Department in the litigation in view of the contempt determination against the government. And finally, we filed on Friday a memorandum in regard to the ability to collect a contempt fine against the government, which we sharply dispute.?
Janelle Chanona
?What are the grounds under which all those motions are being filed??
Barry Davidson
?It?s a little difficult to answer that question simply. There is a lot of case law. I think the reason we are asking the State Department to intervene is fairly obvious. There is case law that supports a motion that you can?t get a contempt fine against a foreign government. If you read the Miami Herald article, even counsel for Mr. Prosser admitted that he has never heard of that happening before.?
Janelle Chanona
?At this point, can you tell us exactly what is the number figure for the contempt fine that the Government of Belize is contesting??
Barry Davidson
?I cannot because the last time she entered an order she thought the meeting was going to take place on the second. I believe the number, if you would run it from–she has now changed the date, to run it instead of from the twenty-ninth of March to run it from the thirty-first of March. I believe if you run it from the thirty-first of March to the second of May, it?s a million six. But the meeting did not take place until Friday May sixth, four days later because it was postponed by Mr. Prosser. We don?t believe we have any responsibility for that. Of course we don?t believe we have responsibility for a number of the days in question, but that?s all a matter that she hasn?t decided yet.?
Janelle Chanona
?Mr. Davidson, last question, the actual court trial proceedings gets underway at the end of this month. Based on the hauling and pulling that we?ve been doing before all of this gets underway, what?s your prognosis on how that trial session is going to go??
Barry Davidson
?Well, lawyers are really not supposed to comment in regard to the outcome of a trials before the cases are tried, so I really can?t comment on that. I can assure you that I think that the government has a very good case but I cannot comment on the outcome.?
Jeffrey Prosser is the party with the most to lose in this high stakes game as he has not only taken over INTELCO’s twenty-seven million dollar note at R.B.T.T. in Trinidad, but secured that purchase with the thirty-six million dollars worth of B.T.L. shares that he bought and actually paid for from the Belize Social Security Board. While the INTELCO purchase could be justified as a shrewd move if in fact Prosser was the majority owner of B.T.L., it looks like an act of expensive idiocy if it turns out that Prosser winds up with only a minority of shares. The Miami trial begins on May thirty-first.
As for things here at home, after weeks of intense negotiations between the Government of Belize and local unionists, tonight it appears that there is still no resolution in sight over the sale of Belize Telecommunications Limited shares to B.T.L. employees. News Five understands that the deadline date for the members of the Belize Communication Workers Union to come up with approximately thirty-seven point five million U.S. dollars is set at June fifth. With less than a month to go, officials of the B.C.W.U. say that despite offers of financial backing from competing shareholders Jeffrey Prosser and Michael Ashcroft, at this point the union believes that any alliance with either man would be detrimental to the country and the company. Key meetings between union officials were scheduled to take place tonight to determine a way forward.
