Bradley Paumen Issued License, Despite Accusations of Abetment to Murder

After his arraignment, Paumen was successful in renewing his tour operator’s license despite being served notice by B.T.B. that they were aware that Dark Night was operating without a valid license since the beginning of the year.  The B.T.B. says that Paumen’s indictment has nothing to do with his ability to satisfy the necessary requirements to have his license renewed neither does the location of his property and access to it.  The Federation of Cruise Tourism Associations of Belize, FECTAB, however has come out swinging against Paumen.  Today, the process by which he was able to get a renewal was explained in full.

Javier Paredes

Javier Paredes, Director of Business Development, B.T.B.

“As it regards Daylight/Dark Night, they’re a company.  They are a limited liability company so Brad Paumen is a principal in that company but not the only owner in that company but it’s a limited liability company.  They already had a license for 2015, so normally when you already have a license you’ve already gone through the application processes et cetera and you renew your license because all licenses expire December thirty-first of each year.  So his license had expired December thirty-first.  What happened is that he did not come in and renew it and we at the B.T.B., in December we had sent out two notices to the general, what we would call all tour operators, asking them and reminding them that their licenses will expire on December thirty-first.  On January eight, we again reviewed who all had applied and we sent out a cease and desist letter to all tour operators who had not renewed their license.  Mr. Paumen was included in there, Dark Night rather.  Thereafter, after we sent that cease and desist letter we gather evidence from the Fort George Tourism Zone that he was operating even after we sent him that letter.  So that prompted us when we got that information on January fifteenth, to send him another letter, now not addressed to all tour operators but to him specifically, saying we now have evidence that you are operating even after we sent you a cease and desist letter.  What that will imply is that you will now be called in front of the tour operators committee to have a hearing on this.  You’re operating illegally, we have evidence but also you are a tour operator, you have employees et cetera, we urge you to legalize your status and that is what Mr. Paumen did.  As a matter of fact, that same day that we sent him that letter was when he was released from police custody and thereafter he went and started submitting all his documentation and he fulfilled, by Tuesday he had fulfilled all the necessary requirements to get a license.”