J.P. admits false declaration in passport scandal
It is a scandal that spilled onto the floor of the House of Representatives on Friday and shows no sign of immediate resolution. The subject is passports and it is alleged by the Opposition that although the sale of economic citizenship has been halted by a constitutional amendment, a booming illicit trade in Belizean nationality continues to prosper, with complicity and corruption that may reach to the highest levels of government. News 5 has been conducting its own investigation into the problem and a preliminary look at copies and video of twenty-four applications for passports shows that all of them were improperly filled out, with incomplete data and unverifiable addresses. The signatures have also been forged and it appears that the same person filled out and signed all the applications. Two different Justices of the Peace, Rudolph Thimbriel and Max Santos, have between them affixed their signatures and official stamps to the applications attesting that the information on the application is true and that they personally know the applicants, all of whom hail from Taiwan, The Peoples Republic of China, Jordan or Palestine.
This morning we checked with one of those Justices of the Peace, Max Santos, who admitted that he never met any of the applicants and that the fraud he committed in signing the application was done as a favour for a friend. Here’s how it went when News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams visited the honourable gentleman at his office at Queen’s Square Market in Belize City.
Ann-Marie Williams
“They say these people noh set foot yet in the country, yet these people sign up for passports. But they say they have citizenship, but what does B.N.A. means? All of these you signed right, what is B.N.A.?”
Max Santos, Justice of the Peace
“That is…Belize not.” (stutters)
Ann-Marie Williams
“But you must know what is this B.N.A. because you write it. What does it mean?”
Max Santos
“That just em…”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Because this serious Mr. Santos, you meet any of these people?”
Max Santos
“I noh meet that, that why I tell you I noh meet deh, that’s why I put not applicable.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“But what does B.N.A. mean?”
Max Santos
“Not applicable.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“B.N.A. can’t mean not applicable.”
Max Santos
“Yes.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Mr. Santos, this is a serious thing. Watch all of these people…”
Max Santos
“I put Belize Not Applicable because…”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Belize not applicable? What does that mean?”
Max Santos
“This noh go fi these people none at all.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“How do you mean, noh go fi these people none at all?”
Max Santos
“Yes.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You know any of these people?”
Max Santos
“Of course not.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So why you sign your name on this thing?”
Max Santos
“Because… I put not applicable, because if I noh know them I noh wah put that I know them.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Yes, but what is B.N.A.?”
Max Santos
“Belize Not Applicable.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Belize not applicable, is that a code? No. who asked you to signed these things Mr. Santos?”
Max Santos
“This dah from Gabby.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Who?”
Max Santos
“Mr. Gabby.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Who is Gabby?”
Max Santos
“Beirut, weh own Beirut.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What’s his name?”
Max Santos
“Me only know ah as Mr. Gabby.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Only Mr Gabby. Where does Mr. Gabby live?”
Max Santos
“He have Beirut Store on North Front Street in front of Majestic Theatre.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Gabby Affif?”
Max Santos
“Aha.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Affif is his surname?”
Max Santos
“Yes.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So he just ask you to sign these? What did he say?”
Max Santos
“He say, Mr. Santos, mek ah tell you something. I tell ah let’s agree what these things say, but this dah noh…apparently he get it from the higher ups.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Where he tell you he get it from?”
Max Santos
“He said the Immigration people tell him we have to just not applicable because, I tell ah I noh di sign these because…”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Mr. Santos, this is a serious thing. You put your stamp and all.”
Max Santos
“Mek I tell you something, when you and me sign that oath without fear, favouritism and soh. That noh soh it go.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Yes, but I also said you should know the people them?”
Max Santos
“Mek I tell you something, you can’t know those economic citizens, you could nevah know these people.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“He tell you these were economic citizens?”
Max Santos
“They are economic citizens.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“He told you that?”
Max Santos
“Of course they are.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“But you just said to me that you didn’t agree, saying not applicable.”
Max Santos
“That why we can’t put in not applicable here.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“But if they are economic citizens, then…
Max Santos
“They’re not applicable. How I wah know them and I noh see them?”
Ann-Marie Williams
“This is why I wonder why you sign it and stamp it, because you not even know if these people are real. You noh know. Have they ever come to Belize?”
Max Santos
“I noh meet them, that’s why I put not applicable.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Okay, have you ever asked him where they live or if they come here? He nevah tell you if they come here?”
Max Santos
“He tell me, Mr. Santos, these people have already got their citizenship, right. He said they were applying for their passports. That’s why I put not applicable because me noh know them.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Do you know that in order to get your citizenship, your nationality, you should be living in Belize for at least five years? Do you know that?”
Max Santos
“Well I noh know bout the economic citizenship that…”
Ann-Marie Williams
“No, I’m not talking about the economic citizenship. See, the signature of this person, acquired Belizean nationality. In order to get nationality you have to be living here for five years or more.”
Max Santos
“According to the Immigration Department, they seh these people have already get their nationality and Mr. man, you hear what he says, he’s satisfied with the form and the application…
Ann-Marie Williams
“And so you sign it?”
Max Santos
“You have to ask Mr. Max Samuels. You mi hear what he said in the Assembly?”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Yes, but you see, Mr. Santos, when anything like this and they see your signature, you involve too you know.”
As the man who induced Santos to betray his sacred trust as a Justice of the Peace, Gabby Affif has much to answer for. The Belize City merchant and immigration agent is the same man News 5 identified in 2000 as the lucky recipient of South Silk Caye, which he purchased for the grand sum of two thousand, five hundred and sixty dollars. We attempted to reach Affif to ask him why all these people who have supposedly lived here for five years need him as their agent, and why he felt the need to have Max Santos lie. We couldn’t find Affif, however, as although several of his employees and friends claimed to have seen him, his wife told us this afternoon that he had left the country and she did not know when, if ever, he was coming back. In all honesty we do not know if Affif was dodging the media or the people whose money he took for the passports.
