Holding Local Players Responsible for Sanctuary Bay Scam

Atlantic International Bank Limited, with the assistance of Prime Minister Dean Barrow and liquidator Julian Murillo, managed to secure a twenty-three million dollar settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The F.T.C. had filed charges in a U.S. District Court against A.I.B.L., and several other companies, for facilitating the Sanctuary Belize scam, known as the largest real estate scam in American history. Lead scammers Andris Pukke, Luke Chadwick and other local players scammed more than one thousand US investors of more than one hundred million dollars for luxurious properties in southern Belize. The F.T.C. shut down the scam and earlier in the week details of the settlement was release. Commenting on the settlement today was P.U.P. Area Representative and attorney Kareem Musa.

Kareem Musa

Kareem Musa, Area Representative, Caribbean Shores

“A portion of the F.T.C. suit has been settled and that portion is the one that covers the Atlantic Limited and its involvement in facilitating and taking part in the scheme that essentially took advantage off and injured over one thousand US consumers for approximately a hundred and forty four million dollars.”

Hipolito Novelo

“A.I.B.L. though refutes the allegations that it facilitated that scam.”

Kareem Musa

“So then why would A.I.B.L. be settling for twenty three millions if it had such a strong case.This has resulted in  more questions, in bigger questions that we need to be asking ourselves as a country and that is what are the repercussions that are going to happen locally. Who will be held accountable locally? Because if it is a hundred million dollars scam, what happened to the next seventy-seven million dollars. We know that in fact the law of the Prime Minister actually incorporated these companies that are defendants. We know that government officials like Mike Singh publicly endorsed this project. We know that there is a senator that actually went abroad and did sales pitching on behalf of this project. So what we need to do as a country is what protective measures are going to be put in place to ensure that our country does not suffer this sort of abuse again, to ensure that we are not prostituted internationally. It is important for the F.T.C. or the bodies who have this sort of knowledge for us to get a sense of the involvement of all these characters. Like I said it is an entire web of local characters and so it definitely begs the questions, who will be held responsible because the bankers have been paid, the attorneys have been paid. We see buildings going up even here in Belize City and so questions arise. Where does this paper trial lead and is the government going to do anything about it?”