Cuello’s and Travellers Object to S.S.B.’s $9M Loan

Last week, we told you about S.S.B.’s plan to invest nine million dollars as funds for the construction of a new liquor distillery in the north.  It followed the publication of a notice of a loan to Belize Premium Spirits and Liquors Limited, a company registered to Waldir and Irlanda Cuello.  The notice put out by the Social Security Board in the newspaper raised concerns from the public about the use of public funds finance another distillery.  On November fifteenth, Senior Counsel Magali Marin-Young wrote to the Chief Executive Officer of S.S.B. on behalf of her client, Cuello’s Distillery Limited, objecting to the board‘s intention to lend BPSL the monies requested.  The letter goes on to state, “the director/shareholder of BPSL is Mister Waldir Atilano Cuello, who is a director and shareholder of our client.  We are instructed to hereby notify you that our client intends to take legal action against Mister Waldir Atilano Cuello and BPSL’s intended project of a distillery for the reasons set out below.  The basis for the challenge is that Mister Waldir Atilano Cuello is currently a director of our client, and he owes fiduciary duties to our client, including the duty to act bona fide towards our client, and its businesses and not place himself to be in a conflict with the well-being of our client.  As a director and shareholder of our client, Mister Waldir Atilano Cuello has insider knowledge in relation to our client’s distillery and its operations, including but not limited to our client’s blend of rum and liquor”. Also objecting to the loan is Travellers Liquors Limited.  In its letter to S.S.B., a representative of Travellers board of director states, “we write to place our objection to the proposed approval of the abovementioned loan as we believe that the risk to the Social Security funds into which the employees of Travellers Liquors have been paying for over forty-two years is very high.  As an exporter, for over fifteen years, we know that importers do not sign contracts to purchase liquid before having a sample and an idea of the price of the product.  Investing in such a venture with the prospect of exporting even with the best estimates will not guarantee a sale of the spirit once produced… We are concerned that these obstacles to export to Mexico would pressure the Belize Premium Spirits and Liquors to sell locally which would increase the over-saturated local rum supply, adding a fifth distillery to the market with three of them being in the Orange Walk District.  The business plan upon which the loan decision was made is a speculative one which places at risk our social security funds”.