Sniffing on the trail of the brand new Belizeans

The investigation into the passport scandal is in its thirtieth day. There have been two major press conferences during that time. The Financial Intelligence Unit is on the case. The Police are on the case. And with all that, there is still absolutely no official clarification of what has been found. Elvin Penner is at the front, middle and end of the scandal, but both the administrative and Police investigations have carefully skirted him. He has been sanctioned politically, but the very widespread and public outcry is for criminal sanction. Still, though unspoken, Penner apparently enjoys political protection from the highest levels against criminal scrutiny. But whether Penner’s political masters acknowledge it or not, public pressure is mounting, and damning evidence against Penner continues to surface. There are allegedly hundreds of nationality documents bearing Penner’s signature. They are now in Police custody, but even the few which have come under scrutiny contain glaring inconsistencies. News Five has been taking a close look at those documents, and Mike Rudon has the story.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

On Tuesday this bag full of official immigration documents was handed in to the Police. According to Commissioner Allen Whylie, it has been delivered to the investigating officer.

The man at the center of what seems to be a well-organized, very lucrative nationality garage sale is Elvin Penner. He is not being investigated by the Police – that much has been made clear by the Commissioner. Still, his signature keeps turning up on very questionable nationality documents, like these we got hold of.

On Wednesday’s newscast we told you about nationality documents two eight two nine seven and two eight three zero five, issued to Zhongxiong Yang and Shuzi Hu respectively.

Both persons received their nationality certificates on the same day, April fifth, 2013, and both apparently live at the same address – thirty-five Riverside Street in Benque Viejo del Carmen.

Today we decided to go visit Yang and Hu to officially welcome our new Belizean brother and sister to the jewel, but they weren’t home. In fact, they’ve never been home.

This is thirty-five Riverside Street in Benque Viejo. As you can see, it’s an empty lot. Neighbours told us that there hasn’t been a house there for ten years.

We checked to make sure we hadn’t made a mistake, but there it is on both nationality certificates – thirty-five Riverside Street, Benque Viejo del Carmen.

We could probably have shown their pictures to residents to see if anybody knows them. But their photographs aren’t on the nationality certificates either…nationality documents signed by Elvin Penner.

Bogus addresses seem to be a trend on those documents. On the nationality certificate of South Korean national turned Belizean Wonhong Kim, his address is given as Piccini Area, Belmopan – no street number or name. When we checked, nobody in the area had ever heard of Kim, except on the news. Then there’s a nationality certificate for Bojie Shan, issued on May twenty-second, 2013. His address is listed as Las Flores Area…again, no street name or number. The nationality certificate issued to Dubai national Jalal Ebrahimi is the same. His address is listed as South End, Corozal Town.

Why didn’t those incomplete addresses raise red flags in a system Minister Godwin Hulse says is watertight? Maybe somebody will tell us at the next press conference. Mike Rudon for News Five.