Prosser sues for return of special share

Attorneys representing Jeffrey Prosser today presented their case in the Supreme Court, seeking to restore his ownership of the special share in BTL. That share and the rights it confers was taken away from the American Investor by the Minister of Public Utilities acting under a statutory instrument that had been passed by the National Assembly. In his court action, filed against Utilities Minister Ralph Fonseca and Attorney General Francis Fonseca, Prosser is claiming that the ministers usurped the power of the judiciary, contrary to the Belize Constitution and its concept of separation of powers. The case is being heard by Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh and is being argued by a high powered battery of attorneys: Jamaican Roald Henriques and Belizean Lionel Welch for Prosser, Solicitor General Elson Kaseke for Government, British barrister Nigel Fleming and Belizean Rodwell Williams for BTL, Lois Young-Barrow for Thiermond Ltd., a BTL shareholder, and Andrew Marshalleck for the Belize Bank, another major BTL shareholder. All parties except Prosser maintain that the cancellation of the special share was proper.

The special share was sold to Prosser as part of his aborted takeover of Belize Telecommunication Ltd. and presumably forms an important part of the collateral mortgaged to the RBTT bank for approximately thirty million U.S. dollars in loans that he is yet to repay. When Prosser failed to complete his purchase of the company, the Belize Government returned control of BTL to the former majority owner, Michael Ashcroft.