Keith Arnold resigns from Financial Intelligence Unit

It may or may not have been due to pressure from the Association for Concerned Belizeans last week, but Keith Arnold is stepping down as head of the Financial Intelligence Unit. News Five has obtained a letter sent by Arnold to Governor General Sir Colville Young, dated November sixteenth, in which Arnold says “Based on the advice of my legal advisors on the question of the propriety of now occupying the posts of the Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (F.I.U.) and Chairman of Belize Telecommunications Limited simultaneously, I hereby notify you of my resignation as Director of the F.I.U. effective December fifth, 2005.” Arnold, who occupied the post for three years, came under heavy fire from the A.C.B., which accused him of conflict of interest following the discovery that Belize Telecommunications Limited, of which Arnold is the Chairman of the Board, had been authorising the changing of millions of Belize dollars into U.S. currency on the parallel market, seven point six million of which disappeared and has yet to be recovered.