S.C.F.A. Chairman Accused of Embezzlement

Mark McKenzie

Tonight, the outspoken chairman of the Stann Creek Fishermen Association, Mark McKenzie, stands accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from an associate in what is being described as an unsuccessful fisheries venture.  According to NeNe Abraham, a Nigerian businesswoman, she was approached in early November to partner with McKenzie as an investor in Carib Prince, a concern which would see them both dividing profits from the sale of seafood.  Abraham says she agreed to capitalize the fledgling business by depositing over twenty thousand dollars in its account.  To date there has been no seafood to sell and the funds have been depleted.  When she contacted McKenzie on numerous occasions she was given the runaround.  This afternoon, they both ended up at the Dangriga Police Station where they were advised to file a civil suit before the courts.

NeNe Abraham, Disgruntled Businesswoman

NeNe Abraham

“I was brought here by Mark McKenzie who stays at number forty-two Magoon Street here in Dangriga and we are co-directors in Carib Prince Investment Company Limited, a company we registered together last month after he collected a Central Bank approval for me to be an investor in his company.  He is into seafood but he did not have the money to carry on the business, so he pleaded that we should invest in his company on a profit sharing basis because I was already on my way back to Nigeria.  I didn’t want to stay but I wanted to sign a BPO contract so he used that and we applied for an employer’s work permit which the Labor Department granted based on the Central Bank approval and the registration of the Carib Prince Investment Company Limited.  So when I sold off my shares in Classic Calls call center I collected thirty thousand Belize dollars and fifteen thousand was for my brother Dr. Ken and fifteen thousand was for myself and I wanted to go back to Nigeria for some kind of business so I decided to invest the money with him.  I just used six thousand to sign a contract and leave the rest for him to carry on the contract for which he had given me the cash flow of how the business is going to run and the profit sharing basis.  So on the ninth of November I cashed the money for which I have given the police a photocopy of the check given to me by Classic Calls.  It was a First Caribbean check.  So when I cashed the check he said let’s go, Atlantic Bank is going to open an account for us for Carib Prince but it has to be in Placencia.  I said okay because that is where he can get an overdraft.  So I followed him to Placencia and he said the girl Gina accepted to open the account for us and that was it that day.  On reaching there with the money the girl said no he can’t open the account until I bring my bank reference letter from Nigeria. Because he has withdrawn the money, he keep dangling, giving me the bank statement. I insist and said let me go to the…I called Gina, I called Gina…Gina said it is only him that can come for the bank statement. So when ih come I tell him noh you are not traveling till you give me the bank statement. So he went and brought a forged statement; it was typed on a white typing sheet that anybody can know that this is not front bank—bank does not use a typing sheet. I told him that labor cannot take this statement from me. Tell Atlantic Bank to do a bank statement on their letter head and somebody should sign. He said okay. He took it and went back. He was almost ready to go. On the twenty-fourth, that same one he gave me that he collected. It came back stamped, Atlantic Bank, twenty-fourth November so I collected it. So as of twenty-fourth November, the forged bank statement says that it is nine thousand balance. Well there was no balance in the account.”

McKenzie was unavailable for comment today.