B.T.L. financials cite millions in missing money
If you read it in a novel you’d probably dismiss it as just one too many unbelievable twists in an already improbable narrative. But the story surrounding Belize Telecommunications Limited keeps growing more weird with every passing day. The latest chapter involves information long rumoured but now confirmed in the company’s most recent financial statements, which were released on Friday. This is that in December 2004 the company had spent six point two million Belize dollars to purchase approximately three million dollars in U.S. funds on the parallel market… but as of today those U.S. dollars had yet to be paid to B.T.L. That’s right, somebody gone south with the money. How did it happen? That’s what a thousand or so shareholders would like to know. According to a number of sources contacted by News Five, the transaction originated with Gaspar Aguilar, who was at the time B.T.L.’s chief financial officer and later its C.E.O. The practice of purchasing U.S. funds privately is not unusual, particularly for companies that have large U.S. obligations to purchase equipment and repay loans from abroad. Although technically illegal, it is the financial equivalent of running a stop sign; that is, it’s never punished until the act causes a serious accident.
And the accident that Aguilar became involved in has turned into a major pileup. The six point two million dollar cheque was made out to Aguilar personally and was noted on the company’s books as “cash on hand.” The hand the cash wound up in, however, belonged to one Dion Zabaneh. Zabaneh is the broker who was supposed to round up the greenbacks and return them to Aguilar. What Zabaneh did with the money is not clear, but one thing is certain: whether in Belize dollars or U.S., the loot never wound up in B.T.L.’s bank account. Police are taking a strong interest in the matter and both Aguilar and Zabaneh have some tough questions to answer. For his part, the former C.E.O.–Aguilar was fired by the newly appointed board last week–says in a letter to B.T.L. Chairman Keith Arnold that his dismissal was unfair in that the currency trading was a well established board approved practice and he had no reason to believe that Zabaneh wouldn’t deliver. But unfortunately for Aguilar and B.T.L., things get worse. News Five has learned that Dion Zabaneh was not the only guy to stiff the company. Since March thirty-first it is believed that another one point four million Belize dollars remains unaccounted for. This sum was allegedly given by Aguilar to a different currency wrangler, one Hassan El Sayed. If the name sounds familiar that’s because El Sayed is a defendant in the long running passport scandal, charged with numerous counts of forging official documents. Word is that El Sayed had recently travelled to Lebanon and was due to deliver the money on his return, but we were unable to confirm his whereabouts or intentions. All this leaves Gaspar Aguilar’s once proud twenty-five year career with B.T.L. under a very large cloud…. and the storm is far from over.
Seven point six million Belize dollars may seem like a big hit for B.T.L. to absorb, but that amount is almost chump change compared to an additional twenty-one million dollars that B.T.L. says was misspent by its former owners and not paid back. That money, which B.T.L. says it is owed but may have trouble recovering, included over six million in management fees, almost nine million in a mysterious “license fee,” and various other loans charges and transaction fees taken by Jeffrey Prosser’s Innovative Communications Corporation and its subsidiaries. B.T.L.’s small shareholders are crying rape and while previous owners of the company, namely Carlisle Holdings, have engaged in similarly odious practices, the I.C.C. team has certainly raised the bar when it comes to corporate greed. The bottom line here is that there is no bottom line… quite literally. According to B.T.L.’s latest financial statements, the company posted record revenues of almost one hundred and thirty-one million dollars and reduced expenses which resulted in net earnings of twenty-nine million dollars, a jump of eleven million over the year ending in March 2004. But when you take into account the missing six point two million and Prosser’s twenty-one million dollar take, you wind up with corrected net earning of under two million Belize dollars, the lowest in the company’s history. The B.T.L. annual general meeting is set for September thirtieth.
