G.O.B. lawyers file motion to withdraw contempt ruling
This afternoon, attorney for the Belizean Government in Miami, Barry Davidson spoke to News Five about the action his firm is taking to try and get Justice Ursula Ungaro-Benages to reconsider her ruling that Belize was in contempt of the Miami court and had been withholding vital information about the change in directors from Jeffrey Prosser.
(Via Phone from Miami)
Barry Davidson, Sr. Litigator, Hunton & Williams
?At the hearing last Thursday, the judge found that the government should be held in contempt. She asked for filings Friday and Wednesday from the parties respectively; the Prosser filing was Friday, our filing was today. If you?ve had a chance to look at the transcripts of the hearing you could see that she was quite perturbed by the notion that on March twenty-first the B-directors in place had been replaced by Lord Ashcroft and Keith Arnold and that the government hadn?t told anyone. That was really a big scene, if you will, at the hearing last Thursday and she used the term ?hide the ball? several times. Well, we have since learned the truth of the matter if you will. With the cooperation from Mr. Willman Black we have determined before our filing today that both Mr. Prosser and Mr. Vondras unmistakably received corrected certificates from Mr. Black early in the evening on the twenty-third of March, making it clear the Lord Ashcroft and Keith Arnold were the new B-directors. We think and we hope that we?ll have a good effect on the judge?s view of what actually took place with regard to the B-directors and may lead her, and we are certainly asking in our papers as you will see, to consider reversing herself in effect on the contempt determination, or at least perhaps technically standing by her determination but because of the circumstances as she finds them now, decide not to impose any actual penalties.?
?Well I think the other thing that you are well aware of it the ruling by Chief Justice Conteh today, which as I understand to read is very well reasoned and very diplomatic I might add. And we plan to take that before the judge in Miami as soon as possible, hopefully by Friday, certainly no later than Monday to ask her to adopt and accept Chief Justice Conteh?s reasoning in regard to this Nintey-D2 problem.?
The lawyers for Hunton and Williams included correspondence from B.T.L. to Prosser detailing the new board with Keith Arnold as Chairman, as well as telephone records of calls made from Belize to both Prosser and John Vondras, and copies of press releases and local news items listing the government appointed board directors.
