Saldivar Says He wasn’t Extorted by William Mason

This morning, we continued to grill Minister John Saldivar on his involvement with William Mason, who allegedly contributed up to fifty thousand dollars to the Belmopan Bandits team sometime in 2015. Since Mason’s racket prior to kidnapping and murder appeared to be scams and extortion, it’s safe to speculate that his deliberate infiltration of high-ranking Cabinet Ministers had some sort of ulterior motive. Saldivar told News Five that he, personally, was not a victim of any extortion plot, but he knows others who were.

John Saldivar, Ministry of National Security

“I have never been a victim. I do know of at least a couple other persons who may have been, and like I said in my statement on Monday when I became aware last year of some of these things including what was on the internet, that was when I realized this guy was no good and I disassociated myself from him.”

Reporter

“Sir, but you are the Minister of National Security. While you may have disassociated yourself from him personally this man still continued to operate in the country. In fact we have heard that Minister Patrick Faber was at his house just a month ago.”

John Saldivar

John Saldivar

“I believe that the persons who were victims of his fraud may not have come forward to the Police itself and perhaps didn’t want Court action or Police action, and I think that is one of the main reasons why a lot of it had not come to light. What is coming to light now is of recent, including the kidnapping and attempted extortion of the Mennonite fellow. I believe he is now back in the country and is now prepared to give the Police the necessary information for charges to be laid.”

Reporter

“You said you found out in September that he had an unsavory past. By then he had already a clean Police record as a native Belizean and he had already gotten a birth certificate claiming that his parents are from Crooked Tree. He got those just a couple months before you found out about his past. Were you aware of that?”

John Saldivar

“Absolutely not! It was only when the Police searched his home on Friday I believe that these documents were uncovered and I certainly had no knowledge of that.”