Denys Barrow Says the Conflict is in the Split

Denys Barrow

According to Senior Counsel Denys Barrow, the objective of the settlement agreement was to bring finality to the question of recompense.  He says that while the Ashcroft Group may have anticipated a seventy-thirty split in its favor, which would have allowed them to collect fifty percent upfront that was not the outcome.

Denys Barrow, Attorney for Government of Belize

“The settlement agreement made provision that the sum awarded by the arbitral tribunal would kill it, would bring to an end the question as to compensation and that award was in fact handed down and everybody agrees as to what is the total.  But remember, the settlement agreement was made with a provision in it which says that there is a restricted amount and the restricted amount is the amount which the tribunal, the arbitral tribunal said represented the enhanced value of the shares provided by the accommodation agreement.  So the settlement agreement is that that enhanced value, that would be a restricted amount and that would be for the benefit of the people of Belize.  The unrestricted amount would be for the benefit of Dunkeld and other Ashcroft related entities, right.  So there’s a distinction between restricted and unrestricted amount.  The expectation when they made this settlement agreement was that the amount per share which the tribunal would award would have been greater in favor of the unrestricted amount.  Greater in favor of what is to go into Ashcroft’s pockets.  It turned out to be exactly the opposite.  They were expecting that it would be something like seventy percent to Ashcroft, thirty percent to the people of Belize.  As you now know, what the tribunal decided is it’s forty percent to Ashcroft and sixty percent to people of Belize.”