Litigants in Mek Mi Rich Case Forced to Wait

Eamon Courtenay

‘Mek Mi Rich’ – it was the televised lottery game that Corozal businessman Curtis Swasey says he came up with and took to Belize Telemedia Limited a few years ago. But a version that made it to the television airwaves, backed by no less than Andre Vega and Sanjay Hotchandani, prompted a lawsuit, which Swasey won in February of 2016. Supreme Court Justice Courtney Abel found that persons within the telephone company breached a confidentiality agreement that they signed. But when it came to damages, the court could only find twenty-five thousand dollars to pay Swasey on the basis that Mek Mi Rich’s financial information was not available. Cross-appeals were filed earlier this year, but when the case came up today, it was the court that asked for a postponement. Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay, flanked by long-standing case attorney Kareem Musa and Swasey himself, told us why.

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Curtis Swasey

“We were called into chambers by the President and the judges, and informed that one of the judges, Madam Justice Minnet Hafiz-Bertram, had recused herself, and therefore there was not a complement to hear the case. We need three judges and there were only two left. And therefore the matter has been adjourned to the next session which is until March of next year.”

Reporter

“Was there any reasons provided to you guys?”

Eamon Courtenay

“No reason was given; they just said that there was a reason she had given to the President and the other judge why she would not sit.”

Magalie Perdomo appeared for Telemedia but there was no representative for Mek Mi Rich Limited, the company formed by Vega and Hotchandani which owned the program.