U.S. Investor Charged for Fraud on Placencia Airport

Brent Borland

Brent Borland, principal of Borland Capital Group and an investment manager from New York, faces separate criminal and civil cases in the Southern District of New York and by the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to Reuters news agency, forty-eight-year-old Borland is accused of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy counts in relation to diverting up to six million of more than twenty million dollars he raised for financing an international airport in Placencia, Stann Creek. Borland is co-founder of the Placencia Group, which owns the well known Placencia Residences down south.  That group’s development includes building a planned community in the peninsula, a medical center and medical tourism center among other amenities. Reuters says Borland is accused of fraudulently raising nearly twenty-two million U.S. dollars for the project and promising double-digit rates of return on the investment in the Belize Infrastructure Fund, only to see investors lose money. Borland spent millions in credit card bills, mortgage payments on his Florida mansion, a vehicle, private school tuition and other incidentals between 2014 and March 2018. He faces up to twenty years in prison on each fraud count if convicted. The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to recoup illegal profit, impose civil fines, and obtain an asset freeze.