News Five Digs Deeper into Sanctuary Belize Scam
The deeper we dig, the more details emerge on the Sanctuary Bay saga. News Five has obtained the copy of an affidavit by Anthony Bailey; he is a resident of Dangriga. Now, Bailey is a humble man who may not have understood the international implications of the scam described as the biggest fraud to be investigated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. But Bailey became the go-to-guy on the ground in the southern Belize development in which investors were scammed out of millions upon millions of dollars. In the following report, the origins of Sanctuary Bay are exposed. Here is Hipolito Novelo.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
This 2016 affidavit by Alfonso Bailey is telling. This court document is in regards a civil suit filed by U.S. citizens Thomas and Patricia Herskowitz over infrastructure differences at Sanctuary Bay. The suit was filed before the F.T.C. brought down the hammer on the scammers and Atlantic International Bank Limited.
The Herskowitzs were two of the many victims of the Sanctuary Belize Scam which involved several many companies and players. Bailey identifies himself as a director and member of the Sittee River Wildlife Reserve, and Eco Futures Belize Limited.
SRWR was created as non-for profit company by “several natural and artificial persons’ who agreed to combine their resources. The objective was to acquire certain real estate properties from various third parties. The property is fourteen thousand acres of land in Stann Creek known as Sanctuary Belize. It was acquired for about seven million dollars. According to Bailey, the promoters’ objective was the development of a planned community real estate project initially called Sanctuary Bay and now called Sanctuary Belize.
After acquiring the massive parcel of land, SRWR gave Eco Futures Belize an exclusive development contract to undertake the multi-million dollar, now failed, real estate project.
Thereafter, Global Property Alliance Inc was brought in. The company was given an exclusive contract to promote and market the development internationally.
The Herskowitzs bought into the scheme and entered into a memorandum of sale for one of the lots at a cost of five hundred and ten thousand dollars. SRWR later promoted the Sanctuary Belize Property Owners Association as a non-for-profit corporation, under the laws of Texas, and registered in Belize as an overseas entity doing business in Belize.
A massive advertising campaign was launched in the US. Infomercials for Sanctuary Belize ran on Bloomberg TV on August fifth, 2017. A lead defendant, Luke Chadwick, is featured. According to the F.T.C., the infomercial touts the benefits of Belize and Sanctuary Belize as an investment and includes details about proposed financing and false claims about the risk of the investment. More than one thousand American investors were swindled out of more than one hundred million dollars. F.T.C. says that lead scammer Andris Pukke organized the scam with the assistance from several key players both in the U.S. and in Belize.
In 2012, this confidential cabinet memo proves that Eco Futures Belize was given tax concessions. In the 2016 Herskowitz court case, SRWR and Eco Futures Belize were represented by Barrow and Williams. Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.
