This is Why Interpol Belize Missed Lev Dermen
The police command has been under scrutiny ever since it was revealed that an Interpol check did not turn up anything on the shady background of accused fraudster Lev Dermen, who is on trial in a Utah court. Dermen was twice pushed for honorary consul appointments, including by the then Minister John Saldivar. But these were turned down, likely because of his nefarious activities, which come up so easily and handily in internet searches. Dermen went on to cultivate a list of friends in cabinet, including Saldivar, whose fall from grace makes him the man with the shortest record as leader of the U.D.P. Today, the police showed the media how the Interpol check works and why it missed Dermen. News Five’s Hipolito Novelo reports.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
On May third 2013, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requests a security vetting on Levon Termendzhyan, now name Lev Dermen, while he was being considered for appointment as Honorary Consul for Belize in Nevada. Special Branch under the command of ACP Marco Vidal follows up with the request, sending a communication to Commander of the Joint Intelligence Coordinating Center, or Interpol Belize on May seventh. Two days later, Interpol Belize responds saying that the search resulted negative.
Elroy Gordon
Cpl. Elroy Gordon, Supervisor for Interpol in Belize
“In 2013 I believe that check was sent to Interpol and it was ran though the I-24 system. We did that yesterday to show that the system reflects nothing to say that he is wanted or anything incriminating of hm.”
Supervisor for the unit Corporal Elroy Gordon today re-entered Dermen’s particulars. Commissioner Chester Williams hands over Gordon a copy of Dermen’s American passport. And Gordon proceeds to enter the information into the Interpol portal.
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“What we have here is after his name was entered into the system is reflects negative in the database. His travel identity document also reflected negative.”
Hipolito Novelo
“And negative indicates no notices.”
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“Yes and there is nothing incriminating about him on the system.”
On May twenty fifth, 2013 Vidal responds to the Ministry’s request saying that the Interpol checks do not reveal anything adverse on the applicant. Vidal, however, confirms that during Dermen’s visits to Belize, Dermen associated closely with a businessman whose permanent residence application was denied. Vidal informed the ministry that the said businessman is believed to have been involved in illegal trade of stolen vehicles. It is said that some government officials were pushing for Dermen to be appointed as Honorary Consul but the US shutdown that possibility almost immediately. So was that it? Was that all the background check that was made on the now infamous Lev Dermen? Did Special Branch or the Intelligence Unit rely only on Interpol’s database?
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“It is far much more than a random name search so Mr. Vidal, there is no way that Mister Vidal had access to the database itself.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Does that stop there in terms of what this office does?”
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“No.”
Hipolito Novelo
“What are other mechanisms or steps to further check individuals like Mr. Lev Dermen at the request of the government?”
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“As mentioned the organization is a hundred and ninety four member countries and there is far much more beyond just entering the name in the database. The organization itself creates networking for you to communicate so if we are Belize and we require information from another member country that is afforded to us.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Do you know if that was done in 2013 in this specific Levon case?”
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“Well I believe so, yes. That is standard operating procedures here.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Because we know that he has Turkish nationality and I believe that he is from Armenia. Were those countries contact to see if they have any information n Mr. Dermen as well as the U.S.?”
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“Yes, I believe so. Yes.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Did anything come up from those request? Because in the U.S. in 1993, he was charged along with his brother for a gas scam. Did that information surfaced?”
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“We must be able to understand that whatever information they chose to provide they provide. We don’t stop there, there are further things that we do behind the scene when it comes to acquiring further information.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Such as?”
Cpl. Elroy Gordon
“I cannot elaborate too much on that.”
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“As you have seen that Mr. Vidal went beyond Interpol search. He placed in the memo that in Belize the person associated with person with questionable character. Levon is not a Belizean so there was not much known about him in Belize. Another thing that we normally do is that we also do a criminal record check in Belize. So that would have been done as well. Special Branch has a system that they normally run things through for security clearance. All that was done and it yielded nothing on the individual except for the information that Mr. Vidal has placed in the memo that was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says that Interpol is not a criminal record database which means that you won’t find a person criminal’s record in data base unless the member country provides it. A simple Google search, however, reveals Dermen’s incriminating past, including the 1993 arrest and charge for selling untaxed diesel fuel.
Chester Williams
“I’ve heard about the 1993 conviction that you said a while ago. Why didn’t Interpol pick it up? If would not be on Interpol if the state of California had not placed it on Interpol. So we could search Interpol and we are not going to find anything where that conviction is concerned unless they put it up.”
But now, in these changing times and due to the ever evolving World Wide Web, the intelligence unit’s research procedures are being adjusted.
Chester Williams
“To add to what you said little earlier Mister Hipolito, we have revised our vetting system. We now know that people are using Facebook more frequently. SO now we have now included Facebook search. We have also included Google search but we must also be careful of the information that we get from Google because not everything that is there is credible information.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.
