An Update on the John Saldivar’s Investigation
John Saldivar
On February twenty-sixth, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams told News Five that disgraced minister John Saldivar would naturally be brought in for questioning into the allegations of bribery against him. That is yet to occur. Saldivar first denied having received tens of thousands of dollars from fraudster Lev Dermen and Jacob Kingston. But soon after, a US district court revealed text messages between Kingston and Saldivar showing that Saldivar collected monies. Saldivar, however, said that the monies were a donation which was used to purchase sports equipment in the U.S. Recent reports say that that the U.Ѕ. Federal authorities are seeking а monetary judgement of five hundred and eleven million US dollars against Kingston for tax evasion. They also want his assets in Utah, Turkey and Belize. But in Belize, the investigation against Saldivar seems to have stalled and we asked the Commissioner whether investigators have been able to get their hands on an authenticated copy of the text messages.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“That investigation is still ongoing. You will know that the COVID-19 really put a halt on many things that we are doing. We have submitted out request to the Attorney General Ministry for the MLAT report that we want in terms of the mutual assistance program where we are requesting certain things from the US authorities including the messages. That request is now at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There are also certain things that we have requested from the Integrity Commission. We have also requested certain things from immigration and from customs. So for the most part those offices were not functioning at their full capacity and so there have been some delay but the investigation is still ongoing.”
Hipolito Novelo
“What about text messages from the government owned B.T.L.?”
Chester Williams
“The time is so long. They don’t store the text messages for so long.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Has John Saldivar been asked to come in and give a statement or be questioned?”
Chester Williams
“At this time no.”
The scandal caused his resignation as leader-elect of the U.D.P., but his name is back on the list when the U.D.P. holds it leadership convention. But before that, Saldivar will be holding a press conference on Monday to talk about an economic recovery working paper that he has penned.
