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Nov 11, 2010

Young and Vasquez hands deep in Telemedia and Social Security Board

As we told you on Wednesday, Glenn Tillett, a contributor to the Social Security fund, is asking the court to make a declaration that the decision by the S.S.B. to invest in Telemedia shares is illegal. The basis for the claim is that there is a clear conflict of interest and is contrary to the Social Security Act. The background is that when government pushed for the fifty million dollar investment by the S.S.B., it first had to be considered by the investment committee where the chairman, Net Vasquez used his casting vote to get the committee’s nod. That recommendation then had to be elevated to the Board where the social partners did not support it, but it was passed because five government representatives led by chairperson Lois Young Barrow voted in favor of it. If you follow the script Vasquez is the chairman of the Investment Committee and the Telemedia Board while Young is the chair of the S.S.B. and Telemedia company secretary. Today we caught up with Tillett’s attorney, Andrew Marshalleck of Barrow and Company and he weighed in on the latest Telemedia debacle.

Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney for Glen Tillett

andrew marshalleck

“Mr. Tillett is claiming a declaration that the decisions made by both the Investment Committee and the Social Security Board to invest in the purchase of shares in Belize Telemedia Limited were unlawful in that they breached a number of sections of the law.  In particular Section Ten to the second schedule of the Social Security Act prohibits a member of the board from participating and voting on a decision in a matter in which they have an interest.  And Section Fifty of the Interpretation Act also provides in similar terms that where a member of the board or committee has a direct or indirect pecuniary interest on a matter they shall refrain from voting on the board on any decision in respect of that matter.  And we are saying that given Ms. Lois Young’s position as secretary of Belize Telemedia Limited and Mr. Vasquez’s position as chief executive officer in that company and the fact that they are being paid for those positions constitute a sufficient interest that would have prevented them, as a matter of law, from participating in the decision by the board and the Investment Committee to approve the purchase of the B.T.L. shares.”

Isani Cayetano

“If the courts were to decide that indeed this motion was unlawful what would be the outcome thereafter?”

Andrew Marshalleck

“Well what is being sought is a declaration from the court that the decision taken to make the investment is unlawful and for orders prohibiting Ms. Young and Mr. Vasquez from participating in decisions touching and concerning those investments.”

Those that voted against comprised the N.T.U.C.B. representatives and those from the Chamber of Commerce and Business Bureau.


Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.

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11 Responses for “Young and Vasquez hands deep in Telemedia and Social Security Board”

  1. Lucas says:

    Of course, there is conflict of interest; clear intention to deceive and abuse of power. If this was in the U.S., Barrow, Vasquez and Lois would already be in jail.

  2. frankee says:

    Who cares. As long as I can find me some money to invest on my own I’m goood. I don’t care about some one trying to own BTL so long as it is Belizean owned

  3. rod says:

    another case of abuse of power and corruption to line their own pockets with the hard earned money of the poor people of belize i say lock them up all three should be put in prison because they all knew that this was illegal and still did it just because barrow would bcak them up well all three should be put in jail for insider trading. again i am trying to find out what is the penalty in belize for treason and spying does anybody know.

  4. fatima says:

    Barrow is a fraud and a fake….he does not care one bit about the Belizean people!

    Anyone remember Elrington traveling all the way to Isreal on taxpayer’s dollars? Seemed weird and somewhat confusing at the time…why to Isreal? Well here is the reason….to pave the way for his son to leave Belize and live in Isreal with the title of Musical Ambassador! In this interview Shine or whatever the hell he calls himself now makes NO mention of BELIZE….like his father its all about him….like father like son….POOR POOR Belize being USED to the max!

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101112/ap_en_ot/ml_israel_reformed_rapper

  5. Lets keep it real says:

    PUP’s LETS GET ON WITH THE BELIZEANIZATION OF BTL STOP PLAYING POLITICS!!

  6. Jennifer says:

    Kudos to Glen Tillett for having the courage to bring this matter to the courts and more importantly to the us common Belizeans who are unaware of these happenings until they are brought to the forefront. We definitely need more Belizeans like Glenn Tillett to hold our leaders to task as most of us just sit back and do nothing while our system of government self-destructs! Well done Mr. Tillett…let’s now wait on justice to prevail.

  7. ProudBelizean says:

    Frankee, I care, and believe me you should also care. BTL going down to ra$$.

    See, Frankee, when I got sick some years ago…even though I had about ten years of contributing to SSB, I was told that they don’t have any fund for that type of assistance. Yet, 50 million is availabe out of my own contributions to invest in BTL when we all know that government, they way they are going, will run BTL bankrupt. If BTL goes down, we can’t get access to our sick benefits.

    I guess you get the picture now.

  8. Earl Grey says:

    The NATIONALIZATION OF … btl…….. IS Barrow’s personal vendetta on Ashcroft.

    The VINDICTIVE PRIME MINISTER, now wants us to clean up his excrement.

    DEAN OLIVER BARROW………. another DISAPPOINTMENT for BELIZE.
    WE need to start praying for good leaders……..IT’S OUR ONLY HOPE.

  9. wow says:

    totally agree with Proud Belizean…SSB always has a hard time paying us as Belizeans when claiming our benefits that is rightfully ours…and now it is ok to invest 50 million on a company, that is uncertain just because the Government made a harsh decision on taking over BTL with the excuse of nationalizing the company. Come on ….the present government cannot prove this will be a profitable venture so y should our money go to waste.

    and Let’s keep it real…we are keeping it real ..noone is talking about politics…everyone has a choice of who they want to vote for…so dont assume all of us with REAL opinions are PUP’s just because we say it as it is.

  10. reggie says:

    Marshall it is nice to see you step up to the plate for Glen, You show that you have some kind of feeling for the people.And not because you are in the Law Firm with the Barrows mean you have to be afraid of what you belived in.Need more like you to come out and stop this glory train.always follow ur feeling.that come from the man above. Peace

  11. rootsman says:

    Now how do you like that, good work Fatima for the little spotlight on Shine I guess that there is now a vacancy for a Music ambassador or whatever the position was that his daddy gave him, really don’t think that Belize will miss him would hate to know that Elrington used tax payers funds to make that trip to Israel to go plead for him though, think he would fit in better with Osama in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan wherever he is, I imagined that he already tried for some of the European countries and his application was declined leaving only Israel on a religious Visa.
    I am sure all that King David stuff he is spurting is just hogwash he had to put a story together to try and impress his new religion, guess you can consider him now as a wondering Jew, it would be interesting to find out how he got out the country unnoticed but I guess if his daddy’s administration can bring plane loads of people in the country unnoticed this was no big feat for them probably took a small plane from San Pedro. Channel 5 it would be nice to get a report on how Shine got out the country unnoticed.

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