REPORT #303 June 2000
PLAYING DETECTIVE WITH THE 'IEEI' OPTION WORTH $3.34 MILLION OF SOCIAL SECURITY MONEY FOR BECOL SHARES!


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

What happened to this IEEI Option that was bought for $3.34 million of Social Security money? When you try to make sense of this thing, on the surface and with the lack of proofs and evidence from media accounts, it does indeed seem like a CROOKED INSIDE JOB of at least a couple of high PUP party members conspiring to steal $3.34 million of poor peoples Social Security retirement money.

But can't we find proof, or a paper trail to lay to rest the shadow of suspicion hanging over the heads and reputations of the inner PUP port town mafia political party gang? It looks bad for them, but they may be innocent?

Where would you look for a paper trail? To prove them innocent we need some documentation. In the media, it said Courtenay at his trial, never produced any evidence that any such OPTION ever existed. Courtenay and Fonseca insist that it did exist. Couldn't we find some proof to show that it did?

How about BECOL, or BEL or whatever it is called today? An OPTION to buy shares would have had to have a cash deposit. You don't give away OPTIONS free! This one probably got sold for $500,000, or as little as $200,000 to IEEI, if such an entity really existed. There has to be BECOL or BEL financial records showing how much IEEI paid for the OPTION. It was after all, reported income. Wasn't it?

We'll leave aside the argument that the Social Security Board never approved any purchase of such an OPTION from IEEI. I deal in Options every day on the Chicago Board of Trade, so I understand how OPTIONS work. You put down a smaller percentage of cash to buy or sell something, that gives you the right to consummate the buying or selling within a certain date at whatever price that might be when you want to do it. Sometimes the OPTION gives you a pre-determined price. But you don't get an OPTION free! You have to pay something! If this IEEI is not a fictitious piece of paper Company IBC, then BECOL or it's subsequent derivative has to have a paper record of the deposit or payment they received for the OPTION.

The Income Tax department also has to have a record for that year of the payment. It would be part of any bookkeeping for BECOL.

Courtenay himself may have documentation. In the court case, it only stated in the media he didn't show any documentary proof to the court. That was why the judge figured he was lying and ordered to pay it back, according to the newspapers. This doesn't mean he does not have any documentation. It would be a damn fool law firm that didn't keep such records.

Then you can't just transfer Belizean currency out of Belize, you have to go through Foreign Exchange permits to do you any good. Both Fonseca and Courtenay claim IEEI left with the money. So Central Bank and one of those Commercial Banks have to have a record, of the money, either in pieces and smaller payments and exchanges, or in whole.

There should be all kinds of paper trails to show what really happened.

IEEI couldn't get an OPTION for BECOL shares without paying for it. If they did, the record is there someplace with BECOL or it's subsequent name. If not, then it is not there! Belizean currency would be no good to IEEI, they also had to change the money, if they are a true IBC owned by foreigners, into foreign exchange and not a fiction put up by local rip off artists. You can't do that ( exchange money) in this country without paying taxes and getting permits. Nor can the commercial banks do the arranging without a paper trail also. This is a lot of money to exchange, it would have left huge waves behind when it was exchanged, as short as foreign exchange is and hard to get.

If the story is true, it was a great trade. Buy OPTIONS cheap and sell them for a much higher profit. Every traders dream including mine! But in this case, it would seem there would be INSIDER KNOWLEDGE and trading, if this deal did go through as Fonseca and Courtenay claim verbally, without taking an OATH in a court of law. Still, INSIDER TRADING isn't covered in Belize, it is just normal political practice here, where politicians consummate private deals for profit with government contracts. So, we will leave that part aside. If there was an OPTION there has to be a paper trail.

Can you find the paper trail, you detectives and prove Fonseca and Courtenay innocent of the suspicions and allegations surrounding them? The PUP party should be able to do that, for they control the whole process today. Heck! They could even make false ones if it was necessary. But there has to be a paper trail, you just don't take $3.34 million anywhere without a trail. The tracks on this amount of money have to be wide and big. Unless one of these guys has huge trunks stuffed with hundred dollar bills in their attics?

Instead of putting these good fellars under suspicion, lets try to find evidence they are innocent! How will we do that? Cause that is the next step in this evolution.

Criminal charges against the Head of the Social Security Board and Board members themselves for writing off the reclamation of the money are another story, for another time and place.

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