Lord Ashcroft uses lawsuits to defeat P.M. Dean Barrow

** Lord Ashcroft of the United Kingdom.
** Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow.



LORD ASHCROFT OF THE UK at war with BELIZE Prime Minister.

Lots of news this weekend and numerous newspaper articles and television interview. The scandal and rumor mongers are having a feast. From reading and listening, this is what I interpret has happened so far.
Net Vasquez the new Chairman and the pet Board of Directors of the newly government controlled Belize Telecommunications Media company ( a telephone and internet company ) are claiming FOUL, in that nationalization of Lord Ashcroft's shares in BTL, they have just gone over the books and found out they are saying, that Lord Ashcroft LOOTED AND PLUNDERED BTL and was also the SECRET owner of SMART the other supposedly competitive telecommunications company.
As the allegations fly back and forth, we hear that ( my understanding from the news ) Lord Ashcroft secretly owned both telecommunications companies through proxy TRUSTS controlled by one of his two banks, here and in the Turks and Caicos Branch. He denies in the UK of owning BTL, yet nobody has yet printed the owning TRUSTS in the newspapers to divulge the GRANTOR, the TRUSTEE's and the BENEFICIARIES. Apparently there are shell trusts and companies utilizing the Guernsey Islands, the Branch bank in the Turks and Caicos and the Belize Bank in Belize. It was against the law, or the intent of the law to have a telecommunications monopoly. Lord Ashcroft has been allegedly operating a scam, con game, in that he had some kind of HOLD ( for the last bunch of crooked politicians in the Belize government and rumored to know their secrets of embezzlement? ) Or other nefarious goings on these crooks were up to when they were in office. At any rate SECRETLY the past ex- Prime Minister without telling his party members, had signed a SECRET agreement to give BTL free 15% profit, free from taxes ( in return for favors? ) for his company of BTL according to the news reports. If BTL failed to make the profit, then the government of Belize would PAY BTL for monies they should have got from their guarantee. BTL collected millions from the Treasury as BTL allowed itself to go broke from deficits and funnelled profits to SMART the alleged competition, but which was not competition but a part of the SECRET monopoly. We understand from street rumors that the ex-Prime Minister is believed to have been between a rock and a hard place and was getting his testicles wrung by an expert. At any rate, Lord Ashcroft allegedly squeezed tens of millions out of Belize and the company BTL through using proxy TRUSTS and his banks, as the story goes in the newspapers. I only know what I read in the newspapers. Living in the boondocks as I do in rural parts, this is part of our weekly entertainment.
The counter argument from the Prime Minister and from the new Director of BTL, since the company shares of Lord Ashcroft have been recently nationalized, is that BTL coffers have been looted and plundered. It is said in the latest news reports, that Lord Ashcroft, or his front TRUSTS, companies and BANKS took out $70 million in dividends this year, from a company that only earned $34 million in profits for the year. Of which normally, a 2% dividend would amount to $680,000 to spread between shareholders. Since the dividends came to double the actual net profit of the company BTL, something is very fishy and the government is calling this looting and plundering.
Lord Ashcroft on the other hand denies he owned BTL and had sold it. The current owners are two trusts mostly controlled by the Belize Bank, another Lord Ashcroft business and perhaps done in the Turks and Caicos Bank as well. One Trust was allegedly for the BTL employees, but $12 million in dividends have gone missing they say into Belize Bank, is the word reported in newspaper articles. This is the story so far.
Then another bombshell erupted this week, when Net Vasquez ( new BTL chairman - puppet of the Prime Minister ) in a tv show, is supposed to be saying that a bank in Trinidad owned a lot of shares in BTL, the local major telecommunications company. That when BTL was under the control of Lord Ashcroft he borrowed from his Turks and Caicos bank some $45 million Bz to buy some BTL shares from some Trinidad bank. Lord Ashcroft's bank holds the loan note against BTL. The Prime Minister on the other hand, or his lawyers ( ex-wife ) says that it is illegal under Belizean laws. However the money allegedly came in, a loan note exists, but the money disappeared. Lord Ashcroft lawyers are saying the money was used for infra-structure in the company. ( this would make the loan to buy the shares legal ) The government lawyers are saying it is a poppy show and part of the $70 million in alleged dividends that were looted by Lord Ashcroft's, Belize Bank and disappeared.
As Belize SOAP OPERAS go, this is as good as it gets. There is no sex in it yet, but BOLLYWOOD could fix that up in a screen play I'm sure? As it stands now, the counter suing will go on, until the crooked PUP administration gets elected back in office and they will then drop the whole thing, to HIDE past PUP nefarious activities that Lord Ashcroft knows about. So street rumors go! Lord Ashcroft is expected to buy the next election, for the PUP, IF HE CAN postpone further nationalization of his share holdings in Belize companies. ( three years to go - so PM BARROW would of necessity have to move fast )
The only option to the Prime Minister, Dean Barrow at this point is to further NATIONALIZE the BELIZE BANK, which owns the bank in Turks and Caicos as well, also NATIONALIZE the National Bus Company, and Channel 5 television station. To clean out of BELIZE completely all share holdings and interests of Lord Ashcroft, a British billionaire, much of which came from Belize it is believed. Unless he does that, this SOAP OPERA will never end.
Mind you I'm just a layman, and all I know is what I read in the weekend newspapers in Belize. I might have missed some twists and quirks in this soap opera so far. It makes for interesting reading, but we don't get any real national news from our limited newspaper coverage, as most newspapers are weeklies and printed down in the port town.