Ashcroft denied $88 Million dollars
From The Guardian Bz
The Caribbean Court of Justice made a significant ruling against the Ashcroft Alliance on Friday, July 27th denying British Caribbean Holdings (BCB) and the Belize Bank Limited the ability to enforce an Arbitration Award which would have seen the Government pay $44 Million U.S. dollars to the companies. The London Court of Arbitration had awarded $44 million U.S. with interest at a rate of 3.38% compounded annually to BCB and the Belize Bank.
After the award, the companies sought to enforce it with the Supreme Court in Belize ruling that it was enforceable. The Government appealed the decision at the Court of Appeal and the ruling was overturned. Thereafter, the companies sought a ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice who made a final decision on the matter, ruling that the Settlement Deed which gave rise to the arbitration award was illegal. In the ruling, the judges note that “The idea that the Minister who signed the Deed (or his Government) was attempting, in good faith, to settle a prior dispute is also quite beside the point. Neither a noble motive, as may have been the case, nor an executed Deed excuses or repairs an obvious excess of jurisdiction or serious breach of the fundamental principle of Separation of Powers.”
In 2005, the then PUP government through the Prime Minister at the time, Said Musa and the Attorney General, Francis Fonseca entered into a Settlement Deed with the companies where certain tax exemptions, in fact a new taxing regime, was concocted for the two financial institutions extending up to 2020. This was entered into in exchange of the companies not proceeding with litigation against the Government of Belize.
In its ruling, the CCJ noted that “The promises made by the Minister were designed to affect, indeed to alter, the Companies’ tax obligations under existing law.” The judgment continues: “The Deed… goes on at some length to construct in careful detail a special tax regime reserved for the Companies; a regime that all parties readily acknowledge is at variance with the extant revenue laws of Belize and one which conferred significant benefits on the Companies.” “The promises made by the Minister were thus intended to supplant and supersede all current and future statues enacted by the National Assembly,” noted the judgment. This kind of executive authority was deemed by the court to have been abusive and should not be tolerated.
While that was the position of the CCJ on the legality of the Settlement Deed, the court found that international arbitration awards can be enforced in Belize but those ought to have a legal origin. Speaking at the end of the tele-conference during which the judgment was handed, Attorney for the Claimants, Eamon Courtenay, he expressed disappointment at the ruling. He indicated, however, that litigation continues between the Government of Belize on other fronts.
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Barrow caught with pants down – Taxpayers paid for his UK trip & secret meetings with Ashcroft Alliance
From Belize Times
For the past ten days, Prime Minister Dean Barrow has been living the lifestyle of the rich and the famous, playing prince and princess dress up, attending galas, rubbing with the British elite and relaxing in lofty hotels. He wasn’t on personal vacation, as much as it sounds like it. He was actually on an extended and expensive junket paid for, as he brazenly put it on Wednesday afternoon, by the “people of Belize”.
At a time when Belizeans are struggling to cope with the rising cost of food, bills and now school fees, the thought of taxpayers’ monies being used for the Prime Minister and his family’s spontaneous trip to his motherland which cost tens of thousands of dollars is outrageous.
But to make matters worse, the Prime Minister also admitted that during the UK visit he met secretly with functionaries of the “devil” himself…the “Ashcroft Alliance”. This is the same man with whom Barrow waged holy war against in 2009, costing Belize millions of dollars. The PM was cagey with the topic because even though he knows we know that he met with Ashcroft, he still danced around the issue.
“Well, I may have taken the opportunity to discuss where things are with the various court cases and the various bits of litigation,” said the Prime Minister with what sounded almost like a British accent.
Barrow seemed very confused. Why was there a need to “discuss where things are” (in other words, give an update) with court cases between GOB and the Ashcroft Alliance? Has the PM forgotten that he and Ashcroft are in opposing sides, and that as far we know, the Government isn’t engaged in any out of court arbitration with Ashcroft’s lawyers? These meetings, which are held without consulting the people of Belize first, seem highly suspicious and out of the ordinary.
But we understand the Prime Minister’s confusion. For 20 years plus, he got filthy rich by serving the wishes and requests of Lord Ashcroft through his law firm, Barrow and Williams. We can see why then, our Armani Prime Minister cannot help himself.
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Lord Ashcroft wants Justice Awich gone
Posted by The Reporter Newspaper on July 27, 2012 at 4:31 am
Lord Michael Ashcroft, KCMG, Dean Boyce and the British Caribbean Bank, the so-called Ashcroft Alliance, has taken on another fight. This time they are gunning for the removal of newly appointed Belize Court of Appeal, Mr. Justice Samuel Lingole Awich, who was appointed to sit on the high court on May 16, 2012.
Prime Minister, Dean Oliver Barrow, after following the requisite constitutional procedures advised the Governor General to sign the instrument of appointment, elevating Supreme Court Justice, Awich as a Justice of Appeal.
Despite the strong opposition from the Belize Bar Association and the Leader of the Opposition, Awich took the oath of office to serve on the high court on May 16, 2012, one day after his 65th birthday and his retirement from the Supreme Court.
In a letter dated July 17, to Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, who is also the Chairman of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission, the Ashcroft Alliance painstakingly chronicled the shortcomings of Justice Awich
The letter makes the case that Awich is unfit to sit on the high court and makes an argument that he has misbehaved while serving on the Supreme Court bench.
Ashcroft and his cohorts said in their letter that for Awich to remain on the Court of Appeal would be inimical to the administration of justice.
This, however, is not the first time that Awich has come under this kind of fire. In 2009, the Bar Association tabled a resolution to have him removed for misbehavior in office and his consistent long delays in delivering judgments.
But Awich survived that onslaught. And when his name came up for appointment to the Court of Appeal, again the Bar Association passed another resolution opposing his appointment.
The Ashcroft Alliance letter cites a number of cases that they were involved in that went before Awich and apparently they are under the perception that Awich has not discharged his duties as a judge in a competent manner. His excessive delays in delivering judgment has caught the attention of his fellow jurists, some of whom have criticized him.
But in the end, the task for the removal of a judge falls on the shoulders of the Belize Advisory Council. In Belize judicial history, only one judge has been removed from the Supreme Court.
That was Supreme Court Justice George Meerabux.
For more on this story go to:
http://www.reporter.bz/front-page/lord-ashcroft-wants-justice-awich-gone/
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Dirty politics: Michael Ashcroft and the TPA’s millionaire funders
From The Other TaxPayers’ Alliance
Today’s [Friday October 9 2009) UK’s Guardian reports*:
“[TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Matthew] Elliott flatly denied the TPA was ‘a Conservative front organisation’, and added that Lord Ashcroft, the party’s deputy chairman who is known to bankroll many Conservative candidates in marginal seats, is not a donor.”
But until the TaxPayers’ Alliance practises some transparency and publishes its accounts, we have no way of knowing.
What we do know is that Ashcroft works in close partnership with the TPA’s millionaire business backers, the Midlands Industrial Council. How do we know this? He says so:
“By now, too, I had two important and generous allies who shared my desire to target marginal seats. They were Leonard (Lord) Steinberg, the chairman of Stanley Leisure and a long-established party donor who had been Deputy Treasurer … and the Midlands Industrial Council, a group of Tory businessmen. Both wanted to join me in funding Tory candidates in marginal seats, and we decided that Leonard’s donations should be concentrated in the north, where he was based, and that the Midlands Industrial Council’s donations should be concentrated in the midlands, where it was based.”
Dirty Politics, Dirty Times, by Michael Ashcroft, 2006, page 303
“By early January 2005, Stephen Gilbert, my political consultant, with a view to determining whom to support in the marginal seats, had seen 150 business plans. On his advice, I had selected forty-one core Labour–Conservative battleground seats where we – Leonard Steinberg, the Midlands Industrial Council and myself – gave the bulk of our funding.”
Dirty Politics, Dirty Times, by Michael Ashcroft, 2006, page 309
“Of the thirty-three candidates who won seats from Labour or the Liberal Democrats, no fewer than twenty-five had received support from the fund that I had set up with Leonard Steinberg and the Midlands Industrial Council.”
Dirty Politics, Dirty Times, by Michael Ashcroft, 2006, page 311
Let’s be clear: the Midlands Industrial Council doesn’t just support the TPA financially. Several MIC millionaires sit on the council of the West Midlands TPA, the alliance’s most active branch.
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* To read The Guardian’s story go to:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/09/taxpayers-alliance-conservative-pressure-group
