BELIZE-US High Court unfreezes assets of persons, companies named in Grand Jury indictment

Last Updated on Tuesday, 11 November 2014, 21:30 by GxMedia

The Belize High Court has lifted the two-month-long freezing of assets of six Belizean offshore companies and six individuals that had stemmed from an indictment in the United States Federal Court for alleged fraud and tax evasion.

Belize’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) had secured a High Court approval to freeze the assets on September 23. The estimated US$1 million assets belong to Belizean Andrew Godfrey; Bahamians  Kelvin Leach and Rohn Knowles;  Canadians Brian De Wit and Cem “Jim” Can, and American Robert Bandfield. The corporate entities are IPC Management Services, LLC; IPC Corporate Services Inc.; IPC Corporate Services LLC; Titan International Securities, Inc; Legacy Global Markets S.A; and Unicorn International Securities LLC (Unicorn).

Chief Justice, Kenneth Benjamin has since ruled that the FIU could no longer freeze  the assets of the companies and the six persons including one Belizean, two Bahamians, two Canadians and one American.

Attorney-at-Law, Michael Young, who represented Unicorn Securities International, tells Caribbean News Desk that one of his major arguments was that the FIU had merely used the material from the indictment at the US Grand Jury.

Mr Young says that Financial Intelligence Unit FIU could not prove that the assets were tainted and also did not charge any of the persons or offshore companies.