BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Senior Counsel Dean Barrow has hinted at the possibility of his client filing for damages after the High Court of Belize ruled that a magistrate acted beyond her legal capacity when she mandated the detention of the substantial amount of cash seized on the compound of the Caribbean International Brewery (CIB) in October last year.
On October 3, last year, police attached to the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Unit raided the CIB compound, and during the operation, a large sum of cash was seized, and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) was subsequently called in.
Apart from confiscating the money estimated at three million dollars )(One Belize dollar=US$0.49 cent), charges were also brought about immigration offenses. Those matters were heard and dispensed with in the lower court.
Subsequently, an application was brought before the High Court challenging the magistrate’s decision regarding the seizure of the money.
Justice Patricia Farnese, in handing down her decision in the matter involving businessman Kevin Xin, a director and shareholder of CIB, ruled that the magistrate acted beyond her legal capacity when she mandated the detention of the cash seized from CIB.
Barrow, who represents the businessman, welcomed the ruling, saying, “Remember that while we had been laboring in the Magistrate’s Court to get the magistrate to give back the money, we had meantime applied for judicial review, submitting that, in fact, all the orders that the magistrate had made and her entire procedure, everything was wrong.
“So we got back the money, as you know, from the magistrate by appearing in front of her in that separate set of proceedings. That happened about a month ago, five [or] six weeks, whatever.
“But today, the judgment came out, the decision came out in the judicial review proceedings, and in fact, the judge has found, and I will cut straight to the case, that we are correct, that a claim is made out and, among other things, granted an order of certiorari to quash Civil Action 368 of 2020 and all rulings and all orders made therein.”
Barrow said that the FIU’s application was before the magistrate “so that entire proceeding has been quashed and all the rulings and orders made in the course of that proceeding by the magistrate has been struck down by the High Court.”
Barrow said that his client had returned the money in an interest-bearing account, so he got it back with interest.
“But you will recall that when we were in front of the magistrate, and the media interviewed me on various occasions, I maintained that once we were able to win in the High Court, that would open the door to an additional suit now for damages and this is where we find ourselves.
“In other words, getting back the money is excellent but not enough because for the six months or so that the money was held improperly, as the High Court has now determined, Mr. Xin and the brewery were without that working capital.
“Also, because of the tremendous reputation harm suffered when that money was seized, and it was continued to be detained against, as the court has now found, all the rules and authorities, Mr. Xin and the brewery found that a large majority of the distributors of their products, of the beer in particular, cut them off, saying, “Look, we can’t afford to represent you any further because you are in trouble with the FIU, you are in trouble with the authorities.”
Barrow said that “there was talk of money laundering, all that sort of stuff,” adding that “it was as a direct consequence of what was done, which has now been found entirely illegal, that he suffered harm above and beyond just being deprived of his BDZ3.1 million dollars for six months or nine months or however long that was.
“ So that is where the question of a suit, a claim for damages, will now come in,” Barrow added.
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