US Telco Attacks Belize After It Takes Back BTL Share

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

09 August 2005

Innovative Communications Corporation, the firm at the centre of an international legal dispute with the government of Belize over the ownership of a controlling share in Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL), is urging the United States Treasury Department to freeze all assets held by the Belizean government in the US.

ICC's call comes after Prime Minister Said Musa's government rushed through controversial new legislation last week allowing ministers to veto any Memorandum or Articles of Association of any public utility provider and to deny any entrenched rights in the articles of such a company. By doing so, the government has effectively wrested back the Special Share in BTL from ICC.

The government had attempted to take back ICC's stake in BTL in February 2005 after it accused the American firm of failing to pay more than US$57 million due to it under the sale agreement. The move led ICC to take Belize to a federal court in Miami, which has since held Musa's government in contempt after ordering control to be restored to ICC in March.

ICC claims to have invested more than US$60 million in BTL, whilst a further US$15 million has been spent by BTL on improving telecommunications services throughout the country.

“The bid to cancel the special share granted to Jeffrey Prosser and his company, ICC, is the latest example of the GOB’s unlawful behaviour concerning foreign investments,” remarked Prosser's attorney, Lanny Davis, who served as a legal aide to former US President Bill Clinton.

"Beginning with the illegal seizure of BTL in March, the Belize government has acted in a way reminiscent of a government that ignores the rule of law, evoking analogies to failing states that expropriated foreign and local property and in the process wrecked their economies,” he added.

In response, ICC now wants the various US and international institutions to shame the Belizean government into reversing its course of action. According to the Belize Reporter the company is calling on the US Treasury to freeze assets belonging to the Belize government. In addition, ICC wants the US Department of Commerce to cut off all links to Belize, and the US government to suspend all aid to the country.

ICC is also urging the Organisation of American States to condemn the actions of the Belize government, and the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank, OPIC and the Export-Import Bank to reject all loans and financing requests.

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