In tonight’s newscast we reported on the Prime Minister weighing in on the scandal at the Social Investment Fund. Five employees have lost their position at SIF and two investors are out of hundreds and thousands of dollars. Lyndon Bailey and Emy Gilharry Ramirez jumped on board with the mindset of completing the project and completely unaware of what was occurring within SIF even though allegations were made to the Contractor General months before. Two investors who are caught in the middle, Emy Gilharry Ramirez and Lyndon Bailey told Love News they hope to recover their monies. Ramirez has contracted Audrey Matura Shepherd as her attorney while Bailey is making moves to get back the thousands he had invested while they request a meeting with SIF.
LYNDON BAILEY
“As a contractor, when somebody comes with something like that, you will jump on it; you want to help the young man get out of the situation because I wouldn’t want to find myself in a situation like that. So, a little sympathy on my part because I have seen the market come up several times in the news and I thought that if I could get that market finished for the people in Dangriga, I would feel very good.”
HIPOLITO NOVELO
“And the Contractor General knew about the allegations before you came and jumped into the movement and their decision not to disclose that information with you as the financier.”
LYNDON BAILEY
“I will tell you the truth; Mr. Kenard was so eager to disclose these things because there was a lot of stuff boiling up inside of him and he wanted somebody to talk to and so when I came on he just opened up to me so I did have a lot of knowledge of what was going on. He stated everything that he had evidence of where he had to be paying people and he said not to worry about the people at SIF because they are on his payroll. I still stayed on the project because I noticed that the money that was left could still finish the project.”
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EMY GILHARRY RAMIREZ
“It was the 29th that Mr. Cano presented an invoice marked, ‘Interim Payment 13’ and it was for eighty three thousand plus and I thought we need money, yes and this is quite an amount of money and the agreement was that it was to be in a revolving basis and so the amount that we had it should have been going in the bank for us to be using; so I have been pressing them and I was getting frustrated with the way they were operating. Claims were being submitted, Mr. Smart had made a submission on behalf of an engineer and they rejected it; I had requested that they put why they had rejected it. Mr. Smart submitted another one and it was rejected; they came up with one, when I went there; it was one that was presented for the eighty three thousand plus. Mr. Bailey was with me and a few other people were in the office with me at SIF; I put my name on it but when I looked it marked submitted by me, Emy Gilharry Ramirez and K&G logo and I said there was no document to substantiate the claim and immediately I said no and with that I even posted something on Facebook and since then things have been taking a different direction and I had expressed to them that I need them to pay me; they had even sent a letter to the bank that I would be getting substantial payment so that they can release more money to me and to date I have not received a penny.”
AUDREY MATURA FLOWERS
“In the interest of justice and fairness our legal system would never condone such impropriety and so you could imaging this would be a drawn out process if SIF or Government officials do not have a meeting with my client and we can show you copious emails where they said they would soon pay her. As a matter of fact, as recent as August 28 or 29 they tried to make a payment to her but what they wanted to do was give her less than she was entitled to but she said no because they had been dragging her along for a couple months now, she has shown them what she has spent and they still don’t want to be forthcoming. From the first claim was made, SIF already knew something was wrong but the impropriety is that they did not say let’s deal with it upfront, they allowed her to keep on investing. So much so that on July 19, they even wrote a letter to the bank saying don’t worry they still have seven hundred and eighty thousand on the books and very soon Ms. Emy Gilharry will get a substantial amount.
"When you hear that coming under the hand of Ernest Raymond, Project Manager for SIF; of course, you will feel you will get your money and so, people need to know what is going on. This matter, my client has instructed me will be dealt with not only from the legal recourse but they do not wish for the information to remain under the rug and thus they have asked me to be spokesperson for some of the key issues and of course, with the legal background and implications we will not say at this point. I think the nation needs to know and understand what we are dealing with. One of the things, my client would like to see happen is for there to be a thorough investigation into the SIF projects not only the one she has been dealing with but a thorough investigation ; that has to happen because what she went through she would never want any other investor or Belizean to go through. You have to understand that my client mortgaged her home and made certain guarantees with a bank based on assurances from SIF. We only have up until the end of this week to wait for a meeting.”