The surfacing of the report is a somewhat public resurrection of former Minister of State Elvin Penner, who has gone to ground since the scandal broke in September. As we told you, Penner has escaped all scrutiny from multiple alleged investigations, despite clear evidence that he facilitated the fraudulent nationality certificate and Belizean passport for Won Hong Kim who was behind bars in a Taiwanese prison. The report, dated October fourth, 2013, highlights Penner’s complicity in the issuance of a nationality certificate which was then used to obtain a Belizean passport. Mike Rudon is still putting the pieces together and has the story.
Mike Rudon, Reporting
There is more of interest in the report. First, and foremost…Belize Nationality Application file number three one nine eight six for Won Hong Kim is missing – nowhere to be found in the Immigration Department. The supervisor in the nationality section states in the report that Penner brought in the application on September second, 2013, yet Won Hong Kim’s nationality certificate is backdated to April twenty-second, 2013. Also, there is mention of other permanent resident entries without any supporting documentation – connecting the dots…permanent resident status leads to nationality status leads to passport in hand. Additionally, there is reference to an undisclosed amount of files which were, “accepted on the tenth and eighteenth of July 2013 which went missing and for which certificates were prepared similar to the Won Hong Kim case without those files ever reaching the Director for vetting.”
Interestingly, on September twenty-seventh, a week after the scandal broke, Elvin Penner sent an email message to the media. In it he attached two pictures and some text, stating, “Here are the pictures of the nationality document, Korean passport and the picture the media keeps showing. It is very simple to see that they cannot be of the same person. The person I know as Mr. Kim is the same person that presented his nationality document and his Korean passport.”
It turns out that Penner was trying to muddy the waters since another picture had surfaced in the media. But the man he says he knows as Mr. Kim is the real Mr. Kim, though he never entered the country and certainly never personally presented any nationality document to Penner. In his email, Penner states that, “what I do know is that a Asian person whom I have known through business trips, even before I entered politics, came to me for a signature so he could get his passport…wanting to help a business person I made sure that everything was in order on the application form and personally went with him to the passport office to see to it that he would get proper attention…”
But while nobody really believed Penner anyway, the findings of the report point to his involvement. Evidence indicates that Penner was involved in facilitating Won Hong Kim’s citizenship well before the passport stage. In fact, in the official report concluded on October fourth, 2013, an employee of the nationality section states that Penner brought in the application forms for nationality himself on September second, without supporting documentation. That nationality certificate, signed by Penner, is what made it possible for the issuance of a Belizean passport on September ninth. Mike Rudon for News Five.
In Tuesdays newscast we’ll look at the others involved in the issuance of the certificate to the South Korean fugitive.
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