According to Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action, COLA, the Auditor-General’s report recommends that Elvin Penner, Director of Immigration Maria Marin and others be charged criminally for their roles in immigration corruption. That report was leaked to COLA earlier this week, and because of an upcoming court case, the organization is not disclosing it in its entirety. But the media was summoned to a press briefing this morning for a disclosure of sorts, a peek at what appears to be an explosive document with far-reaching repercussions. Mike Rudon was at the briefing and has the story.
Mike Rudon, Reporting
Eight months after the Auditor-General’s investigative team went into the Immigration Department…there is still absolutely no official word on the findings. Today, though not from official sources, there is. A copy of the report was leaked to COLA, and this morning they allowed a sneak peek at the report which they say is damning.
Geovannie Brackett, President, COLA
Geovannie Brackett
“I know the media will ask today why we haven’t given out this full report, but when you’re dealing with something as serious as this, it’s not about media frenzy. We’re not giving you one, one files for you to run behind us because that’s not our style. What we are doing is we are consulting with our attorney and we don’t want to prejudice the case. But at the same time, because this report is very damning, it is important that we release to you what we can.”
And release they did, starting with what COLA president Geovannie Brackett calls the Peter Pan story – not to be confused with the fictional character. This Peter Pang is a proud Belizean – not by right or by following due process – but with some help from another character called Elvin Penner.
Geovannie Brackett
“Meet Peter Pang, formerly Yui Pang Chen, a native of Taiwan, born in 1958. He first set foot in Belize on April tenth, 2013, fresh off United Airlines flight one four zero seven from Houston, Texas. He then proceeded to get a nationality certificate, passport and change his name, all in a little over four months without paying anything. Pang applied for his nationality certificate using two Belizean recommenders who swore to knowing him for one and three years respectively, despite signing the forms one day before the passport application. There was just one problem though, he had never set foot in Belize prior to April tenth and never lived in Belize. But that didn’t stop Penner from signing his certificate.”
Peter Pang is one of five persons who were scrutinized by the Audit team, though attorney Kareem Musa says the list is by no means limited to those five.
Kareem Musa, Attorney for Private Prosecution
Kareem Musa
“For one, none of these five individuals had ever set foot on Belizean soil before they received Belizean nationality and a Belizean passport. Two…none of them had permanent resident status. Three, the signatures that were found on the passport application forms did not match the signatures found on other legal documents. You can draw your own conclusions as to who signed those passport application forms for those five individuals. Four…the nationality certificates for all five were backdated, and the Auditor-General report says backdated by Elvin Penner. Five…the names of the two persons who recommended persona plying for nationality…there are two individuals who say that they have known you for two years, three years, four years to satisfy the requirements. Let me tell you…the Auditor-General’s report calls two names…two names that happened in each of these five instances. What is the chance of that…that these very same individuals know all five of these individuals…none of whom had ever set foot in Belize.”
Remember Ady Pacheco? She’s a senior nationality section staffer whose name appeared on many of the nationality certificates signed by Penner. She also shed light on another matter – those missing nationality files which Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse says have confounded him.
Elvin Penner
Kareem Musa
“According to Ady Pacheco…Elvin Penner visited the Immigration Department in September of 2013…and as you will all recall this is around the time when this immigration scandal broke. Penner went into the Immigration Department in September of 2013. He waltzed in there…requested the Won Hong Kim immigration file, along with others, and he waltzed right out with the immigration files in hand. Now I don’t know what you all call that, but I consider that to be theft of government property.”
But even more interesting than that is another claim by Pacheco that Hulse knows exactly what happened to those files because she informed him via letter.
Kareem Musa
“Do you know that when Mr. Penner came and retrieved these files from the Immigration Department, Ady Pacheco prepared a letter…a letter with a list of all the files that Elvin Penner stole from the Immigration Department? And do you know who Ady Pacheco gave that letter to, with all the names of all the Immigration files that are now missing from the Immigration Department? Godwin Hulse has in his position the list of all of the files that Elvin Penner stole from the Immigration Department.”
In an interview with the Audit Team, Pacheco claims she did certain things because she felt intimidated by then Minister of State Elvin Penner. Mike Rudon for News Five.
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