Belmopan. October 25th, 2016. The Office of the Prime Minister announces that, after a one week suspension, the Hon. John Saldivar today resumed his duties as Minister of Defence. That resumption follows upon the Prime Minister’s receipt of a legal opinion concerning the question of whether the Minister continued in a (football business) relationship with Danny Mason after September of 2015.
The opinion rejects as invalid any conclusion that the Minister, in consequence of the continued existence after September 2015 of a company in which both the Minister and Mr. Mason had subscribed to shares, continued in a business relationship with Mr. Mason. The opinion makes the point that after the company was formed, and no doubt because the Minister shortly thereafter made unsavory discoveries about Mr. Mason, the Minister took no steps to actually allot to himself or Mr. Mason any of the shares to which they had subscribed. This meant that they never actually became shareholders and the company never got off the ground. The opinion says:
“14. It is important to emphasize that there is no allegation that Hon. Saldivar interacted or associated with Mr. Mason in any way after he said he terminated contact with Mr Mason. It is not alleged he did anything. The charge against him is solely that by remaining a shareholder, in common with Mr. Mason, in a company which apparently never did anything after it was incorporated, Hon. Saldivar thereby remained in a business relationship with Mr. Mason”
“15. That is a purely legalistic argument. For the reasons stated above it is wrong. Common ownership of shares in a moribund company does not put shareholders in a business relationship with each other. There has to be some action by one in relation to the other for there to be a relationship. As stated, there is no suggestion of action on the part of Hon. Saldivar.”
Both because the company never actually issued the seven, or any, shares to which the Hon. Saldivar had subscribed, and because the Hon. Saldivar took no action, after the formation of the company, in relation to Mr. Mason except to terminate contact with him, the opinion concludes that Hon. Saldivar was not in a business or other relationship with Mr. Mason after September 2015.
In light of this, the Prime Minister was pleased to clear Hon. Saldivar and direct full resumption of his Ministerial authority and portfolio duties.
