Bahamian businessmen Rohn Knowles and Kelvin Leach have been awarded undisclosed damages after they successfully sued the government of Belize for "effectively ending their business".
The men owned Titan Securities, which was raided for nine hours by the Belizean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and police in September of 2014. The raid was reportedly incited by an indictment in the United States accusing the pair of securities fraud. However, it appears Knowles and Leach successfully argued that Belizean authorities had no right to confiscate their assets.
The men sued the government of Belize and last Friday, in a closed hearing, the judgement was handed down in court. According to Belizean press reports, Titan's attorney, senior counsel Godfrey Smith, said his clients had been vindicated.
"The judgment has not been finalized. It will be finalized shortly in the future. Until then I will not comment on what that sum of damages has been," Smith said.
Belizean media reports suggest the damages the government would have to pay constitute "a huge award" to Titan. In 2014 the Titan premises were raided by officers of the police and the FIU, and all information and documents were seized. Since that time, Titan has brought a constitutional claim alleging that the documents were unlawfully seized. On Friday that claim was upheld.
According to the press reports, the judge found that, in fact, there were excesses and breaches of Titan's rights.
"Several declarations were granted in favor of Titan and an award of damages was made. We argued that their business was effectively destroyed and we asked for damages to reflect that destruction," Smith told the media.
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