Question:
Dear Steve,
Thank you for your excellent reporting on Sanctuary Belize.
A cousin of mine lost money in that deal, and I came across your website while googling the case.
Two questions for you. First, this seems quite criminal in nature. Why haven’t the Feds come in and made arrests? In fact, another article I googled from a legal writer expressed surprise that the defendants were not taking the 5th amendment.
Second, even a simple google search shows that these defendants and their shell corporations used the same accounting and law firms. How did those firms escape this case? Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work.
Eric
Answer:
Dear Eric,
One of the things you come to learn in life is that justice and fairness are two different things.
The Federal Trade Commission that brought this latest round of actions against Sanctuary Belize does not have the authority to charge anyone criminally. However, they could always refer the case to the Department of Justice forprosecution.
In my experience, this often does not happen because of workload, time, and money to pursue. It is rare that an FTC action will result in jail time but here is a recent situation where that did happen.
I can’t even begin to calculate the immense number of hours the FTC has invested into the Sanctuary Belize case. It must be in the many thousands by now.
As of today, there have been over 1,050 documents filed in the case. It is still ongoing.
As far as why the defendants did not take the 5th amendment, they did at times. I don’t think I could provide you with any logical reason why most of the stuff has gone on. And some of the defendants have a long history with the FTC over consumer issues, like Andris Pukke.
The only thing I can say with confidence is that the defendants will feel they were targeted unfairly. The consumers will never recover all the money they spent on the thing, and regulators will never be totally satisfied with the outcome. It’s the usual pattern.
When this is all over, there will be no winners.
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Question asked.
Answered.