In the Twitter direct messages, Banks also claimed he used close ties to Team Trump to lobby on behalf of the Belizean banking sector. Banks discussed a plan to work with then-Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant to restore support for transactions in U.S. dollars to Belize Bank. The institution lost its partnerships with Bank of America and Commerzbank after an Obama-era American crackdown on offshore tax evasion raised the costs of offering correspondent banking facilities to Belize’s biggest bank. The bank, which is owned by Conservative Party donor Lord Ashcroft, reportedly saw the value of its deposits fall 75 percent in the six months after.
Ashcroft messaged Banks in November 2016 to say: “The corespondent bank for US dollars?”
Banks replied: “We have asked about corresponding banking for Belize ( and it’s been taken up ) call andy for an update !”
As well as being a spokesman for Banks and Leave.EU, Andy Wigmore was a trade and investment envoy to Britain for Belize.
The following month, Banks, who was an honorary consul to Wales for Belize, sketched out more of the plan to Ashcroft.
“Don’t know if you’ve caught up with andy but we intend to tackle the bank correspondent issue -the team we know & Bannon all headed off to the White House so fab access. We will be having a party at the inauguration with nigel and hopefully you can make it. Our plan is to get the governor of Mississippi out to Belize on a trade mission and explain the banking issue and get him to take it up directly with WH. I’ve been thinking about the banking issue and sure we can get a change of view,” he wrote. More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/man-who-bankrolled-brexit-boasted-of-wikileaks-backchannel
Source: https://belize.com/leak-man-who-bankrolled-brexit-boasted-of-wikileaks-belize-backchannel/