Inside a Decades-Old University Project with Concerns About Funding and a Growing Network – UBU Part 3

How has a decade-old university proposal continued to recruit supporters, list staff, and promote transformational outcomes without approval or physical progress?

For over a decade, this ambitious project has promised to transform education and employment in Belize. It speaks of a Hogwarts-like campus, tens of thousands of jobs, and a revolutionary model for vulnerable youth. Yet, despite years of promotion and a growing network of global supporters, this “university” exists only online, without legal approval, verified funding, or a single brick laid.

This is the ongoing story of Ultimate Business University, or UBU.

A Visionary Proposal or a Persistent Mirage?

The vision is undeniably grand. Since at least 2010, UBU has promoted plans for a 20,000-acre, Harry Potter-inspired campus in Belize. Its blueprints are detailed on a persistent website that describes it as a self-sustaining city with thousands of student rooms, vast farmland, manufacturing zones, and even a vineyard.

The project pledges to become the nation’s largest employer by hiring 35,000 people, with “90% from Belize.”

Central to its mission is a plan to relocate “youths at risk” from the United States and function as both a trade school and a high school.

UBU is the brainchild of co-founder Sharyn Abbott. When News 5 interviewed her in February, she described the project as a personal mission and a promise to her late brother.

“So this program is to help give kids the life that they really deserve and the education that they should have,” Abbott said during the February interview. “The school itself, Ultimate Business University, I had this vision in my head that it would be like a castle.”

She claims U.S. judges would emancipate minors, some as young as fifteen, and allow them to enrol at UBU in Belize.

Official Warnings and Unanswered Questions

However, the government of Belize distanced itself from these plans at the very start of this year. In a January 28th notice, Belize’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MoEST) stated unequivocally that UBU is “neither legally registered nor authorised to operate as an educational institution in Belize” and has “no official affiliation or recognition” from the ministry.

The ministry’s stance has not changed since.

Just a week after MoEST’s notice, Education Minister Francis Fonseca reinforced the government’s skepticism. He said the sheer scale of the project lacked feasibility and any grounding in reality.

“You don’t know who the people are; you don’t know anything about them,” Fonseca said.

At this point of the project’s timeline, UBU’s website had already named over a hundred people as part of its faculty staff. This included several names of Belizeans.

Fonseca warned of “fly-by-night institutions” that exploit people and pointed out the strict legal process for legitimate schools in Belize.

When confronted with MoEST’s official warning notice, Abbott dismissed any wrongdoing and argued the lack of registration, stating, “It’s not officially registered because it wouldn’t make sense if I’m not there.”

“They were protecting your citizens, thinking that I’m being fraudulent, which I’m not,” she added.

She maintains the ministry is aware of UBU and that past documentation has been submitted, though she has declined to provide these records for verification.

A Decade of Delay and the Funding Mystery

The most pressing question still lingers: why, after more than almost two decades, is there no physical progress? No land has been purchased. No construction has begun. There is no confirmed location for the proposed 20,000-acre campus.

Abbott attributes all delays to a single, personal investment made over a decade ago. She asserts the project does not rely on public fundraising and will be fully financed once these funds are released.

“I haven’t asked a single person for anything, and all the people that I interview, I have never promised. We’re gonna start on this date. I have never said, ‘Here’s your job,'” Abbott told News 5.

She denied receiving donations. There is an active PayPal link on UBU’s website labelled “Donate Now.” Ten months since the interview, and the link is still up and active on the website. When clicked, it takes you to the PayPal website, which says, “Donate to Sharon Abbott.”

Abbott declined News 5’s requests for documentation confirming the status of the “personal investment” or for an independent financial audit. She said, “No business currently exists to audit.”

During the interview, News 5 also pointed out that UBU’s website states that the school “has investments to cover the construction funding to build the schools, which will begin by having 500 boys and 500 girls and expanding to 6,000 students on two separate campuses in 2016.”

Ten years later, and no ground has been broken. She responded by saying that “the website isn’t up to date, and I apologise for that.”

A Growing Team Awaiting a Payday?

Despite the lack of a legal entity or physical site, UBU has assembled a substantial ‘network’.

Abbott claims to have 515 experts from 68 counties “on the team,” of which she says 179 are Belizeans. These individuals are often recruited via professional networks like LinkedIn, and many find their names and proposed job titles listed on UBU’s website, with many not even aware of given their explicit consent.

News 5 contacted several Belizeans listed on UBU’s website. They described a recruitment process that raised red flags.

One person recruited via LinkedIn told News 5 that co-founder Abbott “actually had reached out to me on LinkedIn… The school was supposed to open over a year ago, and still nothing… I thought she was legit. I sent her some information, but after that she kept changing dates. I had a Zoom meeting with her and all that. It went really well, but something was off.”

A teacher who was hired “on the spot” cited major inconsistencies. “It had to do with the housing, because workers were required to live there. These houses did not look real,” she said. Applicants were asked to select two to three choices for their future on-campus dream home from a catalogue

The teacher also found the proposed salary of $5,000 monthly for a clerical position to be unrealistically high for Belize. “They wanted us to form connections with other people to make this business come through. I did more research about this Ultimate Business University, and there’s no updated website and no updated social media, and their social media is not interactive,” she added.

News 5 also obtained a copy of the outlined employee benefits, which detailed an exceptionally lavish lifestyle far beyond standard local employment terms. The benefits include a 40-hour workweek condensed into four days, a 1,500-square-foot townhouse on campus, and free food at all times, including in restaurants. Additional perks include regular weekend getaways to resorts in San Pedro, access to an 18-hole golf course, and comprehensive medical and dental care provided by on-staff doctors.

These extravagant offers created a paradoxical situation: individuals are being recruited but not “formally hired,” with a detailed vision of opulent benefits for a workplace that, after nearly two decades of promotion, lacks a physical footprint.

During our February interview with Abbott, she said she has made no promises of start dates. “They’re there; they’re not working. They haven’t been promised a start date… I’ve asked them for nothing.”

Since our February interview with co-founder Sharyn Abbott, News 5 continues to monitor a growing WhatsApp group for her extended team. This group, which now numbers over 150 members, continues to wait for a definitive start date for the project. 

The latest proposed timeline, shared in Abbott’s December 2025 newsletter, anticipates funding by the end of January 2026. Abbott states that upon the release of funds, staff would be accommodated at a hotel in Belize, giving UBU the “time to purchase the property.”

The Unanswered Question: Vision or Illusion?

In a tense exchange, when News 5 directly questioned whether the project was real, Abbott defensively dismissed it, saying, “How have I scammed anybody for any money? I haven’t asked a single person for anything, and all the people that I interview, I have never promised, ‘We’re gonna start on this date.’”

Confronted with the decades-long timeline without substantial progress, she said, “So what, was Rome built in a day? If it takes 20 years, then that’s what it takes.” Abbott consistently returned to her central claim that her personal investment is yet to be released. 

News 5 also pressed the Harry Potter movie-inspired plans for the campus, which she dismissed, saying, “You know, I don’t care what it sounds like. You know, I do what I need to do to be able to keep things up. I’ve done everything on my own.” 

The project raises fundamental questions. How can a judicial process for emigrating vulnerable minors from the U.S. to Belize proceed without verified institutional agreements? How can a project recruit a global team for an entity that legally does not exist? With years of missed deadlines, the central uncertainty persists: is UBU a stalled dream, or is it something else entirely?

For now, Abbott maintains her vision is real, and the Ministry of Education’s warning remains in effect.