PHILIPSBURG — The Public Prosecutor’s Office has serious concerns about the financial investigative capacity of the police force. Answering questions from stmaartennews.com, the prosecutor’s office said that the police force has only one financial investigator. “Due to the lack of financial investigative capacity the expectation-level of investigations has been lowered.” This does however not mean that the police force or the anti-corruption task force TBO (Team Bestrijding Ondermijning) are doing nothing at all. In 2017 the financial intelligence unit (MOT – Meldpunt Ongebruikelijke Transacties) reported 358 suspicious transactions with a value of 60.8 million guilders ($33.4 million) to the prosecutor’s…
Author: The Publisher
CAY HILL — About seventy-five persons seeking employment visited the job fair which was hosted by the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino which was held at the Bel Air Community Center of Friday. “We are looking for local talented people to strengthen our operation and because we have recently opened we will need all the help we can get,” said vice president of the Sonesta Maho Group of companies Johan Halvarsson. Although he pointed out that most of the departments in the resort they are looking to strengthen, they are in urgent need of culinary and food and beverage…
WILLESTAD – InterCaribbean Airways Ltd. does not have to pay a penalty of $500,000 to bankrupt airline Insel Air, the Common Court of Justice ruled on Thursday. The Court in First Instance imposed this penalty in a ruling dated December 28, 2018 in case interCaribbean failed to provide financial guarantees for the Insel Air’s creditors. When those guarantees fell short, the court refused to approve the creditors agreement and subsequently declared Insel Air bankrupt on February 26. On November 16, 2018, Insel Air signed a so-called Heads of Agreement with interCaribbean. This agreement is “a binding legal framework for the…
By Hilbert Haar MP Franklin Meyers is quite outspoken – to put it mildly – when it comes to standing up for St. Maarten and its people. Wednesday’s Central Committee meeting about the conditions at the detention facilities in Pointe Blanche and at the police station was an exquisite opportunity for Meyers to describe the Dutch as the bad guys in vivid detail. Hypocrisy at its highest level. That’s how the good MP headlined a monologue in which he pointed out sixteen contradictions in the behavior of the Dutch: they say one thing but they do exactly the opposite. And…
PHILISBURG — “They want to show that they can do again what they did to Theo Heyliger’s grandfather years ago. That is the main reason for transporting him to Bonaire,” MP Franklin Meyers (United Democrats) said during Wednesday’s Central Committee meeting about the conditions at the Pointe Blanche prison and the police station. Meyers made a dramatic presentation in which he exposed “Dutch hypocrisy” when it comes to St. Maarten. “I want to be just like the Dutch,” he said. “I want to tell the world that we are equal partners in the Kingdom but threaten my partners when they…
PHILIPSBURG — The debate in the Central Committee on Wednesday about the situation at the Pointe Blanche Prison and the Police Force turned into a frontal attack on the Dutch government, the Progress Committee and financial supervisor Cft. All this came on the heels of the question hour in the Dutch parliament on Tuesday where Minister Sander Dekker (Legal Protection) said that Justice Minister Cornelius de Weever frustrated offers to help from The Netherlands. It didn’t help that Dekker saw fit to refer to the guarantee function in the Kingdom Charter: “If there is insufficient progress (with the conditions at…
Another case and a perfect example highlighting the fact that we are a young Constitutional State yet only in our infancy stage and we are to learn, adapt and grow as we go. Where our Constitution failed to elaborate on procedures for certain processes, it was expected that wise heads, legal minds and mature politicians would solve any constitutional dilemmas that rise up from the ambiguities that can occur in our laws and guidelines that govern us as a country. Fortunately, there is no need for a panic in the case at hand with a 14-member Parliament. The Constitution simply…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten is now closer to providing pre-clearance for aircrafts to the United States of America at the Princess Juliana International Airport, said Minister responsible for Tourism Stuart Johnson at the Council of Ministers press conference on Wednesday. He said that he only recently met with representatives of the pre-clearance committee and the officials of the Princess Juliana International Airport and the Council of Ministers. The discussions included some of the pending concerns that needed to be addressed such as the extension of the concessions which falls under the Tourism Ministry. There is also a draft bi-lateral agreement…
PHILIPSBURG — The Minister of Health Emil Lee is defending the increase for procedures at the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC). Minister Lee, speaking at the Council of Ministers press conference on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, said that the rates at the institution are 36 percent less than what the St. Elizabeth Hospital in Curacao is charging today. “The adjustment is fair compensation for services that has allowed us to bring in Neurology Department in 2017, the Eye Care Department in 2018 and of this month we will have Orthopedics and a test phase for Neurology and Pulmonology,” said Lee.…
~ Plans to return to St. Maarten to join notary office ~ Philipsburg, St. Maarten – Keisha Richards, a former HAVO student of Milton Peters College in St. Maarten, is expected to become a new addition to one of the notary offices in St. Maarten. This after her recent obtaining of her masters degree in Notary Law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. The young Richards obtained her masters degree after defending her thesis ‘Limitations of the misuse of the Private Fund Foundation and the Trust’. With Prof. dr. Frans Sonneveldt of the Law faculty at Leiden University…
