PHILIPSBURG — Cdr. Bud Slabbaert founder of the annual aviation conference Caribavia envisions a huge expansion of this event into a multifunctional organization that covers everything from the establishment of an institute of higher learning and an airlift council to a video on demand platform (Caribavia TV) and a research and development center. “Just organizing an annual conference is like operating a circus,” he writes in a vision-document that details Caribavia’s expansion-potential. ”There must be something more meaningful and it must lead to a long-term objective.” The ultimate goal of what is now an annual meeting of aviation experts goes…
Author: The Publisher
WILLEMSTAD — The pensions that are insured by ENNIA are at risk. JosĂ© Jardim, the financial-economic director of the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten (CBCS) said on the last day of Hushang Ansary’s appeal against his 2021-conviction that the CBCs will have to decrease current and future pensions considerably if Ansary and his co-defendants do not repay more than one billion guilders in damages to the insurance company. Jardim indicated that such a decrease will be significant. He said that the Central Bank is in discussions with the governments of Curacao and St. Maarten to establish up to…
By Hilbert Haar Let me begin with a confession. I have been a poker player for close to twenty years. But I am not a gambler. You see, there is a difference between playing games of chance – where the outcome depends on dumb luck – and games of skill (like poker) where the outcome depends for a large part on how you hold up against other players. Slot machines and lotteries fall in the games of chance category and on St. Maarten you almost literally break your neck over the lottery booths. I have nothing against lotteries as such,…
PHILIPSBURG — There are 360 lottery venues in St. Maarten per February 2021, according to a study by the Social Economic Council (SER). That is, assuming population of 40,000, one booth for every 111 inhabitants. Most lottery booths are concentrated in low-income areas – because that is where the clients are. The SER-study focuses on the impact of these lottery booths on low-income areas. St. Maarten has three times as many lottery booths as Curacao and they outpace casinos by 8 to 1.8. The study recommends that lottery booths should not be outside a radius of one hundred meters from…
PHILIPSBURG — The RST arrested Member of Parliament Rolando Brison on Friday on suspicions of bribery and abuse of power. While a press release from the prosecutor’s office does not mention the arrested politician by name, former Minister of Finance Michael Ferrier was quick with posting a picture of Brison and the text: “Detained.” Several media have reported that the arrested politician is indeed MP Brison. Under the supervision of the judge of instruction, officers conducted searches at Brison’s residence and at his office in the parliament building. The prosecutor’s office states in a press release that the arrest is…
By Hilbert Haar Digital banking is the future. No question about it, but where will this leave banking clients in St. Maarten? And where will it leave the traditional banks that are currently serving them? Complaints about the way local banks are treating their clients are nothing new. They make it unnecessary difficult, if not impossible for some potential clients to open an account, their customer service to existing clients leaves at times a lot to be desired and transferring money abroad is usually a major headache. And I am not even beginning about the money the banks are charging…
PHILIPSBURG — The banking industry is in the middle of a digital revolution that will affect banking in never before seen ways. Policy Officer Farah de Haas and Information Risk Officer Marc Kross examined the banking landscape in a blog published by the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten. They describe the rise, the risks and the requirements of digital banking. What stands out in this blog is that its foremost focus is on technological aspects, while it completely ignores the human factor. How important that factor is may appear from the following examples. A client of a German…
Dear Editor, From internal leaks to prevent a CEO Job acquisition to an all-out cyber-attack which included a 1 million dollar price behind it for access to their data. Our country is facing yet another obstacle with this GEBE fiasco. For a short summary, GEBE closed its doors on March 17th 2022 up till June 6th 2022 proceeding a cyber-attack which hit about 55 servers and 168 workstations. The attack being said as self-inflicting due to the weak security GEBE possessed to protect their servers at that time. Losing most if not their entire system which includes debtor and creditor…
By Hilbert Haar The November 19, 2021, court ruling against Hushang Ansary, his daughter Nina and several others that orders them to repay insurance company ENNIA in excess of a billion guilders starts having an effect. Ansary has offered to abide by the ruling, but in the meantime his appeal against the ruling is taking place in Curacao. Nina Ansary has filed a lawsuit at the US District Court for the District of Columbia in an effort to protect her 15.9 percent share in her father’s company Parman. And now Abdallah Andraous, a former ENNIA-director, has joined the fight with…
PHILIPSBURG — Former ENNIA-director Abdallah Andraous has followed Nina Ansary’s example in an attempt to get away from paying 237.2 million guilders ($132.5 million) in damages to his former employer. Attorney Rutsel Martha files a notice of arbitration on behalf of Andraous. This notice calls on the bilateral investment treaty between Lebanon and The Netherlands to justify why the Kingdom is responsible for paying these damages. Andraous was born in Beirut but he has in the meantime obtained Dutch nationality. The treaty Martha refers to has been in place since March 1, 2004. It aims to protect mutual investments in…
