PHILIPSBURG — “Don’t tell me what you value; show me your budget and I’ll tell you what your values are,” is a quote attributed to American president Joe Biden that easily comes to mind after reading the Law Enforcement Council’s report about St. Maarten’s efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Conclusion: those efforts are insufficient. Main reason: a painful shortage of equipment, human resources and expertise. ‘The continuous lack of resources hamper authorities from achieving desired results,” the report states, adding that it is “crucial that the Ministry of Justice makes the necessary investments.” All this…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — On October 10th, 2022, Pro Soualiga delivered a report entitled “The Jus Cogens Right to Self-Determination As The Finalization Of Decolonization” based on twelve questions posed by the Vice Chair of the Decolonization Committee (CCAD) MP Grisha Heyliger-Marten. MP Heyliger-Marten posed some pertinent questions to Pro Soualiga regarding our jus cogens or peremptory right to self-determination from which there is no deviation. Based on extensive research and empirical evidence, Pro Soualiga was able to clarify that Articles 2, 44, 50, and 51 of the Kingdom Charter should be screened by an independent body in order to ascertain whether…
WILLEMSTAD — Investigative journalist Nardy Cramm scored a decisive victory in her fight against Cyberluck, a company that issue sublicenses to the operators of online gambling sites. Cramm has described the issuing of sublicenses as “illegal” which resulted in a court ruling against her. Cramm successfully appealed the verdict. Cyberluck is a so-called master license holder, established in Curacao. It issues sublicenses to operators of games of chance, like 1X Corp. In January 2019 the Dutch Gaming authority fined 1xCorp and Exinvest 400,000 for offering online games of chance on Dutch websites without a permit through sites like 1xbet.com and…
By Terrance Rey When I think I have read and written everything about Mullet Bay, I read something new that makes me fall off my chair and force me to pick up the pen to write about it again. In the Antilliaans Dagblad I read about the lawsuit in which the Central Bank CBCS is waging a legal battle against Hushang Ansary and his associates for Sun Resort, the holding company of the heavily overvalued Mullet Bay site. In the edition of Saturday, September 10, I read that Ansary argues that the shares of Sun Resorts were never transferred to…
PHILIPSBURG — Hushang Ansary’s attempt to regain control of Sun Resorts and thereby of Mullet Bay has failed. The Court in First Instance ruled on Friday that Ennia Caribe Investments is the lawful owner. The court forbade Ansary, Ralph Palm and Clarence Derby to pretend they are the statutory directors of Sun Resorts. They are also banned from taking any decision related to Sun Resorts and they are not allowed to call a new shareholders meeting for this company. The court ordered Palm and Derby to deregister as statutory Sun Resorts-directors from the registry at the Chamber of Commerce. Not…
By Roberto Achken Richardson We need to see the realities as they are after being elected to the Parliament of Sint Maarten. Obtaining Seats after the outcome of any Election is primarily dependent on a Political Party’s ability to receive as much valid votes as they are able to. The culture in achieving this on Sint Maarten, primarily has to do with, the popularity of your candidates. the sizes of the families of your candidates, along with the ability of your candidates to in one way or another be able to attract these family votes. whether we would want to…
ORANJESTAD — The Progressive Labor Party has appointed Glenville Schmidt and Derrick Simmons as Commissioners, marking the gradual return to democracy in Statia, after the Kingdom intervened in 2018 by sidelining the local government on February 8, 2018. The intervention was based on the conclusions of a Committee of Wise Men who wrote that Statia was ruled based on favoritism, threats, lust for power, discrimination, intimidation and arbitrariness. But not everybody is happy with this development. Ubuntu Connected Front (UCF), a political party founded in the Netherlands in 2017, wrote in a press release after the annoucement that “in Statia,…
PHILIPSBURG — MP Rolando Brison addressed the right to having a basic bank account during the recent meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation (IPKO), but it remains unclear what he achieved by bringing the issue forward. In a press release Brison states that “thousands of St. Maarteners” are not provided with timely bank accounts and proper services, even though it has never been established what exactly the scope of this issue really is. Brison brought up the issue during a presentation by the Council of State about the application of treaties and European Union law to the islands of the…
PHILIPSBURG — Minister Omar Ottley (Public Health, Social Development and Labor) is not satisfied with the changes to the Civil Code that aim to put an end to the abuse of short-tem labor contract. The changed Civil Code was published in October 2021, and Minister Ottley has now decided to let the new rules go into effect per October 1, 2022. In the meantime, he works on improvements of the legislation. The amendment to the Civil Code was approved by Parliament in 2019. “It will not end the longstanding abuse of short-term contracts,” Ottley said in a press statement. “I…
PHILIPSBURG — In a press statement released on Wednesday evening, President of Parliament, MP Grisha Heyliger-Marten provided an overview of the main topics discussed during the IPKO held in the Hague from September 27th-30th, 2022. In her closing statement at the IPKO, Heyliger-Marten said that the Sint Maarten appreciated the deliberations and looks forward to continuing the dialogue and coming to concrete actions on the topics discussed. “All delegations came up with suggestions or solutions to the topics discussed. Now is the time to come to put these into concrete actions”, she said. With regards to the unsolicited advice of…
