PHILIPSBURG — On Sunday, August 5th, 2018, a story reached the newsdesk of StMaartenNews.com that a luxury yacht worth $600,000 US Dollars, owned by CheckMate Security owner O’neal Arrindell, was seized by the St. Maarten Coastguard authorities in Anguilla for the second time. Apparently, the yacht was spirited away from the grounds of Bobby’s Marina where it had been impounded.
However, at the time StMaartenNews.com could not get a second source to confirm this story. The fact that it was the day before August Monday in Anguilla made it seem like it was the perfect party joke among boaters and yachtees in Anguilla during that island’s summer festival celebrations.
However, Tuesday, August 21st, 2018, the Public Prosecutor’s press office was on a roll with news publications and announced that the owner of the yacht in question with the initials O.A., who we know as O’neal Arrindell, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Taskforce that same day.
The Anti-Corruption Taskforce, or Team Bestrijding Ondermijning (TBO) in Dutch, confirmed that Arrindell (36) was detained and taken into custody. According to the statement issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Arrindell is suspected of intentionally removing the luxury yacht with the name “Jefe” out of the seizure made by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, July 11th, in St. Maarten.
As the owner of this yacht, Arrindell is one of the suspects in the “Emerald” case. By means of seizure and sale of this yacht, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is trying to recover part of the profits Arrindell gained through criminal activity.
According to the report, the vessel was in scaffolding at Bobby’s Marina at the time of its impoundment and it was not allowed to be moved or launched into the water. On Sunday, July 22nd, however, during an inspection by the Coast Guard at Bobby’s Marina, the boat was no longer found to be present. A search of the area yielded nothing.
Further investigation revealed that the vessel had sailed earlier that day to Anguilla. The Coast Guard at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, went to Anguilla to retrieve the yacht and towed it to the Coastguard substation in St. Maarten. Once again the vessel is seized.
A maximum imprisonment of four years can be imposed for the withdrawal of goods that have previously been seized, the statement of the Prosecutor’s Office explained. One of the main tasks of the TBO Anti-Corruption Taskforce is to fight corruption. The deprivation of criminally obtained assets is also one of its main tasks.
Arrindell, whose full name is O’neal Edward Arrindell Junior and was born in St. Maarten on October 28, 1981, is the son of well-known taxi driver and a taxi association founder O’neal Edward Arrindell. Surprisingly, Arrindell Senior was recently appointed as Policy Advisor in the cabinet of the Minister of VROMI, Miklos Giterson.
In the political constellation of the UD-SMCP coalition with a slim 8-seat majority, minister of VROMI is the politically appointed minister of member of Parliament Chanel Brownbill. The latter is the cousin of O’neal Arrindell Junior. MP Brownbill is also convicted for tax fraud in the Emerald case, the same case in which Arrindell Junior is being investigated for, alongside the suspended Port St. Maarten’s Harbor Group of Companies CEO Mark Mingo, Both men are accused of allegedly defrauding the harbor out of a total of $11 million US Dollars over a number of years with forged invoices.
The appointment of Arrindell Senior to the cabinet of VROMI Minister Giterson comes as no surprise to insiders as others with no relevant experience have been appointed as well, including a ‘girlfriend’ and Miklos’ own brother, who, up until then, worked as a fireman at the SXM Airport and is now also a policy advisor within the VROMI cabinet.
Recently, news was published that a ministerial decree was signed by the prime minister to require politically appointed staff to be screened. If this information is correct, it would not only save the present prime minister, or any future (prime) minister for that matter, from the embarrassing situation Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin recently experienced when a member of her own security detail was arrested in the Whale investigation wherein he is suspected of being bribed, forging documents and breach of confidentiality.
The move to have politically appointed cabinet members screened by the secret service and the public prosecutor’s office would – among others – also affect Arrindell Senior’s appointment in the cabinet of the ministry of VROMI as he is a direct family relative of the suspected Arrindell Junior in the Emerald investigation.
