Philipsburg:--- Roberto Gibbs (59) the Chief Financial Officer and Co- Manager of WINAIR will remain in police custody for another seven days. Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos confirmed on Wednesday that the suspect who is suspected of money laundering, forgery, and fraud appeared before the judge of instruction on Wednesday and his pretrial detention was extended. Mos said in the coming days his office will decide if it is necessary to request another extension of the pre-trial detention. When asked by SMN News if the suspect was cooperating, Mos said that he preferred not to comment further.
Roberto Gibbs, the owner of Global Advisory Services, was contracted by the UP/DP Government to create/install a new tax code for country St. Maarten. Mos said in a press release issued on Monday that the suspect was involved in recruiting people for different services and there is a huge amount of monies involved.
In an invited comment, Attorney General Taco Stein explained that the case against Roberto Gibbs is being investigated by the Lands recherché because the company Gibbs owned was providing services for the Government of St. Maarten. Normally the Lands recherché is tasked with investigating cases against civil servants or incidents that involves civil servants and government institutions.
SMN News also tried to get an update from St. Maarten's Attorney General on the progress of the Election fraud case that involves the United Peoples Party and four police officers. This case has been laying on the desks of the Lands recherché for over two years now, with most of the work completed by the Police Internal Affairs. Stein said on Wednesday that he is aware of the case but he does not know the current status of the case. It should be noted that SMN News has sought information regarding the progress of this investigation several times but each time we are stone walled. Stein said the Lands recherché is extremely busy investigating several cases but at least three of cases we know of are not being touched by the special investigative unit.
St. Maarten's Attorney General also could not give an update on the Regina Labega case where it is alleged that the former head of the Tourism Department embezzled thousands of dollars from the government of St. Maarten. According to information provided to SMN News, the prosecutor's office has in their possession the account number from a Chase Manhattan Bank in New York where monies that were supposed to be used for the operations of the Tourist Office in New York were transferred to a bank account in Anguilla belonging to a company DMC where La Bega is the sole signatory. DMC was created by Fabian Badejo, Erica Fortuno, and Regina Labega. The monies it is understood 1.2 million United States Dollars were deposited in the Chase Manhattan Bank account for the operations of the New York Tourist Office. The last information SMN News received is that the Lands recherché invited Labega to their office for questioning but she refused to comply based on the advice of her attorney. Since then the Prosecutor's Office has said that they do not have the financial technicians necessary to proceed with the investigation and they have since hired the services of the SOAB.
