Marigot:--- Elected officials and persons holding senior positions at the Collectivity of St. Martin are now in the hot seat as the Gendarmes continue with a special investigation. Two days ago the Gendarmes consisting of a special team of detectives questioned Head of Domain Affairs, Jose Carti. Carti remains in garde à vue while the Director General of the Collectivity of St. Martin Pascal Avern was arrested on Thursday and he too remains in garde à vue as the investigation continues.
SMN News learnt that the next person that will be questioned by the special team of Gendarmes is the President of the Collectivity of St. Martin Alain Richardson. Sources close to the investigation said that the team of Gendarmes are investigating a number of cases, one relates to the villa Sayan which is located in Terre Basse. Another case that has the attention of the investigators is the AOT (Authorisation d' occupation temporaire) that was issued one week after the RRR Government took office to Norbert Luftman. The Collectivity of St. Martin issued the AOT to Luftman for the entire Orient beach. The businessman who allegedly financed the RRR party got the AOT and he is leasing it out to several other business persons that are forced to pay him huge sums of monies each month.
The owner of Bikini Beach Elisa Cohen filed a complaint against the Collectivity of St. Martin after she requested an AOT for the space she is occupying on Orient Beach but it was not granted to her. Another businessman Philippe Juste of Kontiki Beach also filed a complaint against the Collectivity of St. Martin after he too was denied the AOT he requested way before Norbert Luftman.
SMN News learnt the investigators are looking to see if any type of election fraud was committed and if the businessman who received special favors from the RRR government paid people to vote for the people that postulated on the RRR list. The commandant of the Gendarmerie Paul Betaille and the prosecutor that are investigating the case could not be reached for a comment on Friday.
It should be noted that Jose Carti was supposed to appear at the Palais du Justice on November 15, 2012 but somehow he was not notified. The case against Jose Carti will be heard on December 20th, 2012.