Philipsburg:--- The National Detectives that are working on the ORCA investigation, famously known as the Bada Bing corruption case are currently reviewing documents they received from various banks.
Deputy Attorney General Taco Stein said in an invited comment on Thursday that the investigation picked up speed on Tuesday when the detectives returned to work after the Easter Holidays and they are now studying the documents they recovered during the house and office searches that were conducted while they are also reviewing documents they received from several of the banks on the island. Stein said the national detectives requested documents from several of the banks and those documents were turned over to them and they are now reviewing all the documents they received before they can take a decision on how to move forward.
When SMN News asked Stein if anymore witnesses were heard just prior to the Easter holidays and the earlier part of this week, Stein said that no more witnesses were heard. He said that he held a discussion with the National Detectives on Thursday afternoon and they concluded that there is no more information that can be released now to the media, but assured that the investigation is moving forward.
It should be noted that while the ORCA investigation has become the talk of the Kingdom and its overseas countries, the National Detectives chose to delay the investigation during the Easter Holidays. Stein also confirmed to SMN News that all the other investigations including the Piranha Investigation which involves the former Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto are now placed on the back burner because the ORCA investigation has taken priority.
The ORCA investigation started some weeks ago when a videotape surfaced showing the owner of the Bada Bing strip club Jaap van den Heuvel giving what looks like a bribe to Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge. Since the revelation of the videotape, the owner of Bada Bing claimed he taped MP Illidge while he was paying back a loan he borrowed from Illidge during his divorce procedures in 2011. Van den Heuvel also claimed that the leader of the United People's Party Theodore Heyliger asked him to make the videotape in order for Heyliger to blackmail MP Illidge.