Philipsburg:--- The Landsrecherche is now working on the Election Fraud case that involves the United Peoples Party leader Theodore Heyliger, three police officers, and a civil servant working at the Philipsburg Police Station.
SMN News broke the story over two years ago about the officers who took a police vehicle in 2010 and went to the United Peoples Party campaign headquarters in Pointe Blanche and picked up four envelopes each containing $300.00 for the officers who according to information provided to SMN News collected the monies from the UP leader in exchange for their votes. Three of the four law enforcement workers decided to cheat one of their colleagues by opening the envelope that was meant for him/her and shared the monies among themselves. The greed on the part of the three cops caused a huge argument inside the Police Station shortly after the incident occurred. The argument is what led the Police Management team led by Chief Commissioner of Police Peter de Witte to order an internal investigation.
SMN News learnt that the four culprits working as law enforcement officers confessed to Police Internal Affairs that they were paid monies in exchange for their votes. That file was submitted to the Landsrecherche for further investigation and possible prosecution but the file was placed on the shelves of the Landsrecherche and was not touched.
SMN News learnt that the case was not investigated because of political influence because the UP/DP Government was supported by one Independent Member who held the Justice portfolio.
On several occasions SMN News asked about the election fraud case which is long overdue and each time the Prosecutor's Office would say the case is not set as one of their priority cases and another excuse was that the Landsrecherche was short staffed.
On Monday SMN News contacted Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos for an update on the case because we learnt that the detectives working at the Landsrecherche recently started to work on the case, Mos confirmed on Monday that indeed the case is now being investigated but declined to say how far the investigation is.
Draft Report on Piranha Investigation not completed.
SMN News also asked Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos for an update on the Piranha investigation that landed former Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto in pretrial detention one week before the Christmas Holidays. Mos said the Landsrecherche is finishing the final draft report on the Piranah Investigation. At the time Shigemoto was arrested, Mos said the former Minister was suspected of fraud, forgery, and he was also suspected of breaking government rules while paying double for services provided by Global Advisory Services.
It should be noted that prior to the arrest of Shigemoto the Chief Financial Officer and co-Manager of WINAIR Roberto Gibbs was also arrested for fraud, money laundering, and forgery. Roberto Gibbs is the owner of Global Advisory Services and his company was used to provide workers for government. Mos told SMN News in earlier interviews that Gibbs double charged government for the services he provided.
While it was widely rumored that the Piranha investigation started when former head of finance Bas Roorda provided lots of information to the Prosecutor's office claiming that several top civil servants and former commissioner were involved in abusing government funds, only now the Prosecutor's Office chose to investigate the cases and at least two arrests were made. Another person whose name made the headlines and was even suspended from her job is the former Head of the Tourist Office Regina Labega and her colleague Edward Dest. The Prosecutor's Office started that investigation early last year but somehow they stopped it claiming they do not have the financial experts available to them to continue the investigation. When SMN News contacted Mos about this he said that the services of SOAB was hired to finalize the financial part of the investigation but to date nothing more has been said about the investigation.