PHILIPSBURG:--- Several citizens and persons who bought confiscated items from the Public Prosecutors Office on St. Maarten and Weather Eyes Yacht Sales that was representing the Prosecutor's Office are now calling on the Dutch Members of Parliament and the Kingdom Council of Ministers to send down experts to investigate the Prosecutors that were appointed by them. "We are in full support of the Dutch using their powers to put a halt to corruption and self-enrichment among politicians, but the Dutch must also realize that the Dutch prosecutors they appointed to St. Maarten and the Solicitor General of St. Maarten are part of the corrupt gang that have been delivering "class justice" on St. Maarten as spelled out in the decision rendered by the Court of First Instance in the Masbangu case.
The Public Prosecutors Office aim at the young "black boys" that commit petty crimes because they and their families are forgotten by politicians so they turn to crime. However, cases that involve persons of a lighter complexion is never prosecuted or even questioned. The concern citizens said they want to know how it was possible for the current Solicitor General to prosecute former Chief of Police Derrick Holiday and former Members of Parliament Louis Laviest and Patrick Illidge but the cases that implicate the UPP leader Theodore Heyliger were shelved. The one involving Maria Buncamper never reached the courts even five years later while the case involving MP Silvio Matser was rescheduled until after the 2014 elections. "As a people we want to know if the color of one's skin played a role or if the Public Prosecutors Office was also bought out? We do not know what is happening and it is not our place to pass judgment but definitely as a people we have the right to demand equal treatment and to ensure that the Dutch Prosecutors are not guilty of class justice. We know some of them are corrupt and incompetent, that is a known fact because many of us bought boats and other items that were confiscated by the Prosecutors Office, Coast Guard, Customs and the RST without the legal procedures being followed."
"When we bought these boats no bidding process was conducted by the bailiffs on St. Maarten, the monies were paid directly to the Public Prosecutors Office and at times to a company called 'Weather Eye Yachts Sales". Normally confiscated items have to be placed on a bidding and the bailiffs that conduct the bidding process are not the ones authorized to collect the payments. They in turn give the buyers a document and send them to the Federal Receivers Office to make the payments before the items they purchase through bidding is released to them. Most of us bought our boats directly from the Public Prosecutors Office and it was done after hours. We want to know if the monies we pay these prosecutors were deposited in the Federal coffers. We also want to see if any of the former Ministers of Justice ever gave the Prosecutors an LB or any Besluit to authorize them to sell confiscated items. We also want to know how the former prosecutor who authorized himself to sell these items manage to purchase a huge beach front property in Guana Bay. Where did he get the monies from? We want to know why these Dutch Prosecutors chose to buy or build huge houses on St. Maarten in top residential areas and they refuse to go back to their country to work and live when their time is up here? Does St. Maarten have magnet that attracts corrupt people?
These residents and Dutch citizens on St. Maarten said they are looking for the Dutch to perform a total clean-up on St. Maarten because there are a number of instances where corruption and "white collar" crime has taken place. One resident said his boat was stolen on the French side and he filed police reports on both French and Dutch sides of the island and when the boat was caught with drugs and confiscated he went to the former Chief Prosecutor to show him that his boat was stolen and he filed complaints on both sides of the island. The man said that despite providing all the evidence the Chief Prosecutor who is now a top lawyer on St. Maarten after being convicted refused to turn over his boat to him, that boat was sold to a gentleman called "Naman", that person took the boat to Anguilla and registered it. Under this article SMN News obtained documents from some of the persons who bought boats to show that proper procedures were not followed when they bought the boats. They said they are not the only ones that bought boats, one was sold to Lee Halley from Lee's Roadside Grill. Several of the confiscated boats were sold from Bobby's Marina and Boat Yard by the Prosecutor's Office and not through the bidding process that should have been done. One of the seized boats that belong to a multi-millionaire is still sitting at Bobby's Marina. Many of these boats were redone so persons would not recognize them as boats that were confiscated while a whole lot were sold to people from other islands.
Another case that has to be investigated is the $20,000.00 a prosecutor took out from the $125,000.00 that was seized from a Haitian national who was travelling from St. Maarten to Haiti with monies to deliver for several families. "The attorney that represented the Haitian national was called to the Prosecutor's office who chose to slam his client with a $20,000.00 fine and that prosecutor took out a bag that had contained the monies that was confiscated and he counted $20,000.00 and gave the lawyer a receipt typed out on his computer on Microsoft document. To date no one know if that money was turned over to the crime fund or if it was deposited at the Federal Receivers Office." These are things that must be investigated by the Dutch. "We need the politicians to be fully investigated as well as the Prosecutors on St. Maarten."
Minister of Justice says he does not know of confiscated boats that are stored on the French side.
SMN News reported several times that while St. Maarten is saying they cannot balance their budget and the Justice Ministry doesn't have the monies and manpower to do their job, there are a number of confiscated items such as airplanes and boats that can be sold. However, Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson said he followed up on the information SMN News had and he could not find any trace of any boats that are confiscated and not yet sold.
On Sunday October 19th, 2014, SMN News went out and took photos of boats that were seized by the Public Prosecutors Office and Coast Guard on the Dutch side and taken to JC Boat Yard in Sandy Ground. One of the boats (BLUE MOON) was seized some years ago and instead of selling the boat that was caught smuggling people to a US territory that boat is at JC Boat Yard hidden among high grass, other boats found in the same boat yard is Dacia Marie, Show Time and a red boat named Donzi, that boat was confiscated by French and Dutch authorities.
