Whisle Blower helps SZV with catching internal scammer.
PHILIPSBURG: ---SZV came out victorious on Wednesday when the judge in the Court of First Instance rendered its verdict. SZV was taken to court by the employee they suspended after they discovered she was involved in some sort of scam selling SZV medical cards. The SZV card selling saga was discovered earlier this year when the new management team took office. According to the court the employee has to pay SZV all its court costs and she was not entitled to benefits and that SZV has all rights to terminate the employee based on the evidence they provided to the courts.
As soon as the verdict was rendered SZV management team took the decision to terminate their working relationship with the employee.
Besides the court case, SZV management filed an official complaint against the employee with the prosecutor’s office. Chief Prosecutor Ton Maan confirmed on Wednesday that they are busy conducting an investigation that involved one employee of SZV.
SMN News has learnt that when the new acting CEO took office in December 2014, he immediately created an internal auditing department where they hired expert auditors to work with the ones that are employed by SZV. It is understood that when the auditors started their work a whistle blower provided information about the notorious SZV card selling. This it is understood prompted an internal and external investigation in January 2015. When SZV auditors found enough evidence that implicated the employee she was suspended in January pending further investigations. SZV auditors (investigators) went as far as interviewing people that operated on the outside to corroborate their case prior to filing an official complaint with the prosecutor’s office on St. Maarten.
Besides that SZV is undergoing a massive restructuring which might land more people working at the medical insurance company in trouble if not prison.
SMN News understands that the judicial system on St. Maarten are currently conducting a widespread investigation to see how many persons and bogus companies are involved in the scam. A source told SMN News that the card selling at SZV started in 2008 to 2009 when the Brooks Tower (BTA) started. Several persons on St. Maarten created bogus companies and charged foreigners as much as $5000.00 to sign for them and through these bogus companies the foreign workers obtained SZV medical coverage and permanent residency. The source said with the investigation SZV conducted both internally and externally is tantamount to human smuggling if the justice system work correctly to capture and prosecute the perpetrators.
