Philipsburg:--- Attorney General Taco Stein confirmed on Monday that the detectives working at the Landsrecherche are busy compiling the reports on the ORCA investigation (Bada Bing) that involves Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge. Stein said that he cannot and will not say when they will take action because that would be letting the cat out of the bag. St. Maarten's attorney general also made clear that it is the intention of the Prosecutor's office to prosecute the two suspects namely Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge and Jaap van den Heuvel. "All the detectives at Landsrecherche are working on this case. The other cases were placed on the side even though they were there longer. The detectives are working around the clock and we do intend to move forward with this case."
Stein said that the prosecutor was in constant contact with the team on how they will move forward with the case. As for Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge who was seen on tape stuffing what appears to be monies in his pocket given to him as a bribe by Van den Heuvel, the prosecution has to prepare its files on MP Illidge and submit it to the Supreme Court before they can move forward with the part on MP Illidge. He said that does not have to happen for the strip club businessman Van den Heuvel because the businessman is not an elected official. Stein declined to comment on upcoming arrests.
It should be noted that when the alleged bribery scandal broke and the tape with Van den Heuvel and MP Illidge was made public, MP Illidge and Van den Heuvel said that the taping was orchestrated by the leader of the United People's Party Theodore Heyliger whose intention was to use the tape to blackmail MP Illidge. While MP Illidge and MP Romaine Laville all levied some serious and criminal accusations against the leader of the United People's Party Theodore Heyliger there have been some strange and questionable turn of events since then. The NA/DP/I-3 coalition fell on May 6th, 2013 and the two Members of Parliament who accused the UP leader are now in cahoots with him as they formed a new government. "They made allegations, filed complaints and the way they are acting is as if everything is normal again," one political pundit and legal mind told SMN News on Monday.
Several persons are questioning the new developments, some are even saying that St. Maarten is a "banana republic" and the new Minister of Justice will make the investigations against Illidge, Laville, and Heyliger disappear.