PHILIPSBURG:--- Attorney General Taco Stein said on Tuesday in an invited comment that the team of detectives that are currently working on several high profile investigations that involves politicians are moving in the right direction. "I cannot give you details that would hamper the cases but what I can tell you is that we are very satisfied with the ORCA (Bada Bing) Investigation and soon the people will see action. The detectives are also busy working on the threat investigation that involves Member of Parliament Romaine Laville. "The Laville investigation is also looking good but I cannot say when we will act."
Stein said the Prosecutor's Office is busy reviewing the files in the Piranha Investigation that involves former Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto and Roberto Gibbs. Stein said they have the final report on that investigation and they are now reviewing to see what decision they will take and how they intend to move forward.
Former Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto was arrested a few days before the Christmas holidays last year. At the time, the Prosecutor's Office said that Shigemoto is suspected of committing fraud, forgery, and he was also suspected of breaking government rules while paying double for services provided by Global Advisory Services.
On Tuesday, reports coming out of the Netherlands state that the former Netherlands Antilles cannot give account for some 270 million guilders in grants. According to reports, 270 million guilders is unaccounted for and it is impossible to find out if the monies were well spent because of bad administration in the subsidies account of the former Netherlands Antilles.
Moreover, there was fraud committed with a portion of the grants, this is according to a report from the Audit Department. The grant money went to USONA (Foundation for the development of the Netherlands Antilles), of which Wilbert Stolte was the treasurer between 2008 and 2011. Stolte is now the Chief Executive of the Caribbean islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba.
USONA cannot sufficiently prove whether the 270 million guilders were used according to the rules noted by the Kingdom's Audit Department. Two people have been convicted of fraud with some 170,000 euros from the foundation and the Public Prosecutor in St. Maarten suspects another duo of fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement of a grant of one million from SONA.
The Landsrecherche has had several cases piled up on their desk, one of them being the Election Fraud case which to date cannot reach the court. Right now, it seems as though the time to investigate these cases will soon expire even though four persons working for the police department (KPSM) confessed to the police internal affairs during their investigations that they took monies from the UP party in exchange for their votes.
