PHILIPSBURG:--- The Vorst family has filed an injunction against the Government of St. Maarten to force government to live up to the purchase agreement signed by Minister Maurice Lake.
According to the lawyers representing the Vorst family, the family has signed at least five agreements with government over the past two years. "This family has been negotiating with government for two years, they did not contact government it's the government who contacted them for the purchase of their property."
The attorney who spoke to SMN News said that the case is on the docket for Friday, furthermore he made clear that the purchase agreement SMN News published on its website has been signed by all parties.
Several persons have been questioning the legitimacy of the purchase agreement which does not bear the Minister's letter head. Some persons are also questing the signatures of the family on the document which they said are the same signature.
SMN News contacted the Prime Minister of St. Maarten Sarah Wescot Williams to comment on the new development regarding the purchase of the property. Wescot Williams said she will make an official statement on Tuesday as she has to be very careful in what she says now. "Our faction has decided to wait one more day." In the meantime, the National Alliance faction announced that they will be requesting an urgent meeting of parliament on Monday where they will call Minister Lake to Parliament.
On Saturday, SMN News published the agreement which was not booked in at the Department of General Affairs and was not discussed in a Council of Ministers meeting prior to last week when the Vorst family indicated that they were moving to court.
Based on research conducted by SMN News, there is no paper trail regarding a decision taken by the Council of Ministers authorizing the Minister of VROMI Maurice Lake to purchase the property. Furthermore, there is no legal and financial advice. A source at VROMI said that VROMI gave the Minister a negative advice on the sale but the Minister went ahead and signed the purchase agreement. The source further explained that the Minister had planned to use at least 3.5 million USD from the capital expenditures of the 2014 budget even though he did not inform government or parliament about the purchase of this property.