PHILIPSBURG:--- A witness in the BTP court case code-named Aquamarine involving former Member of Parliament and leader of the United St. Maarten Peoples Party Frans Richardson that was heard in court on Thursday was arrested on Friday morning.
SMN News learned the witness that appeared in court on Thursday Leonardo Bromet was arrested on Friday morning allegedly for perjury because he allegedly lied under oath.
The Aquamarine investigation started when detectives at the TBO and RST discovered that several checks were made out to a politician on St. Maarten by TALIESIN Construction. These checks it is understood were found in the records of TALIESIN Construction when searches were conducted there.
Further investigations show that these checks were not cashed by the shareholders of ACTIS the company that was hired by BTP to deal with the 1721 dial codes as well as monitoring of the 800 and 900 numbers.
Investigators found that the Director of BTP Anthony Carty, Frans Richardson, and Judith de Weever are all shareholders of ACTIS.
Sources say the insurance claims were inflated post-IRMA and that repairs of the BTP building were conducted by Taliesin Construction. The inflated funds it is alleged were paid to Richardson and Carty as real estate commission. One of the blank checks was cashed by Leonardo Bromet. Investigators found all paper trails including the banking records that showed who cashed the blank checks issued by Taliesin Construction.
