~ Complaint to be filed against Prosecutors Office, Mingo's house sold under value by Prosecutors~
PHILIPSBURG:--- The legal team representing former CEO of Ports St. Maarten Mark Mingo has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Government of St. Maarten for firing Mingo as the CEO of Ports St. Maarten prematurely.
Mingo was let go by the former Minister of TEATT Ludmilla de Weever after obtaining the green light from the Council of Ministers in July 2020, the decision of the council of minister states that Mingo’s dismissal went into effect as of April 23rd, 2020, where he was dismissed as the CEO of the Harbor Holding and all its subsidiaries. The dismissal took place six years after Mingo was officially suspended since he was under investigation in the Emerald investigation where he was cleared of all charges in the court of appeals.
The court of First Instance had sentenced Mingo to 46 months of imprisonment, in the dismissal the council of ministers states that the conviction has caused irreparable damages to the government-owned company.
At the time of the dismissal, Mark Mingo was still pursuing the courts to clear his name which was done by the Court of Appeals.
Currently, the legal team for Mark Mingo, who has been represented by Attorney at Law Cor Merx is seeking damages for the damages caused to his character.
Mingo told reporters that he has given the company “Ports St. Maarten- Harbor Groups of Companies” a lot and has built the company over the years he worked as the Chief Executive Officer. “I have built that company from a $7M company to a $50 million dollar company that has a value. He made clear that he is demanding justice and compensation for the five years of hell.
Mingo said a letter was sent to the Government of St. Maarten on August 27th and to date, there has not been any formal response from the government of St. Maarten.
The former CEO said that he wants to move on with his life, and the only way to do that must be able to close part one, he made clear that he is “pro-settlement” out of court, however, the attorney has set deadlines one of which has passed two days ago.
Merx explained that Mingo’s legal team believes that there must be a multi-million claim for the damages that Mingo suffered.
He said Mingo was a statutory director of the Harbor Group of Companies, but Mingo has been working at the harbor since 2002. Merx said that the shareholders fired Mingo when they were not allowed to do so since Mingo had a labor agreement. He felt that the Supervisory Board Directors of the Harbor Group of Companies did not advise the shareholder correctly instead they agreed with the former Minister of TEATT and went ahead to illegally fire Mingo.
Along with the multi-million dollar claim against the government of St. Maarten Mingo’s legal team intends to file a complaint against 7 prosecutors that handled the Mingo case. Merx said that the prosecutor's Office played a game or formed a conspiracy with the harbor when they solicited to see who exactly will chop off Mingo’s head.
Merx announced that a civil case is still running and in that case, compensation is also requested for all legal fees.
Merx also explained that the prosecutor's Office placed a lien on Mingo's house and a parcel of land and 14 days before the Court of Appeals rendered its verdict they sold the house under market value.
He said other things that have to be dealt with are his pension and loss of income. Another thing that has to be considered is who would hire Mingo after he went through it.
Merx said when the investigation began the Prosecutors office wanted to go after the $10M from the harbor, he also referred to news articles and a report from PriceWaterhouse where it states that there is something going on in the harbor that is not normal, but Mingo’s name was not mentioned. He said about a year after the investigation the prosecutor’s office came up with the idea that something was wrong with the local entrepreneurs that got paid for the services they provided, and it is then Mingo’s name surfaced.
Merx laid out the way the investigation went and even explained that even the court denied the request of the public prosecutor to continue an investigation at the Port of St. Maarten while Mingo is on suspension.
Merx a former prosecutor said that the procedure was not normal even decisions taken by the courts. He said even the prosecutor’s office recognized that Mingo was a victim and the “real bad” people are Theodore Heyliger and Ton van Krotten he said all of this is in writing.
He said that Mingo was set free by the appeals court, he described Mingo as the man of the soil whose head was cut off and was allowed to survive while being suspended and the investigation was ongoing.
