Philipsburg:--- The owner of Gold Chest N.V. Ramesis Jamaloodin has filed an official complaint with the Ombudsman of St. Maarten against the Department of Economic Affairs and in particular one civil servant whom he suspects is accepting bribes and leaking confidential information to an attorney.
The complaint was filed with the Ombudsman on Friday while a copy of the complaint was lodged at the Department of General Affairs. Jamaloodin provided SMN News with a court decision where the Court of First Instance ordered the Minister of Economic Affairs and Tourism to take a decision regarding Robbie's Lottery (The Money Game) whom he claims is operating without a legal license to sell numbers on St. Maarten. The Court of First Instance gave the Minister ten weeks in which he must respond or government will face a penalty of Naf. 200 per day with a maximum of Naf. 50,000.00.
Jamaloodin said that his brother Robbertico Dos Santos has three companies on St. Maarten. Those companies are Smart Play (video lottery game), The Money Game, and Jamorama. Ramesis said the former head of Economic Affairs Patricia Philips confirmed in a letter that The Money Game is operating illegally on St. Maarten since the year 2000 while Jamorama's license expired in 2009. "Even though I have that letter, I need an update to see if Jamorama has since obtained a license to sell numbers. I have to represent myself in a case Dos Santos filed against me and if the people at the Department of Economic Affairs are not being bribed then they should have no problem in following the letter of the law and handing over the documents which are public information." Ramesis said he is prepared to file another injunction to force the Department of Economic Affairs to turn over the documents while he will be filing a complaint with the Prosecutor's office.
SMN News learnt from reliable sources that the UP/DP former Minister of Economic of Affairs Franklin Meyers delivered a license to Jamorama on May 9th, 2012 for the scratch lottery. The source said that this is why the Department of Economic Affairs is not turning over documents to Jamaloodin because the former government of St. Maarten granted a license to someone that is being investigated internationally and someone that was convicted within the past five years.
Jamaloodin further explained that Jamorama was granted a license in 1999 and it expired in 2009. The businessman said that several people in the Government Departments are confused about how the lottery business operates and to make matters worse some of the civil servants that have to deal with these matters have no knowledge of the Dutch language. Ramesis and his lawyers said that persons wishing to be part of the lottery business have to obtain two licenses, an operational license and a business license.
Ramesis said that since the Court of First Instance ruled against the Government of St. Maarten on June 17th, 2012 and the information became public when it was published by SMN News, the Department of Economic Affairs has blatantly refused to turn over documents he requested from them. "I went as far as quoting the articles of the law that stipulates that I have all rights to obtain the documents but the current head of Economic Affairs Justine Webster told me that I should go ahead and do what I think I needed to do to get the documents because she will not hand them over. Right now, I am using my first option which is to have the Ombudsman investigate the Department and at least one particular civil servant who faxed certain documents to a lawyer's office." Ramesis said someone from Economic Affairs is being paid to leak information to his brother's lawyer. "Can you imagine the concept license from Gold Chest N.V. was leaked to the lawyer that is representing Dos Santos and that lawyer presented those documents to the court hoping that the court would rule against my company? The concept license that was leaked to the lawyer has no date and my license was granted in March 2012, the lawyer tried to misinform the court by stating that government has grounds not to grant me a license. This lawyer needs to find another job because he tried to misinform the court with documents he obtained illegally and even though he filed several cases against me he has not yet won one of them."
Jamaloodin said he has become a victim of the system because he requested a license to operate Gold Chest N.V. some three years ago and he had to file an injunction against the government of St. Maarten to obtain his license. The Council of Ministers took a decision to grant Gold Chest N.V. its license in March 2011 but Ramesis only obtained the license on March 7th, 2012, after he filed a court case against the Government of St. Maarten. Ramesis said that he is of the opinion that his brother managed to buy civil servants in every department of government for them to do what he wants. The businessman provided SMN News with a "Dwangschrift" which shows that Gold Chest N.V. owes the government of St. Maarten Naf. 375,000.00. "These people charged me for January, February, March, June, and July and they stated that if I do not pay the allotted amount then they would put an attachment to my license." Ramesis has since responded by letter to the tax department requesting information from them about the figures they charged him. Furthermore, his company was given a six month grace period as they set up their business. Ramesis said he also sent a letter to the Minister of Economic Affairs on July 12, 2012 informing him that the company is still in its pre-operational phase. He said that he is obliged to pay the government Naf 12,500 per month while he paid Naf. 50,000.00 for his operational license. Ramesis said that even though he won all the cases Dos Santos filed against him, Dos Santos and his lawyer placed a lien on his company since 2007 and has refused to lift the lien.
Click here to view the host of documents Ramesis Jamaloodin provided to SMN News.