Marigot:--- The owners of two restaurants are taking legal action against the Collectivity of St. Martin and its executive council members who granted an Authorization of Temporary Occupation (AOT) to Norbert Luftman owner of Sarl Sindextour (Le Plantation).
The COM took the decision to renew the AOT for Luftman on April 17th, 2012 for a parcel of domain land situated on AW 33 Orient Bay.
SMN News learnt that the owners of Bikini Beach Elisa Cohen and the ADP Societie Kontiki Philippe Just who are operating on Orient Bay have decided to challenge the COM and the Prefecture for granting the AOT to one person while their requests were not handled. A well placed source said that the Prefet Delegue is already seeking to have the AOT annulled since the legal and normal procedures such as publicizing the requests were not published prior to it being handled. Currently the two businesses are highly affected because the COM granted Luftman the rights to adjust and build up the parking area.
Based on documents provided to SMN News, the proprietors of Bikini Beach and ADP requested an AOT from the COM in February 2012 while Luftman submitted his request on March 29th, 2012. SMN News, further learnt that the President of the COM was asked about the granting of the AOT to Luftman and he denied knowledge of such, instead President Richardson told those that questioned him that the requests of Cohen and Just were being handled by the relevant departments. Sources say that Norbert Luftman was one of the major financiers of the RRR party during the last election and granting him the AOT was just a pay-back scheme. However, SMN News was not able to verify that information.
Luftman began occupying domain land in the Orient Bay area in 1992 where he built five vacation homes but instead of using them for his own business he rented the properties out to various persons who are now operating well known restaurants on Orient Bay. Elisa Cohen rented one of the properties and she created the Bikini Beach while Just was given a contract for ADP (Kontiki Beach).
According to the information provided to SMN News, the COM granted the AOT to Luftman just 17 days after they took office and they did not take along the requests of Cohen and Just for a vote to be taken on them, neither did they respond to the many letters sent by the two business owners who have been paying an unknown amount of rent to Luftman even during the period of time when his AOT expired.
The two business persons even went to the Prefecture to see if the decision taken by the COM was sent to the Prefecture and there was no trace of it until Prefet Phillipe Chopin investigated and found that the COM granted Luftman an AOT for the five buildings he is now renting.
Currently an investigation is underway while the case will be handled sometime in September in the administrative courts.