PHILIPSBURG–Exactly 685 days after Frans Richardson was arrested early 2018 as a suspect in an investigation into corruption at the Port of St. Maarten, the Member of Parliament (MP) proclaimed his innocence in front of a judge during the second day of hearings in the so-called “Emerald” investigation on Tuesday.
Richardson was charged with accepting bribes to the amount of US $370,000, and of money laundering and tax fraud. If it were up to the Prosecutor’s Office, Richardson will have to spend three years in prison. He may also be banned from the right to be elected for five years (see related article).
At the end of the hearing, Richardson admitted to having made mistakes in filing his taxes, for which he offered his apologies. He, however, denied the other charges, including bribery and money laundering.
“As an MP, I could not have made any decision on this island,” he said in response to the accusation that he had taken a bribe in exchange of which dredging company Devcon TCI Ltd. was awarded a multi-million-dollar contract.
He also denied that the money paid to him by his godbrother O’Neal Arrindell, who was an “agent” with Devcon and liaison and public-relations officer for the Port, had been a bribe.
According to Richardson, it was considered a loan from a “family member” after Richardson had run into financial difficulties with his company Paradise Real Estate NV.
“This case does not fit the punishment. I must be acquitted,” Richardson told the Court. “This case has taken its toll on my wife and family. I hope to spend a wonderful Christmas with my family and hope it won’t be my last,” the embattled politician said in an emotional closing statement.
Lawyer Sjamira Roseburg argued with the Court to declare the prosecutor’s case against Richardson inadmissible and to acquit her client of all charges, or to dismiss him from all prosecution.
She accused the investigators and the Prosecutor’s Office of “tunnel vision” in this case and said the charges against her client were not properly investigated.
Had the research team exhausted all possible scenarios and had not proceeded with tunnel vision, they would have discovered that there was insufficient legal and convincing evidence for bribery and money laundering, she said.
Following their tunnel vision, the investigating team had tried to “tie loose ends together,” and had drawn the wrong conclusions.
According to Roseburg, her client had not received any bribes. The money received was considered a loan from his godbrother to alleviate his financial problems. The money was used to repair the derelict Sunset Building in Simpson Bay. She also said that her client had repaid part of the loan.
Given the family relationship between the two men they had not seen the need to put the loan in writing. “They have known each other for years and treat each other like brothers,” said Roseburg.
“Based on suspicions, the conclusion is drawn that it concerns income from bribes,” she said, but “not at any moment has client received money and been urged to do something contrary to his duty,” as a civil servant.
Being an MP, Richardson was informed by the Port St. Maarten Group of Companies (PSGC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Mingo about harbour projects, “nothing more, nothing less,” his lawyer stated in her pleadings.
“That is something that Mingo did with various MPs in various port projects. One can think what one wants, but there is nothing punishable about this, and suspicions of any wrongdoing are not enough.”
Answering the question what Richardson would have done in return for a bribe, his lawyer emphatically stated: “nothing.” She said that Mingo had only thanked her client for the assistance of the Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) and the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI in making it possible to have sand stored on Pond Island to enable the start of the dredging project.
The suspicion that the payments from Arrindell to Richardson were made in exchange for political support to get the dredging project off the ground were not supported by evidence, according to attorney Roseburg.
The lawyer pleaded for acquittal of money-laundering, as her client had not been guilty of committing any crime. Where the tax-fraud charges are concerned she said these would normally have been handled by the tax department and not in a court of law.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/93363-mp-frans-richardson-says-he-must-be-acquitted-of-corruption-charges
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