~ ‘Port used as ATM’ in corruption case ~
PHILIPSBURG–The Prosecutor’s Office called for “hefty” prison sentences in the criminal cases against suspended Port St. Maarten Group of Companies (PSGC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Mingo, Checkmate Security director O’Neal Arrindell and United St. Maarten Party (US Party) leader Member of Parliament (MP) Frans Richardson, on Tuesday during the second day of hearings in the “Emerald” case.
In October 2018, Mingo and Arrindell were charged with defrauding the Port out of a total of US $10 million. Arrindell is also suspected of bribery, tax fraud and illegal firearm possession. For these crimes, the Prosecutor called for seven years’ imprisonment.
Mingo may have to spend four years in prison and may also be banned from being a board member of any government-owned company in St. Maarten for five years.
MP Richardson was charged with accepting bribes to the amount of $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.
In case of a conviction, the prosecutor called for the suspects’ immediate detention. He also announced dispossession claims against the three suspects. The judge will give his decisions in these cases on January 22, 2020.
‘Corrupt politician’
“A people’s representative represents the people. An MP of St. Maarten has the honour and the duty to serve the interests of St. Maarten. The general interest of the residents of St. Maarten always comes first and, therefore, not the own interest or the interests of third parties. No discussion about that is possible,” the prosecutor said Tuesday.
“Richardson did not follow this rule. He has been bribed by Arrindell and dredging company Devcon TCI Ltd. and has, therefore, turned himself into a corrupt politician.”
Instead of putting the people in the first place, he has filled his own pockets and, thereby, “sold” his own integrity, the prosecutor stated.
In the demand the prosecutor said he had taken into consideration that Richardson had so far shown no evidence that he has done wrong. To prevent a recurrence, he demanded that Richardson will be relieved of his passive right to vote.
“That is quite radical, but the Prosecution has carefully considered this. Removal from the passive right to vote is a possibility offered by the legislator in special cases. This is such a special case. The seriousness of the facts and the person of this suspect justify this additional punishment. If this claim is followed by the Court, it will no longer be possible to cast a vote as an unsuspecting citizen on the corrupt politician Frans Richardson,” the prosecutor explained.
As CEO of the Port, Mingo held an important position with many responsibilities, and he has seriously damaged the trust St. Maarten had placed in him, the prosecutor said.
“Together with Arrindell and Devcon, he harmed Country St. Maarten for many millions of dollars over a period of several years. Mingo has not shown that he realizes that he has acted punishably or even carelessly.”
That made the Prosecutor’s Office fear for the future. Therefore, the Prosecutor’s Office wants to prevent Mingo from committing the same or similar crimes within other government-owned companies.
During several years, Arrindell had taken millions of dollars from the Port and Country St. Maarten “in a devious and sophisticated way,” said the prosecutor.
Among other things, he used the owners of seven construction companies, who are now stuck with hefty convictions and enormous additional claims from the Tax Authorities.
“Furthermore, he did not hesitate to pay part of this money as a bribe to a corrupt politician. Arrindell has no tax morality,” the Prosecutor said. “The tap conversations show that he is proud that he does not pay taxes. As a result, country St. Maarten suffers damage to the tune of many millions of guilders.”
ATM
“For years, the Port has been used as an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to withdraw money. The Emerald investigation by the [Anti-Corruption Taskforce – Ed.] TBO shows that huge amounts were withdrawn from Country St. Maarten. In addition to the $10 million from the Port, NAf. 13 million in taxes were not paid,” the prosecutor said in his closing speech in this case involving white-collar crime and corruption.
The Port, which is considered the foundation of St. Maarten’s economy, suffered a total loss of more than $16 million over the period 2014 to 2016, it emerged from the annual accounts. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, largely due to Arrindell and Mingo.
Investigations led to the suspicion that Mingo and Arrindell, together with other suspects had allegedly defrauded the harbour of at least $8 million over a number of years by signing 272 invoices submitted by seven “fake” construction companies.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, these invoices for services to the Port for work, which were submitted from April 2012 to July 1, 2017, were forged and falsified. In the Prosecutor’s opinion, these paid invoices concerned activities that were in reality not, or only partly carried out.
“Arrindell submitted the fake invoices to the Port. Mingo approved them by signing with his initials and arranged for payment of the invoices. Arrindell collected the cheques at the Port and gave these to the owners of the construction companies. The cheques were credited to the bank accounts of the owners, who withdrew cash from those accounts on the very same day up to a total of $7.8 million,” the prosecutor told the Court.
He said that between 81 and 98 per cent of the money was withdrawn from the bank accounts of the companies involved in the scheme.
“The question is where all that cash finally went, but that is irrelevant for the statement of evidence,” the prosecutor said, assuming that the majority of the money ended up in the pockets of Mingo and Arrindell.
In the prosecutor’s opinion the Port has been misled and forced to spend millions of dollars. “If the Port had known that work mentioned in the invoices was not or only partially done, and that Mingo had incorrectly signed the invoices for approval, the Port would, of course, had never proceed to (full) payment.”
Dredging
Mingo and Arrindell are also charged with defrauding SMHGC in cooperation with dredging company Devcon TCI Ltd. and others out of $3.1 million between July 2012 and June 2014.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, this involved forged documents pertaining to “mobilisation cost” and “general conditions” charged to the Harbour in connection with dredging work, while these in fact served as payments to Arrindell and/or one or more of his companies.
“These agency/consultancy contracts have been drawn up to justify the payments to Arrindell on paper. Arrindell has not performed any agency/consultancy work for this. In reality, these payments were made to ensure that Devcon obtained the dredging contract in June 2012 and was then allowed to carry out additional work via the “change orders,” the prosecutor said.
“If Arrindell was not paid by Devcon, then Devcon did not get the work. The amounts paid to Arrindell were charged to the Port as mobilization and general conditions cost in the dredging contract of 2012 and various change orders that followed. In essence, the Port (read: Country St. Maarten) paid the ‘consultancy fees’ for Arrindell.”
Bribery
Richardson also has to answer to charges of bribery in accepting $180,000 on July 30, 2012, and $190,000 on December 20, 2012. He is also suspected of laundering these amounts, and of tax fraud in failing to file income tax between January 2013 and December 2014.
Arrindell is accused of bribing Richardson, who was an independent MP in 2012 and chairman of the parliamentary committee for Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT).
Arrindell was a liaison and public relations officer for the Port since May 2012. In this position he lobbied between the Port, Devcon and the government.
Arrindell had stated that he was an intermediary for the Harbour from when Theo Heyliger was in government in 2012/2013 and the “boss” of the harbour on behalf of the government.
“Then William Marlin and Frans Richardson came to power. From that moment on, they were the people in charge of the Port from the government. After the change of power on St. Maarten, I was asked by Mark Mingo to become an intermediary between the government and the Port. Who is in power at any given moment in politics, determines which companies are awarded projects,” he had told the police.
Arrindell had also stated that from 2012 he worked as a “sort of” agent for Devcon. According to him, his work consisted of, among other things, assisting in obtaining permits for projects.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Arrindell received almost 20 per cent, or more than $1 million, of the total value of the dredging contract. The contracts which were drafted between Arrindell and Devcon were meant to conceal that Devcon paid a bribe to win the dredging contract.
In e-mail correspondence of June 21, 2012, between Mingo and Arrindell the latter was asked to provide “local content” in Devcon’s dredging work. The term “local content,” which pops up regularly in the case file, usually refers to payments to local persons or companies to get certain things arranged, including paying bribes, the prosecutor said.
On June 25, 2012, the Minister of TEATT sent a letter to Mingo in which he indicated there were no objections to award the dredging contract to Devcon.
On July 13, 2012, Mingo sent an email-message to Richardson in which he wrote: “Thank you for the support to get the dredging project going.” According to the Prosecutor’s Office, it emerged from this message that Richardson gave his political support to the dredging project.
Several days later, Arrindell received three payments from Devcon, which according to the Prosecutor, were actually meant for Richardson. The $370,000 received by Richardson were a bribe “and Richardson knew and understood that,” the prosecutor said.
Unknown to the tax department the money was deposited with an Anguilla bank and converted into cheques. Richardson had allegedly failed to report these “extra earnings,” as well as interest received on savings abroad, and his shares and bonds in the company Paradise Real Estate to the tax office, which estimated the amount in lost taxes at NAf. 339,000.
Arrindell allegedly failed to file income tax between January 2012 and January 2018 and had failed to file turnover tax on behalf of five of his companies, according to the Prosecution. The tax office estimated the amount of lost taxes at more than NAf. 13 million.
The hearings in the Emerald-case will continue today, Wednesday, with attorneys Niels van der Laan and Brenda Brooks answering to the prosecutor’s charges against Arrindell.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/93364-prosecutor-wants-richardson-mingo-arrindell-behind-bars
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