PHILIPSBURG--“Our names are being trampled on and thrown in the dust,” said project developer Ted Richardson and financial consultant George Willems, whose homes were raided by the Kingdom Detective Cooperation Team RST on Monday. They are suspected of fraud and embezzlement at government-owned utilities company GEBE without having worked there.
Richardson is a former Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (2014) who, after leaving St. Maarten, returned to the island to take care of his mother who recently passed away after her son had provided for her for the past three years.
“Meanwhile I have been working on some projects which have nothing to do with politics, government or GEBE,” Richardson said on Monday evening. He was relieved to have gotten his phone back from RST, which had confiscated his personal belongings for investigation.
Prosecutor F.E. van der Zee signed an authorisation to enter Richardson’s family home in Middle Region on suspicion of “forgery from January 1, 2016, to the present” and “intentional money-laundering from January 1, 2016, to the present.”
Nowhere in the authorisation to enter does it state in what capacity Richardson allegedly committed the fraud and money laundering, or where, at what company, organisation or government agency it allegedly had happened.
“When I asked the detectives about that, I was told they couldn’t tell me anything other than what was in the warrant,” said Richardson, who wondered: “Does one not have to have credible evidence or a reasonable suspicion of guilt to have any criminal offence to be able to label someone as a suspect? Where are the indications that I received anything wrongfully? And from whom? Where? How?”
The Prosecutor’s Office distributed a press release on Monday, stating: “The searches took place in connection with an investigation called ‘Helsinki’ where fraud and corruption are suspected to have been committed by, among others, a (former) board member of a so-called government NV. The investigation is ongoing, and arrests or further searches are not ruled out.”
Richardson and Willems are flabbergasted. “So, the case has a name: Helsinki,” they said. “Wow! Ain’t this something! Being part of an investigation we don’t know nothing about.”
Richardson: “I have never been a board member of a government-owned company.”
Willems: “Me neither.”
First the two “suspects” cooperated fully with the investigation, letting the detectives into their homes, giving access to their personal documents and handing over their means of communication. Then, after they got their phones back, they started to put the puzzle pieces together.
“I applied for the position of Chief Financial Officer at utility company GEBE,” said Willems, who cannot think of a connection to any other government-owned company. “I have not yet been hired by GEBE. I am still in the process of screening, and have not worked a day at the company.”
Willems cites a letter from the St. Maarten Security Service VSA apologising for the omission of surpassing the legal term for screening. “I had filed an objection, because the screening process has been taking so long that I will get into trouble if I don’t receive any income. I have to pay my bills like any other person,” said Willems, who had to put money on the table to lodge an objection against GEBE’s lack of decision. “I am still waiting,” he said.
Willems had given Richardson as a reference in his application. “That’s the only connection between the two of us and GEBE,” he said. “Not having worked at GEBE, how could I ever have committed fraud, and how could I have laundered money, while desperately waiting for an answer to be able to move on with my life and provide for my family.”
Richardson: “I asked the detectives how long this investigation is going to take. Their answer: ‘We don’t know.’ Can you believe that? The damage to our reputation has already been done, and now we have to sit and wait to see what happens next.”
