ORANJESTAD, WILLEMSTAD – On March 2, 2016 the court of Justice in Aruba ruled in the case of Aruba Airlines and has appointed Esteban Valles as the interim director of the airline and suspended Onno de Swart from every function that he may have in the company.
In the afternoon hours the company’s management called a meeting with all the employees to inform them about the ruling and presented Valles as the interim director of the airline.
The case started when Onno de Swart decided to do a hostile takeover by calling a general shareholders’ meeting together with Gabri de Hoogd. Here they decided that they will give the company Black Brothers 1.001 shares. This means that Seastar Holding Inc. would go from 90% shares to only 9% and will have nothing else to say in the company. This decision was invalid because it goes against the statutes. During the treatment of the case, De Swart and De Hoogd admitted that the decision was invalid. The judge ratified this and gave Seastar their shares back, which makes them majority shareholder.
All of De Swart’s maneuvers caused him to go too far and now Seastar does not have confidence in him and this is why the judge dismissed him in all his functions related to Aruba Airlines. The judge also ordered for De Swart not to have any active participation in Aruba Airlines and that he has to give his full cooperation to Valles. If De Swart does not comply with these orders, he will have to pay 25.000 Aruban guilders for each day he does not comply to a maximum of 25 million Aruban guilders.
The judge also stated that the majority shareholder has confidence in Valles and this is why, according to the company’s status, they, the shareholders, appoint Valles as the new director.
With this decision, Seastar has control again over the airline. According to the employees this brings tranquility to the company.
According to reliable sources, Onno de Swart also took 180.000 dollars from the company before being suspended. He also loaned 23.000 dollars to Olivier Arrindell of the embattled AVA Airways here in Curaçao.
Yesterday Curaçao Chronicle asked Onno de Swart for his comment on this case, but all he did was indicate that this week he will emit a press release giving his side of the story.
Bron: Curacao Chronicle