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DH | Solicitor-General says Buncampers ‘only had eyes for almighty dollar’

HomeMediaDH | Solicitor-General says Buncampers ‘only had eyes for almighty dollar’

 

Joint Court rules in appeal October 15 | | Daily Herald

PHILIPSBURG–Former politician Maria Buncamper-Molanus (51) and her husband, high-ranking civil servant at the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Claudius Buncamper (55), maintained their innocence during Friday’s hearing of their appeals against their conviction of fraud with authentic deeds and filing of falsified tax returns.

However, the Solicitor-General considered the charges proven and said they only had eyes for their own personal gain and for the “almighty dollar.”
The Court of Appeals will give its decision October 15.

The Solicitor-General called on the Appeals Court to confirm the verdicts of the Court of First Instance, which sentenced the Buncampers on April 7, 2016, to 12 months suspended, on three years’ probation and 240 hours of community service.

Contrary to the Prosecutor in the initial case, this time the Solicitor-General did not recommend prison time. Two years ago, the Prosecutor requested 18 months imprisonment, six of which were to be suspended, on three years’ probation, for both defendants.

Reports surfaced in the media late 2010 that former Commissioner and Minister Buncamper-Molanus and her husband were allegedly involved in a dubious land deal. More than five years later, the Court of First Instance found them guilty of forgery of official documents in connection with the deal.

Two other suspects in this case were also found guilty and have been irrevocably convicted in the meantime. Notary Francis Gijsbertha, who facilitated the forgery and drafted the forged documents, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service. St. Maarten Building Supplies (SBS) N.V. owner Ivan Havertong was sentenced to three months suspended, on two years’ probation and 120 hours of community service.

‘Shadow Construction’
The alleged figurehead, or “straw man” in this case, Eco Green N.V. Director T.O.W., was acquitted of all charges, as it could not be “unequivocally” established that he had been aware of the false nature of documents he was requested to sign, or that he had been cooperating in a “shadow construction” to evade taxes. The lesser Court also did not establish that W. should have known that he had been cooperating with illegal schemes.

The issue revolves around a piece of government-owned land on Soualiga Road which the Buncampers obtained in 2005. At first, they rented the land from the Island Territory, but in 2008 they obtained the property on long-lease. Several conditions were attached to the lease, which included stipulations that the land could not be subleased or made available to third parties.

Nevertheless, the Buncampers did exactly that. Whereas the renting of leasehold land to third parties is not permitted, the Buncampers wanted to make a profit from the rental construction in such a way that they would not have to pay taxes.

They made the property available against payment to SBS, which used it for the storage of building materials. As the couple did not want to pay any tax on their additional income, a solution was needed and found with the notary’s aid in establishing “dummy holding” Eco Green.
Although on paper W. was the official director, the case file shows that the Buncampers were the factual owners, the Judge in the Court of First Instance said.

Acquitting all suspects of membership in a criminal organisation and of money laundering, on recommendation of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Court held it primarily against the defendants that they knowingly and willingly included untrue statements in official legal documents, including the commercial lease agreement between Eco Green and SBS, mortgage documents and a deed concerning the right of long lease.

The Prosecutor’s Office estimates they had earned approximately NAf. 635,000, plus a package of shares that was sold for US $1,145,000, and in using the constructions they had evaded payment of more than NAf. 80,000 in taxes. The Buncampers may therefore also be facing dispossession claims on these “illegally obtained assets,” the Prosecutor said during hearings, which took place late 2015 and early 2016.

The suspects claim the Prosecutor’s Office has it all wrong and has difficulties with the interpretation of civil law. They say there was nothing wrong with the contested constructions.

Claudius Buncamper maintained he had wanted to arrange the lease of the land in an official manner using the legal expertise of a notary. He said this in the Court of First Instance and repeated this statement in the Court of Appeals.

“Notary Gijsbertha said that the construction was totally legal and correct. I’m not a notary, but a mechanical engineer. This case has hurt me and has tarnished my reputation,” he told the three-Judge panel on Friday.

According to the Solicitor-General, the defendants should have heeded the advice of notary Faride Tjong Ajong, who was heard as a witness. “Why did the Buncampers not just approach the leaseholder, Country St. Maarten, and honestly confess that they had rented out a plot of land in contravention with the conditions?” Tjong Ajong wondered, the Solicitor-General claimed.

Falsities
She had stated that the couple might have had a case if they had submitted the ban on renting the land to a third party to the Court, because such a stipulation may limit the rights of the leaseholder too much.

However, the defendants did not turn to the Court and did not come clean about the fact that they had rented out the plot of land. Instead, “Mr. and Mrs. Buncamper, together with others, invested in an adventure of falsities, including with regard to notarial deeds,” the Solicitor-General said.
“Upon transfer of the economic ownership of the leasehold right forgery has been committed and the tax law has been violated,” he said. Through falsities in deeds it was attempted to mask that the Buncamper received untaxed rent payments from the land, and in this way gained considerable tax benefits.
The two suspects and their lawyer denied the allegations and maintained that they had no ill intentions whatsoever and did not have any knowledge that the constructions wrought by notary Gijsbertha had been in violation of the law.

Attorney-at-law Jairo Bloem told the Court that his clients had sought the legal advice of an elderly and highly experienced notary to commercially exploit the right of long lease. “This in itself was completely legal. The fact that Maria Buncamper was a politician was and is no matter. The financial transactions, among which were the lease agreement, the sale of economic rights and the filing of taxes, were legal and according to local financial customs,” he explained.

According to Bloem, his clients fell victim to seven years of criminal prosecution. “The island has three notaries. It was bad luck that they sought the legal advice of Gijsbertha, as he was wrong on several counts, despite himself being a long-established and very experienced notary. … According to Tjong Ajong, the notary did this to make money for himself.

“If my clients had gone to ‘Johnny under the Tree,’ or had made a lease agreement themselves they would not have been here today,” Bloem said in calling for his clients’ full acquittal, or their release from prosecution.

“I don’t deserve this,” the embattled former politician said in her final word. “I am still confident that at the end of the day justice will be served and that I will be declared innocent.”

Her husband said this case had “drastically changed” his life. “I will be extremely careful with every transaction in the future. I believed that when I went to the notary I was doing the right thing, … but now I will not always be considered a person of integrity,” Claudius Buncamper said in pleading for his full acquittal.

Bron: Daily Herald

2 reacties

  1. Buncamper is het grootste varken van Sint Maarten. Als het TBO daar eens in zou duiken gaan ze vinden dat hij eigenhandig elke valide poging voor een oplossing voor de giftige dump tegenhoudt als hij er niet zelf wat aan verdient. Dat is de reden waarom de dump is zoals die is. Rapporten zat. Oplossingen zat. Maar als vieze vette buncamper niks verdient gebeurt het niet. En iedereen in de regering is corrupt en gecompromitteerd en hij zit daar als een spin in het web dus hij gooit iedereen zo onder de bus. En dat is niemand het waard dus beter sera bo smoel. Een grof grof schandaal.

  2. Buncamper is het grootste varken van Sint Maarten. Als het TBO daar eens in zou duiken gaan ze vinden dat hij eigenhandig elke valide poging voor een oplossing voor de giftige dump tegenhoudt als hij er niet zelf wat aan verdient. Dat is de reden waarom de dump al jaren is zoals die is. Rapporten zat. Oplossingen zat. Maar als vieze vette buncamper niks verdient gebeurt het niet. En iedereen in de regering is corrupt en gecompromitteerd en hij zit daar als een spin in het web dus hij gooit iedereen zo onder de bus. En dat is het niemand waard dus beter sera bo smoel en vergiftig het volk.

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