Prosecutor Office Press Release: Three arrests in “Colade” investigation
PHILIPSBURG – On Monday, May 30, three suspects: R.L. (56), F.A.A.B. (55) and E.A.I.F. (36), were arrested following the complaint of embezzlement in employment, theft and forgery, filed by the head of the Finance Department on November 25, 2010 against employees of the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau.
They will be heard on the currently available research results. This will probably take several days, given the size of the dossier.
The National Detective Agency has been busy with a long-term investigation against the staff of the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau. In this regard, on October 15, 2015, the National Detective Bureau conducted house searches at five different locations. This investigation, called “Colade,” is now almost completed.
The long duration of the investigation is due to the fact that a lot of information had to be obtained from abroad and their analysis has taken much time. In addition, the National Detectives Department, in particular when the investigation started, had a very limited capacity, and was constantly confronted with other big investigations.
The case against a fourth suspect E.J.D. (51) in the Colade investigation has already been brought before a judge. On March 25, 2015 he was sentenced to one day in jail for complicity in the deliberate misappropriation of money or monetary instruments as an official.
The prosecution intends to present the findings of this investigation to the court in the second half of 2016.
Early Post:
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Law enforcement officers once again paid an early morning visit to the residence of Fabian Badejoe in Defiance on Monday morning.
Sources within law enforcement refused to comment on the investigation noting the early stage of it. However it was later confirmed that R.L., F.A.A.B. and E.F. were arrested.
The early morning detention of Badejoe is believed to have been carried out by the National Detective Agency (landsrecherche) of Sint Maarten with the assistance of a special team of officers from the island of Curacao.
Badejoe was detained in another early morning visit to his residence back on October 15th 2015 at which time his home and belongings were searched by the investigators.
At the time of his questioning in 2015, many other searches were also carried out by the authorities.
At that time Badejoe told our news room that he has not been charged in any investigation. He also told us that he has nothing to worry about with this investigation.
Badejoe also linked the search of his home with another investigation that saw searches being conducted on Thursday morning October 15th 2015 as well.
The authorities also made other house calls on Monday morning arresting two other suspects in the “Colade” investigation which is an ongoing criminal investigation that is related to irregularities found at the St. Maarten Tourism Office. Among the arrested is a female.
