St. Maarten Private Eye

The Today is making noticeable progress indeed. The article referred to is however only interesting in terms of portraying a lack of understanding what trust offices do. Anybody with a little more than basic knowledge of the business environment in the Dutch Antilles knows that trust offices make money by acting as directors for all kinds of companies. It is not uncommon for a company like Air-fin Holding to be represented by a trust office. There are tons of legitimate reasons to do so. The HB Management office mentioned in the Today article is such a trust office. It acts as director for hundreds of companies. It could very well be that internet gambling houses are amongst those they represent. To suggest that Air-Fin is thus connected with Internet gambling is ridiculous. A blunder.

There are many other aspects of Air-Fin that could have been researched and exposed. But you need to know what to look for and for that you need reporters with more than a basic knowledge of this society. That is still lacking with the Today and the TDH. The article about Air-Fin is a good example. It pretends to be the discovery of a large conspiracy. In reality it is dust.

Don't be discouraged by this blunder but learn from it. We all make mistakes. Instead the paper could and should focus on a track-record of the Air-Fin companies. Did they operate water plants? Do they have a track-record and if so how was their performance? If not, why would the Island engage them? Also the year the Sint Maarten Air-Fin Company was formed is interesting to know. It could very well be that the Sint Maarten company was formed just for the purpose of acquiring this contract against a nice fee for ... yes right. Who else.

It was suggested on this site that there has never been a public tender. The Today could have researched this too. They still can. Ask questions to RM and Barendsen but also current supplier Enerserve. Tell us about this tender. Who subscribed to it and why was Air-Fin chosen. What criteria were used?

And then the mysterious return of Barendsen. He retired some 7 years ago when he sold Enerserve to Veolia (formerly Vivendi) the world largest water company. He moved to Europe but why does he come back to Sint Maarten at age 70 to run another waterplant? Set up the plant maybe and sell again to one of the large water giants of the world like Veolia, Suez or Thames Water who are all scrambling to take over water systems around the planet.

All circumstances considered, the choice for Air-Fin deal does not make sense at all. Except of course if it is another Sint Maarten money making thing for the happy few. But with a little investigative reporting it must be easy to expose more abnormalities and torpedo this deal to the far depths of our surrounding waters.