St. Maarten Private Eye

Regis:"And the winner is.... Henri Brookson. Come on down here Henri and take the hot seat, let's see if you can answer the questions and climb all the way to the top for the jackpot!"

[Applause]

Henri's Self Enrichment Program Below.

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Entering himself into 'Who want's to be a Millionaire' is fast becoming Henri's best chance of reaching that goal, as more details emerge about his dealings with the local government and with the EWE BV company. Henri has been on the radio a few times recently with his buddy 'Toby', like a comedy duo on tour, harping on that Emilio wanted to sell his property and really didn't care much what happened to it. Poor old Toby, too dense to realise he is being led along by Henri.

Toby is of course mentioned in Emilio's will and stands to receive a not inconsiderable sum of money if and when the estate is sold. I believe Henri Brookson is not in the will. The total monies to be paid out in Emilio's will is about 1.8 million nafs ($1 million US).

Now, if the estate is preserved then it is quite likely that the govt is going to have to, or should find a way to purchase it, meaning those in the will would get their money, Toby included. However, for Henri the gains are much higher if he can get the permits and pull off the deal. How much higher? Well......

First of all, this is Henri's project from the start, who knows when he first started thinking about it, but it is his 'baby'. What he did was make a deal with the EWE BV in that he would obtain right's to purchase the property ($4.1m), arrange the permits and then sell it to the BV for a bit less ($3.8m) than he had arranged to buy it, keeping a nice plot for himself. It would appear he would be getting an interest free loan on the plot from the BV. You might be wondering how would Henri pay back a rather big loan of about $300,000 on a school priniciple's salary?

(Henri continually claims that he has 'bought' the property, when there is NO record of such a sale or transfer of property as required by law. He should be asked to prove his claims.)

As it happens, this plot of land is only a small part of the 'package' Brookson has planned with EWE BV. The second part is that Henri would essentially set himself up as estate agent for the property lots, making a nice little sum on each sale. An exclusive contract to sell all all housing lots at 6% commission. (Worth at least 1.5 million - 200.000 square meter @ average of US$ 125 a sq meter I assume.) Not bad eh?

Also included is a very handsome bonus plan (50K - 100K) upon achieving sales targets, US$ 6000,- per month advance payment on commissions and to round it all off nicely, an offer to participate in the capital of the company (become a shareholder) against payment of share value. This means Henri shares in the overall profits of the development and would have a job offer in management against additional salary to be agreed upon.

In return Henri is selling the estate (which he does not own) and will acquire all required permits. This deal was signed in July 2005 in Holland when Henri was a Minister in Federal Government and supposed to serve the interest of the people of the Netherlands Antilles who paid his salary. Instead he served his own interest and committed to get permits for a company he will participate in and which will pay him a very handsome compensation worth millions.

This is what Henri is not telling people when he goes on the radio and what may eventually come back to bite him very hard on the ass. All it takes is one prosecutor to notice this curious fact and Henri may find himself under investigation for abusing his position and office for personal gain.

Meanwhile, EWE BV, after hearing about the permit refusal and upon getting copies of the objection letters, sent out this letter to all those who had submitted one. In it they reveal that EVE BV had been offered the estate in 2004, most likely from Brookson it seems. The Lt. Governor appears to have picked out the location for the new official residence before April 2005, 4 months before the project became public with a permit request published in the papers.

They are also saying they have bought the estate, contradicting Brookson, again with no record of any sale being registered in the Netherlands Antilles. They also attack government, claiming that the refusal of the permit is a 'political' decision and that right up until the publication of the notice in September last year there was only enthusiasm from Govt for the project, then it suddenly stopped.

The reason for this is because the DP saw a good deal, land for link 7, a new governors house and part of the property preserved and restored. No doubt there were a few more 'trifles' hidden away in there too. They gave absolutely NO THOUGHT to the historical, cutural, environmental or even social value of the estate and only made aware of it by the public outcry. (remember Fort Amsterdam?) Elections were coming up. They had no choice but to back out and pass a resolution. A resolution that the media should be asking about. What is the status of their report, 3 man committee and investigations on purchasing and preserving the estate?

EWE appear to be determined to press on with their plans and have expressed an invitation to all those who objected to meet with them in the coming month. Yeah right, as any of them would be interested in talking to the people who wrote the letter. If any are considering to meet with the BV people then they should be aware it would be a huge mistake and putting their credibility and reputation on the line.

For those interested in reading the Govt EWE permit refusal document, just click the link, it is in Dutch. If anyone cares to translate it, or parts of it, then I am sure you would earn the gratitude of many, including myself.

One last thing. Roy's excuse for continuing to withhold the archaeological report will become irrelevant once EWE BV gets a copy of it and you can be quite sure they will, most probably through LOB. They have the money for the lawyers.

Local Hero

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