Loor to know
his fate today
~ Depicted as greedy millionaire policeman ~
PHILIPSBURG--Marcel Loor is facing a four-year prison sentence and a NAf. 100,000 fine for forgery, bribery, tax evasion and money laundering. The former chief immigration officer will know his fate shortly after 9:00am this (Friday) morning when Judge Luis de Lannoy will present his ruling.
Loor was self-confident and poised during Thursday’s court hearing. Before entering the courthouse he flashed the victory sign to those waiting outside, a gesture that underlined his contention that he was innocent and had nothing to fear.
Loor said at the end of the hearing that he was glad that after five months of uncertainty he finally had been able to provide clarity on the charges brought forward against him. He said he had always acted according to his conscience.
Prosecutor Maarten Hemelaar was of another opinion and considered all seven charges on the indictment proven. Loor is charged with forgery of immigration re-entry forms for 106 persons between January 1, 2002, and June 10, 2007; accepting bribes; defrauding the Coast Guard of more than NAf. 230,000 in rent allowance; income tax evasion; the forgery of requests to lower wage taxes; and money laundering.
Loor is also accused of having provided undocumented persons, among them two Colombian prostitutes, an Italian cook and an employee of a local travel agency, with so-called re-entry forms to safeguard their return to St. Maarten. In at least two cases Loor allegedly received payment of US $1,000 for his services.
The special re-entry forms were introduced during the so-called grace period for illegal residents in St. Maarten between October 2001 and February 2002, but Loor allegedly still made use of these documents, drafted outside the registration system for foreigners NAVAS, until June 2007.
He has been in pre-trial detention since his arrest on June 19.
Loor said he had done nothing wrong. “I was only willing to help,” he said, pointing to the fact that in one case a person had come to his office in tears because his girlfriend whom he was going to marry, who happened to be a prostitute, had to leave the island because her one-year work permit had expired. Loor provided the woman with a re-entry permit so she could return to St. Maarten.
However, the re-entry permits were only supposed to be issued during the grace period to those undocumented residents who had to travel abroad to obtain documents necessary to legalise their status in St. Maarten.
Judge Luis de Lannoy did not show much appreciation for Loor’s acts. “In giving out these forms you were acting as if you were sitting in the Lt. Governor’s chair,” De Lannoy said about Loor’s behaviour.
The judge didn’t have much good to say about the alleged fraud and money laundering charges either. “Seldom I have seen so much greed,” he said. “You’re like Dagobert Duck (Scrooge McDuck) counting your money in a vault.”
“You’re a policeman and a millionaire, how is that possible?” the judge asked Loor, pointing to the fact that Loor owned US $800,000, two houses in St. Johns and two pieces of land with a value of almost $500,000.
Loor is accused of having defrauded the Coast Guard of NAf. 230,000 in rent allowance for his girlfriend. His girlfriend, who was working with the Coast Guard, will also be indicted on this charge, the prosecutor announced Thursday.
According to the prosecutor, Loor’s girlfriend was not entitled to this allowance because she was not renting a house, but was actually living with Loor in a house that was his property.
Loor tried to convince the court that this had not been the case. He stated that the house, which had been rented out to his girlfriend, was not his property, but that of Santana Ltd.
Santana is a St. Kitts-based company owned by one stockholder: Marcel Loor.
The profits obtained from renting out real estate were allegedly not reported to the Tax Department, while Loor was also accused of not having filed his income tax forms over the years 2003 to 2005.
He apparently had been doing very well financially, as he made at least 60 cash deposits to the tune of US $332,275.
Loor said he could account for every dollar, but the prosecutor said he had been laundering money that had been obtained by criminal activities.
With a 50-page plea and an almost-as-lengthy request to declare the prosecutor’s case against their clients inadmissible, attorneys-at-law Richard Gibson Jr. and Klaas de Vries tried to convince the Court of Loor’s innocence.
Gibson said his client had done nothing wrong and should be acquitted of all charges. He further stated that his client’s rights had been flagrantly violated.
Gibson said his client had been the victim of a witch hunt in which Minister of Justice David Dick, Prosecutor Taco Stein and Police Chief Commissioner Derrick Holiday had made statements in the media as if his client had already been convicted.
“This is in violation of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and of basic human rights,” Gibson said.
Gibson also questioned the legitimacy of house searches, and said Loor and his girlfriend had both been pressured by police officers during his interrogation. Gibson also stated that police investigations carried out in Suriname had been illegal and that the alleged fiscal crimes should have been dealt with by the Tax Inspector. He also mentioned that the presentation of legal documents to his client had not been done according to the rules.
The judge turned down the request to declare the prosecutor’s case against Loor inadmissible and said he would present his verdict “after a good night’s sleep.” (John van Kerkhof)
