Port St. Maarten – The St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies has become aware of a press release of Zebec Development N.V. dated 20 August 2014, in which Zebec states that it has filed a claim against the Harbour and its director, Mark Mingo, for more than USD 100 million.
The Harbour considers this claim to be wholly without merit and will defend the claim vigorously before the St. Maarten Courts. The Harbour has complete confidence in the positive outcome of these proceedings.
The Harbour wishes to express its regret over the fact that Zebec has chosen to abandon the project after the Harbour invested significant time and funds, inter alia for preparing the development land for the project.
The Harbour will now seek alternative opportunities to develop the land for the benefit of St. Maarten, its economy and its people. Also, the Harbour will investigate the options to recover its damages from Zebec.
Furthermore, although it is not the policy of the Harbour to discuss such matters in public, the Harbour wishes to refute the blatant misrepresentation of facts in Zebec’s press release.
Contrary to Zebec’s allegations, the Harbour never failed to honour signed agreements between the parties. On the contrary, the Harbour has repeatedly given Zebec the opportunity to proceed with the project.
Zebec, however, has not been able to progress beyond the initial phase of the project even though some two and a half years have passed since the signing of the development agreement.
Furthermore, Zebec has recently taken the position that it would not pursue the project anymore unless previously agreed conditions, as laid down in signed agreements, would be altered in its favour.
When the Harbour maintained the position that the project should be completed in accordance with the signed agreements, Zebec chose to abandon the project and issue a frivolous lawsuit, in an obvious attempt to shift the blame of the project’s collapse towards the Harbour, according to a statement by the harbour’s legal team.