WILLEMSTAD, Curacao — The criminal case against former Curacao prime minister and current Member of Parliament, Gerrit Schotte, leader of the opposition party MFK, and his partner, Cicely van der Dijs, will be substantively heard over two days on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Earlier it was reported that the investigation team was not able to find all the witnesses requested by the defence. After some investigation efforts, the court ultimately decided to remove from the witness list, Alessandro La Monica, who is the legal representative of a company owned by the controversial casino boss Francesco Corallo. This took place during the discussion on the state of the investigation.
There are, according to informed sources, no more investigations needed. There is nothing now standing in the way of the trial.
The first offence that Cicely van der Dijs is accused of is forgery, namely, falsifying invoices of the company Vanddis Inc. during the period from January 1, 2010, to July 1, 2010, in Curacao and/or Italy. One invoice for the sum of $140,000 and another for more than $73,000. In contrary to the truth, it was claimed on these invoices that the company has done work for Corallo’s Italian company Betplus.
The second alleged offence is money laundering. She is accused of laundering money in the period January 1, 2010, to November 15, 2011, in Curacao, United States and/or Switzerland and/or Italy. The amount indicated by the public prosecution is $200,000.
The third charge is the possession of seven so-called jammers (devices that block phone calls). This is an offence under the Criminal Code and according to the National Ordinance on telecommunication facilities.
Schotte is charged with five offences. The first offence that he is accused of is bribery and corruption. He is accused of having accepted $140,000 and also $73,000 from Corallo during the period from January 1, 2010, to October 8, 2010, in Curacao and/or the United States and/or Switzerland. He did this as a civil servant.
These gifts were made to him so that he could favour Corallo and his companies, provide secret government information to Corallo, give Corallo influence in the Curacao government via the newly created political party MFK, ensure that Corallo would be recommended internationally on behalf of Curacao, and to ensure that Corallo or persons in his businesses would receive and important institutional function.
The second offence is forgery. He is charged with falsifying two invoices from the company Vanddis Inc. in the period of January 1 to July 1, 2010, in Curacao and/or Italy.
The third offence is money laundering. He is accused of laundering money in the period January 1, 2010, to November 15, 2011, in Curacao, United States and/or Switzerland and/or Italy. The amount indicated by the public prosecution is $200,000. This amount came through forged invoices via banks abroad to the suspect and his partner.
The fourth accusation is the possession of seven so-called jammers contrary to the Criminal Code and the National Ordinance on telecommunication facilities.
The last offence relates to forgery on April 15, 2013, in Curacao. Schotte filed a report that indicated the loss of his diplomatic passport. This report untruthfully stated that the diplomatic passport was lost, while it was found in the safe of his partner’s company Vanddis Inc.
