Businessman acquitted of money-laundering

April 02, 2015 10:49 AM
PHILIPSBURG--The Court of Appeals on Wednesday fully acquitted Statia businessman Mauricio D. Dembrook (34) of involvement in large-scale money-laundering operations for lack of evidence.
 
Dembrook was among four persons, held for members in a criminal organisation, who were convicted of money-laundering by the Court of First Instance on November 13, 2014.
 
Main suspect Pershin I.S. Doram (32) was sentenced to six years. The other three suspects received (largely) suspended prison sentences with community service.
 
The Prosecutor's Office held Doram for a "mid-level chief" in the organisation involved with drugs, firearms and large-scale money-laundering operations, together with his brother Darrell K. Doram (24), his partner in life Renicia Y. Arrindell (29) and Dembrook (34).
 
The Court of First Instance had sentenced Dembrook to five months suspended, on two years' probation, and 120 hours of community service. On appeal, the Solicitor-General recommended the Court of Appeals to increase the community service by 20 hours.
 
The defendant had appealed his conviction as he claimed he was innocent of the charge and his lawyer Zylena Bary, who had also pointed at a number of errors made during the investigations, had pleaded for her client's full acquittal.
The Court of First Instance had found it proven that Dembrook had received US $51,000 from a co-suspect in his company's bank account around August 27, 2013, after which he had written out a US $50,000 cheque to a co-suspect.
He kept US $1,000 in his account as a reward, the Court stated.
 
Statements that the money was intended for the purchase of lumber for a construction project were dismissed as incredulous.
 
Dembrook became subject of an investigation after an invoice of his was found during a car search, in which weapons and hard drugs were found.
 
The invoice was an indication the transaction concerned an "unusual flow of money," which had led the judge of the lesser court to find the suspect guilty of money-laundering.
The Appeals Court, however, did not find it legally and co
nvincingly proven the defendant had committed a crime and that the money involved had a criminal source. The Court also said the suspect's explanation of the money's origin could not be immediately dismissed as "unlikely."
 
The Daily Herald

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