CBCS failed in supervision task, says Dutch prosecutor

April 11, 2012 1:21 PM

ARNHEM - The former Central Bank of the Netherlands Antilles BNA, now the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS), kept insufficient supervision on Dutch wealthy oil trader John Deuss and his First Curaçao International Bank (FCIB). An accusation to this extent came from the Public Prosecutor's Office in The Netherlands during the criminal trial at the Court in Arnhem against Deuss last Friday.

Deuss (69), his sister Tineke Deuss (66) and FCIB are the main suspects in an extensive criminal case involving a multi-million tax fraud. The prosecution is seeking jail time and extensive fines for the two suspects.

According to Public Prosecutor's Office the Central Bank even paid 40 million euros to rescue FCIB when Dutch justice authorities seized 100 million euros of FCIB's reserves. The BNA was not obliged to stand guarantee for the FCIB and took a risk by doing so.

J. van der Werff, one of the three Public Prosecutors in this case, said that the BNA did not keep strict supervision on FCIB and that the institute was even "extraordinarily accommodating" towards the Dutch businessman and his bank.

The prosecutor spoke of a "close relation" between Deuss and BNA President Emsley Tromp; the latter holds the same function at the CBCS. Deuss and Tromp regularly met, but not at Tromp's office. Instead, they met at expensive hotels, often off-island.

In a press statement on Tuesday, the CBCS categorically denied the accusations of the Arnhem Public Prosecutor's Office. According to the Central Bank, the prosecution painted a "wrong" and even "factually incorrect" picture of the situation.

The Antillean Central Bank issued a full-fledged bank permit to FCIB in August 2006, two months before Dutch justice authorities raided Deuss' bank. The permit was remarkable because FCIB had a very low rating and was not functioning properly.

In 2003, the BNA ordered Deuss to stop issuing loans to his own companies as President of FCIB. Only two years later, Deuss stepped down as president and kept dealing with Tromp as Board Member. The Central Bank also did not act when it became clear that FCIB participated in a company called Global Gateways without BNA's permission.

According to Van der Werff, the Central Bank up to this day shows little interest in the FCIB-Deuss dossier. CBCS has not requested the criminal file and has not found it necessary to start its own investigation into the alleged illegal acts by FCIB.

In Tuesday's press release the CBCS contradicted that it never requested the criminal file. "The bank has complete access to the file and has taken notice of it." The Central Bank took over management of FCIB after the raid by Dutch authorities in October 2006.

By registering his bank in Curaçao, but actually operating from The Netherlands, Deuss eluded Dutch monetary supervisory laws. He fooled authorities by pretending to operate his bank from Curaçao, while in fact he ran the operation from his villa in Berg en Dal, a town close to Nijmegen in The Netherlands. Deuss did not have a permit to engage in bank operations in The Netherlands.

The prosecution has demanded a prison term of 18-months for John Deuss, of which six conditional and a 600,000 euro fine. The demand against sister Tineke was 15-months jail of which five conditional along with a 500,000 euro fine. The prosecution wants FCIB to return 100 million euro in illegally acquired profits and a fine of three million euro.

This week, the lawyers of Deuss will present their arguments after which the court in Arnhem will pronounce a verdict on May 24.

Deuss accumulated his wealth by circumventing international trade embargos through oil transactions. He started FCIB in 1973 as an "in-house" bank and established the bank in Curaçao because he stored oil there which he sold in the United States. He received his first bank permit from the BNA in 2000. In the six successive years the bank processed the astronomic amount of more than a thousand billion euro in transactions.