SXMElections.com

St. Maarten – The Judge of Instruction will handle the request by United People’s party candidate Maria Buncamper-Molanus to terminate a possible criminal investigation against her on Monday afternoon. The hearing takes place behind closed doors. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has consistently declared since December 2010 that it intends to investigate possible criminal aspects of a lease land deal Buncamper and her husband Claudius did in 2008. However, after repeated assurances that this investigation would take place, Buncamper-Molanus is still left in uncertainty. For this reason, the former minister of public health has finally decided to go to court to force a decision. The prosecutor’s office indicated last week that it is still of the opinion that there is no reason not to prosecute. In 2008, Buncamper-Molanus and her husband obtained a piece on land on Pond Island in long lease against an annual lease canon of $10,000. Eight months later, they sold the economic ownership of the land for $3 million to the bogus company Eco Green NV that was established three days before the deal. Oniel Walters, a retired employee of Public Works where Claudius Buncamper was in charge, was on paper the director of Eco Green. In December 2010, Today broke the story about the transaction. When Buncamper-Molanus stepped down as Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor on December 23, she said that “no money had changed hands.” However, the notarial deed drawn up by notary Gijsbertha stated that Eco Green had paid $1.6 million on the day it was signed and that the rest would be paid in 90 monthly installments of $18,750. Opposition leader William Marlin said at the time in an interview with Today that the deal smelled of money laundering. “Our question is: does this transaction not constitute money laundering?’ He said in an interview this newspaper published on December 18, 2010. After an absence from politics for the past 3.5 years, Buncamper-Molanus now attempts to make a comeback as the number 21 candidate on the list of the United People’s party. In 2010, she was still a member of the Democratic Party. Maria Buncamper-Molanus mentioned 6 times
William Marlin mentioned 1 time

Democratic Party [DP] mentioned 1 time
United People's Party [UPP] mentioned 2 times