Today’s report on an Asset Recovery Team for St. Maarten probably won’t please persons who make money in a manner that can’t see the light of day. While it may not be possible to immediately prove their guilt in court, the law allows for the seizure of property believed to have been acquired or financed through illicit means.
The person(s) involved must then prove how they got such in a legitimate way. If not, the assets will be auctioned with the proceeds going to the Crime Fund used mostly for delinquency prevention projects.
It may seem a bit harsh to basically pluck someone dry without going to trial and that was certainly one of the initial reactions when a similar “Take Away Team” started operating in Curaçao some time ago. However, the intention is to target only obviously suspect cases, not people who seemingly inherited or fairly earned their material wealth.
The bottom line is that “crime should not pay,” as Justice Minister Rafael Boasman said, calling it a win-win situation. He did warn that the required cooperation between the Prosecutor’ Office, the Police Force, Customs, the Coast Guard, the Tax Inspectorate and Social and Health Insurance SZV might not be so easy, as each has different goals and style of doing things, which calls for compromise.
Nevertheless the approach is considered essential to effectively combat modern-day organised crime, including corruption, drug-trafficking, human-smuggling, money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. While – like all law enforcement tools – this new weapon must, of course, be used judiciously, offenders had better beware: They might not be able to catch everyone red-handed, but can still hit them where it hurts most: in their pockets.
