Philipsburg:--- The Court of First Instance ruled in favor of the people who were victims of Christian Kingdom Cooperative (CKC) on Tuesday. The court found that the Central Bank was negligent in supervising CKC even though they knew that the operations of the bank were in jeopardy for over four years. The judge in his ruling said the Central Bank sat down and did not intervene.
The Central Bank did not respond to the court's request to show what type of measures they took when they found out that the savings of the CKC membership was in jeopardy.
The court dismissed the case that was filed against the government of St. Maarten since they found that the successor of the Central Bank also involves Curacao. Basically the joint Central Bank of the Netherlands Antilles is under Curacao and St. Maarten. However, the court issued a strong warning to the government of St. Maarten indicating to them that they can be held liable in the future if they fail to ensure that the Central Bank has an insurance in place for all banks and insurance companies on the island.
The plantiff also sent a letter to the Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt to advice the Central Bank not to appeal the verdict rendered against them. CKC declared bankruptcy in the year 2010. In the letter, one of the account holders pleaded with the government of St. Maarten to consider the type of message appealing the verdict would send to the inhabitants of St. Maarten should another bank file bankruptcy, while appealing the verdict would hinder the good governance policy.
Click here to view the Court decision rendered on October 30th, 2012 against the Central Bank.
Click here to view the letter sent to the Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt.