Candidate minister files complaint against interim president Central Bank

WILLEMSTAD - Candidate minister Neysa Schoop-Isenia has sued and threatened the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS), and in particular acting President Leila Matroos-Lasten, with a complaint and claim for damages.

This in connection with the ad interim President's making available to the Minister of Finance Kenneth Gijsbertha a memorandum on Schoop-Isenia from 2014. The attorney of the intended minister speaks about 'extremely negative statements' made by the CBCS in in the context of the screening procedure.

Incidentally, the Central Bank does not count as an advisory body as referred to in the screening law. However, Matroos-Lasten has forwarded a memo about Schoop-Isenia and thereby expressed an opinion on the suitability for a ministerial position, according to lawyer Michael Bonapart.

According to him, these are unilateral internal notes that the CBCS had prepared in 2014 about Schoop-Isenia. At the time, she was Assistant Managing Director Finance at Girobank, which has been under the emergency regulation since December 2013. The memorandum contains serious accusations, suggestive statements and factual inaccuracies that the CBCS had never previously made known to Schoop-Isenia, for instance for rebuttal.

The notes have been drawn up within the framework of the National Ordinance on Banking and Credit Supervision (Ltbk), but this law imposes a duty of confidentiality on the Central Bank. Even if CBCS top executive Matroos-Lasten had been approached outside the screening law for a position on the candidate minister, she would still not have been able to accept that special assignment.

Schoop-Isenia has been asked by MAN to become Minister of Economic Development.




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