WILLEMSTAD - Emsley Tromp is appealing his sentence from earlier this month, in which he was convicted of forgery. Tromp received a suspended six-month prison sentence with a two-year probation period. The former bank president was acquitted of charges of corruption, money laundering, and another forgery charge.
While Tromp says he is satisfied with the acquittals on the main charges, he cannot accept the conviction for what he considers a relatively minor offense. According to him, accepting this conviction would unjustly tarnish his years of service to the islands and the monetary union.
The case revolves around suspicions related to the clothing company Curaçao Fashion Group (CFG). The file contains a loan agreement dated May 20, 2009, stating that Tromp borrowed an amount of over four hundred thousand dollars from CFG.
This amount was directly deposited into Tromp's pension account, but it was never proven that it was actually spent on the preparatory work of CFG. The court ruled that the loan agreement was false, but the transaction could not legally be classified as money laundering.
Public Prosecution Service
The Public Prosecution Service has indicated that if Tromp appeals, they will follow suit and also appeal. This concerns the suspicions of corruption and money laundering based on a transaction of nearly one and a half million dollars in September 2015 from the Venezuelan company Enpiso to CFG.
The Public Prosecution Service considered this payment a bribe to Tromp in connection with negotiations between the Central Bank and Banco Activo about a possible takeover of Girobank. According to the court, there was no concrete evidence of Tromp's involvement in the transaction.
Regret
Tromp regrets the Public Prosecution Service's decision to also appeal. He had hoped that the Public Prosecution Service would accept the court's motivated acquittal and the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence for the suspicion of corruption and money laundering.
Tromp finds it incomprehensible and unfair that the Public Prosecution Service bases its decision to appeal on whether he accepts the conviction for another offense.
