WILLEMSTAD - As was reported before, Venezuelan citizen Luis Correa has been involved in several construction projects on the island involving millions of dollars. Projects that seemed to be worthwhile investing in. These have never really been completed or even started while millions of dollars were trusted to this man. One such project is the so-called airport hotel on a property owned by Curaçao Airport Holding (CAH). As everything else touched by Luis Correa, this too became nothing leaving behind defrauded investors who will never see their money again.

In a document by the International Court of Arbitration, the case between the companies owned by Luis Correa, Seamax Foundation, and Golden Investment Private Foundation (Golden), and those who invested in the construction of the hotel, under the name Bridgetown Procurement Services, is very well explained. Curaçao Chronicle is in possession of this document.

Golden is registered at the Curaçao Chamber of Commerce. According to that registration, the founder and director is Seamax. Seamax is a legal entity incorporated under the laws of Panama by Mosaique Holdings, Inc. This company is domiciled in Panama. According to the documents seen by Curaçao Chronicle, Correa is the ultimate beneficial owner of Seamax and related entities.

All that is left on the property were the Curaçao Airport Hotel was going to be constructed. 

The company that is the actual investor in the Curaçao Airport Hotel is Bridgetown. This company is registered in Barbados. The initial agreement was that Bridgetown would hold the 50% beneficial interest in Golden for the project that was to be executed in Curaçao.

On January 8, 2018, Golden and Curaçao Airport Holdings signed a lease agreement regarding the site near the Curaçao International Airport to construct the hotel. There were several requirements for the granting of this long lease, such as the construction must commence no later than six months as from the date of the issue of the building permit. The entire construction project can take no more than three years.

On February 24, 2016, Giro Bank wrote to Golden that it is interested to provide financing for the project, but that this letter is not a financing commitment. That would be subject to Giro Bank’s internal due diligence and approval of its credit committee. Giro Bank requested additional information from Correa.

In March of that year, Correa approached Bridgetown with the business proposal for the construction of the hotel. Correa indicated in his plan that he would need about 9.5 million dollars for the project. But an initial payment of 1.5 million dollars must be done and cash flow of more than 2 million dollars as working capital. According to Correa, the rest of the funds would be obtained from a financial institution, in this case most probably the Giro Bank.

Luis Correa living the good life in Miami while his investors are still figuring out how to get their money back.

On July 4, 2016, Bridgetown paid 200,000 dollars to Correa. From October 27 through December 2016, Bridgetown made payments of, in total, 1.3 million dollars to Correa as well. The total payment from the investment company to Correa was 1.5 million dollars. On March 14 and 15, 2017 representatives of Seamax, Golden and Bridgetown met in Curaçao to discuss Golden’s governance, the reengineering, the design, and costs of the project.

In a letter dated March 28, 2017, Golden informed CAH that they have started the construction of the hotel. Golden indicated several activities and dates in their letter as proof of their work. CAH replied to Correa on April 4, 2017, that they cannot give approval to the start of the construction. This is because several of the agreed requirements have not been met by Correa’s company. One of the requirements that was not yet met was the proof confirming the availability of the funds in relation to the realization of the project. CAH also wanted to know if the investment is in accordance with the business plan presented by Correa.

On May 2, 2017, Bridgetown demanded from Correa, a transfer of 50% of the beneficial interest in Golden as was agreed before. The investment company also demanded that they have their representative in the managing board, change of articles of association, delivery of proof of bank financing commitment, and rendering account on how the initial investment of 292,000 dollars was spent.

Meanwhile, Golden was negotiating with the development bank Korpodeko which was demanding 40% of personal investment from the project developers. Golden then indicated to Bridgetown that besides the initial loan, they also had to help find 50% of the financing for the hotel. But Golden has not complied with any of the agreements made with Bridgetown, CAH or Korpodeko. In a letter to Golden, Bridgetown accused Luis Correa of a lack of cooperation and breach of the signed MoU, which after repeated reminders was never materially cured. For this reason, Bridgetown dissolved the MoU on October 6, 2018.

This case was presented to a sole arbitrator in The Hague, and its findings was that Golden/Seamax owned by the Venezuelan Luis Correa did not comply with the MoU. The arbiter agreed with the following breaches of the MoU by Seamax/Golden; the far too late involvement of Bridgetown as director in and beneficiary of Golden, insufficient and timely involvement of Bridgetown in acquiring financing of the project, and not rendering proper account of how the initial investment of 292,000 dollars was spent.

Curaçao Chronicle interviewed the owners of the construction company that was initially hired for the project, Constructora RB21 CA and they too indicated that Luis Correa never properly showed how he used the funds provided by Bridgetown. All the invoices that Correa presented as proof were debts he had to pay to creditors from his other project, Piscadera Harbor Village Resort. This is also another failed project in which Correa defrauded several investors.

In this case, Luis Correa has defrauded investors who were willing to invest their money in Curaçao. Investors who believed in the island and were willing to invest in major projects which could have been beneficial for Curaçao.