WILLEMSTAD - Almost fourteen years after the raid on the castle of the much-discussed millionaire and oil baron John Deuss in Berg en Dal due to an investigation into large-scale tax fraud, this week his First Curaçao International Bank (FCIB) has settled for an unknown amount with the Public Prosecution Service (OM) in Curaçao.
According to the OM, the bank, of which John's sister Tineke was the director, acts as a hub for criminal entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom who have scammed the British government for € 7.5 billion with the help of VAT carousel fraud. Justice is tracking his bank because a striking number of VAT fraudsters were found to be holding an account with FCIB based in Curaçao. It is not unlikely that the balances on their FCIB accounts belong to the bank balances that were confiscated this week by the judicial authorities and that are likely to be closed soon.
Pyromania
The 77-year-old businessman Deuss, who was born in Amsterdam started his working life as a dealer in Japanese cars but after the bankruptcy of his Dutch automobile factory he moved to the oil trade: JOC (Johns Own Company), which was later renamed to the slightly more professional sounding Trans World Oil. Initially, John mainly sold Russian oil, but when an international oil boycott was proclaimed against the South African apartheid regime in the late 1970s, Deuss jumps on behalf of some Saudi producers in meeting the oil needs that arose there. It gave him trouble with the militant group "Pyromania against Apartheid", which set fire to his castle in Berg en Dal in the Netherlands.
Close bond
Deuss withdrew to the tax-friendly island of Bermuda and sets up the FCIB for his growing business empire, which received a full banking license from the central bank in Curaçao. In the years that follow, he also got other bank customers and at the same time he built a close bond with the president of the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS).
Manhunt
At the start of the fraud investigation in 2006 in Deuss's home country Bermuda, a true manhunt was opened for him, which would not have been out of place in the film classic Die Hard. Immediately after issuing his arrest warrant as a suspect of receiving stolen goods, money laundering and leading a criminal organization, half the police force of the islet (Vlieland is four times larger) pulled out one of their richest inhabitants and arrested him to deliver to the Netherlands. But Bermuda would not be Bermuda if Deuss hadn't disappeared in a spooky way before the police cars with flashing lights arrived. The mystery was already unraveled a few days later when it appeared that he had simply hidden in the shed where normally the pilots of his private aircraft were staying. Against payment of a ten-million-dollar deposit, he went home after a weekend of humming in a tight police cell in Bermuda's capital Hamilton.
Amstel Hotel
A week later, upon arrival at Schiphol, the banker was once again arrested and held for two months in pre-trial detention at the instructions of the then public prosecutor Hendrik Jan Biemond (now a partner at Allen & Overy and PvdA councilor in Amsterdam). Even then the hunt continued: during his custody, the police raided a hotel room in the chic Amstel Hotel to collect evidence against Deuss, since a - likewise suspected - American business partner of Deuss was staying there.
In 2013, John and his sister Tineke and FCIB finally reached a settlement with the Dutch judiciary for a fee of € 35 million, placing him in the top 10 of the largest settlements in the Netherlands. Added to this with the current settlement in Curaçao, his position in that list has been strengthened.
