WILLEMSTAD - A court-appointed expert will soon begin determining the “fair value” of Mullet Bay in relation to a major legal case involving the American owner of Ennia, Hushang Ansary, and former Ennia directors Ralph Palm and Abdallah Andraous. According to a court order, each of the individuals must deposit a third of an advance payment of $73,500—amounting to $24,500 each—by December 10th, before the expert can proceed with the valuation.
The appointed expert, Greg Becker, works with Colliers International Valuation and Advisory Services in West Palm Beach, Florida, and will be tasked with determining the value of Mullet Bay as of December 31st for the years 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018. This process follows a provisional ruling issued on September 12, 2023, in a large-scale liability case initiated by the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) on behalf of Ennia.
The case involves Ansary, Palm, Andraous, as well as other defendants including Nina Ansary, Hushang Ansary’s daughter and former Ennia commissioner, former Ennia director Gijsbert van Doorn, and Parman International BV, the entity through which Ansary held the shares in Ennia.
The court’s provisional ruling established liability for damages resulting from significant financial withdrawals, including dividend payouts. However, the court deemed it necessary to first determine the value of Mullet Bay—Ennia’s largest asset on Sint Maarten—since it was significantly overvalued in previous financial reports, thereby obscuring the actual financial position of Ennia. Mullet Bay's inflated valuation contributed to misleading the CBCS and Ennia regarding the company’s financial health.
The decision to sell Mullet Bay has been made to compensate Ennia policyholders who were impacted by the financial mismanagement. The governments of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, along with the CBCS, have committed hundreds of millions of dollars for the funding of a combined settlement and restructuring of Ennia.
The court has instructed Becker to use cadastral data and a report from Cushman & Wakefield (September 27, 2018) to assess the size and value of Mullet Bay. The expert must apply the “International Financial Reporting Standard 13 Fair Value Measurement” when conducting the valuation.
Work on the case will only commence once the advance payments from Ansary, Palm, and Andraous are deposited into the court’s account at Banco di Caribe. Additionally, Ennia (via the CBCS) has been ordered to provide the necessary documents to the expert by December 10th.
The final report from the expert is expected to be submitted within four months.
