WILLEMSTAD - Friday, September 27, the court of first instance ruled in the Troja case. The court considers that six suspects are guilty of swiping Venezuelan credit cards in exchange for US dollars over a period of four and a half years.

They have used fake invoices and fake receipts. With this it was pretended that clothing had been sold, while in reality there was only swiping. They have also violated the National Ordinance on Money Transaction Offices.

The suspects laundered the money they earned by spending it. Their earnings varied from around fifty thousand to five million dollars. The court imposed conditional prison sentences on suspects ranging from 3 to 24 months, depending on the amount of money laundered. Various amounts of money and a home have also been confiscated.

The penalties are conditional, since the swiping in Curaçao was a generally accepted phenomenon, which happened in all openness, while the authorities remained passive. This could - albeit wrongly - give the impression that it was not as bad as the punishability of swiping and that it could grow unrestrained, also because of the benefits it brought to the island.

Money is taken from the suspects, ranging from one hundred thousand to four and a half million guilders. These were the proceeds from the swiping, after deduction of the costs. In the event of non-payment, this will be replaced by detention from three months to three years, depending on the amount.