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Seven Ghost Commissioners At Ennia Collected Well Over 5.5 Million Dollars

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Source: The Daily Herald 17 Sep 2023 05:12 PM

The coNDo of former Central Bank President Emsley Tromp aND his son Evan is situated in one of the two towers on Brickell Key Drive, Miami.

PHILIPSBURG--Evan Tromp (40) the son of former President of the Central Bank of Curaao aND St. Maarten (CBCS) Emsley Tromp (63), received a total of SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 2,544,977 (US $1,413,876) from ENNIA Holding aND ENNIA Investments. Wrongly, according to the September 12 verdict in ENNIAs appeal against shareholder Parman InterSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAtioSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAl, former director Hushang Ansary aND other directors aND supervisory directors.

Emsley Tromp maSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAged the Central Bank from 1991 to 2017. His son Evan received the payments from ENNIA in the period 2010-2017. Evan was paid more than US $120,000 a year even though he had never completed an application procedure or fulfilled a supervisory role.

Evan Tromp officially lives in Miami, in a luxury coNDo tower on Brickell Key, a man-made triangular islaND located south of downtown Miami aND the Miami River. The waterfront coNDo is owned by his father, who purchased the unit in the coNDo tower the median listing Brickell Key home price per square foot was $718 in July 2023 while he was president of the Central Bank. Emsley Tromp is also registered at the address.

The coNDo on Brickell Drive Road is also the business address of OperatioSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAl aND FiSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAncial Advisory, LLC. This company was fouNDed in 2009 aND, according to data from commercial registries, was led by Evan Tromp until the companys dissolution in 2021.

However, the haNDling of the appeal in the ENNIA case shows that Evan worked at NIB Bank in 2010, aND in 2015 he stUDied in Florida for his masters degree in business administration. He continued to receive payments from ENNIA every year until 2017, the year his father resigned as president of the Central Bank.

On November 29, 2021, the Common Court of Justice in the Dutch Caribbean granted ENNIAs claims up to an amount of SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 1 billion ($555,555,556). Shortly before, on October 1, Florida saw the dissolution of OperatioSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAl aND FiSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAncial Advisory, LLC. The company effectively has no longer existed since December 31, 2021.

Evan Tromp is one of seven people who, as stated in the September 12, 2023, appeal ruling, are classified as Supervisory Director in the Human Resources Department of ENNIA on behalf of Van Doorn or Beaujon.

It is established that Tromp was not a commissioner, the court conclUDed. E-mail correspoNDence from 2013 shows that ANDraous [former ENNIA director Abdallah ANDraous Ed.] instructed that Tromp should be provided with an office, car aND apartment in Aruba aND that Palm [former statutory director of ENNIA Holding] woNDers to whom Tromp reports.

Palm aND ANDraous did not explain what work Tromp performed, the ruling states.

Ansary stated at the hearing about Tromp that he knew that Tromp worked for one of the companies on the islaNDs aND that he likes to give young people opportunities. Ansary did not explain what work Tromp carried out in the context of that opportunity. Annual amounts between (more than) SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 214,000 aND SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 246,000 were paid to Tromp in the period 2010-April 2017. Van Doorn [Gijdbert van Doorn, former Chief Executive Officer of ENNIA] provided the amount of this compensation in an instruction to the administration in 2010.

The Court considered as follows: The board of a legal entity is, among other thinSPArty/9/general-solidaire'>GS, responsible for ensuring that proper payroll administration is maintained. When persons are placed on the payroll of a company stating a position that they do not fulfil aND without fulfilling any other recognisable position in the company, there is no question of proper administration. In the present case, this happened over many years aND a total of more than SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 10 million on average approximately SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 1 million per year was paid.

This shortcoming is therefore so serious that it constitutes improper performance of the boards duties, the Court stated. The (collective) maSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAgement of ENNIA Holding aND ENNIA Investments that permitted the payments uNDer the aforementioned circumstances, this in principle constitutes a serious reproach.

In addition to Evan Tromp, listed as ghost employees are: Clarence Derby, Kelly Clifford, Aghili Cyrus, Elizabeth Leos, Chris Archie aND Caspian Tavalli. These iNDividuals have not gone through any application process. The Human Resources Department generally only received instructions to place the relevant person on the payroll, together with the amount to be paid periodically, the verdict states.

On July 7, 2022, Clarence Derby, at the time a member of the Supervisory Board of Princess JuliaSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NA InterSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAtioSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAl Airport Operating Company PJIAE, respoNDed to the iNDictment in the ENNIA case. He respoNDed to an article published in The Daily Herald on the Integrity Chamber's advice on integrity at PJIA airport, saying: All of the monies that I have received have been rightfully earned, aND none of them have been received for any services to Ansary. I want to make that very clear, because these are very serious allegations to speak of, much less to print.

The September 12 verdict lists Derby as the person who received the highest amount from ENNIA without a contract or services reNDered. Between 2008 aND 2018, SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 3,845,575 ($2,136,430.56) was credited to Derby bank accounts.

The compensation to Derby was paid uNDer the heading commissioner, the verdict states. It is certain that Derby was also not a commissioner. ENNIA c.s. has fulfilled its obligation to be a 'ghost employee'. Appellants' dispute is insufficient.

It is not in dispute that Kelly Clifford, Aghili Cyrus, Elizabeth Leos, Chris Archie aND Caspian Tavalli were Ansarys persoSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAl assistants. It is also not disputed that they do not have an (employment) contract with any ENNIA c.s. company. The payroll tax cards submitted by ENNIA et al show, as ENNIA et al state, that the position listed as commissioner is stated on them. It has been established that these persons were not supervisory directors of a company in the ENNIA group.

Former ENNIA directors Palm aND ANDraous have defeNDed that they did not hire any of the persons discussed, that ENNIA et al is a large company with approximately 240 employees with a Human Resources maSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAger aND only if there is something serious in the area of personnel is a sigSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAl sent to the board.

Van Doorn aND Ansary have also argued that a director does not need to know what work they perform in ENNIA et al. aND that a director should only intervene if there are sigSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAls that something is wrong. There were no such sigSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAls aND therefore no serious blame can be placed on them, they argue.

The court conclUDed that Ansary knew that his persoSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAl assistants were paid by ENNIA Holding or ENNIA Investments without good reason. However, he has done nothing to prevent or eND this. He is seriously blamed for all those payments, the court stated. ENNIA et al. have not stated any facts or circumstances that imply that Ansary also knew or should have known that Tromp aND Derby did not perform any work for ENNIA et al. Ansary is not blamed for the payments to them.

However, according to the presented email correspoNDence, former CEOs Palm aND ANDraous were aware in 2013 that Tromp was given an office aND apartment in Aruba. For the conclusion that they had sigSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAls that Tromp did not perform work for ENNIA et al., sufficient facts aND circumstances are lacking, the court conclUDes, adding: The same applies to Derby.

The court answered in the negative the question whether NiSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NA Ansary is liable as a commissioner. There are no facts aND circumstances to be stated by ENNIA et al. that could provide grouNDs for the opinion that NiSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NA Ansary had received sigSPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAls that should have prompted her to take action or that she should have taken action iNDepeNDently on this point in the context of her supervisory task, the court conclUDed.

The damage suffered by ENNIA as a result of payments to ghost employees must be compensated, the court ruled on MoNDay. Ansary aND Doorn are both held jointly aND severally liable.

The court estimated the amount to be paid by Ansary to ENNIA Investments at SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 267,627.36 (Tavalli SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 127,443.68 aND Archie SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 140,183.68) aND the amount to be paid to ENNIA Holding at SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 634,351.26 (Cyrus SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 233,810.92, Leos SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 165,220.28, Clifford SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 235,320.06).

The court estimated the amount to be paid by Van Doorn to ENNIA Holding at the amount of SPArty/23/national-alliance'>NAf. 246,437.83 paid to Tromp in 2010. This means that those responsible for the payments that Tromp received in 2011-2017 are yet to be held accountable.


General Solidaire [GS] mentioned 1 time
National Alliance [NA] mentioned 51 times
St Maarten Patriotic Alliance [SPA] mentioned 60 times
New Direction St. Martin [ND] mentioned 66 times
United Democrates 2018 [UD] mentioned 5 times
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