PHILIPSBURG:--- The Acting Head of St. Maarten Foreign Affairs Department Khalilah Peters allegedly gave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guyana the green light to conduct what could potentially be international money laundering between St. Maarten and Guyana without realizing that if that is the case she can be held liable for breaching the agreement St. Maarten has with the Kingdom on Foreign Relations.

Peters allegedly authorized the Guyana General Consul of Barbados Michael Brotherson to visit St. Maarten to conduct consular services to nationals of Guyana residing on St. Maarten. Brotherson came to St. Maarten last week Saturday and left the island with an unknown amount of money on Wednesday which allegedly was not declared, additionally the one percent tax on US currency that is charged at banks was not deducted since Brotherson and a small group of Guyanese nationals that have been conducting consular services on the island allegedly do not have a bank account on St. Maarten for their monetary transactions.

Brotherson came to St. Maarten twice in just over one month to provide consular services, yet he did not call a meeting with the Guyanese population living on St. Maarten. A small advertisement was placed in the classified section of one of the local newspapers informing Guyanese nationals that the Guyanese General Consular of Barbados would have been on the island to offer consular services. Those services were offered in one of the rooms at Maho Resort.

Brotherson was receiving assistance from Vanessa Frazer, one of the two persons the consul of Antigua gave written authorizations to act on his behalf. However, just over a year ago the Ambassador of Guyana in a letter to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs of St. Maarten stated that neither of the persons were authorized by Guyana to provide consular services on St. Maarten even though the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guyana was dealing with one Diane Douglas through the back door for her to grant the much needed services to Guyanese nationals on St. Maarten. In that letter the Ambassador made clear that the consul on Nevis was also not authorized to conduct consular work for Guyana nationals residing on St. Maarten. Since then Douglas stopped offering the services she was providing, yet she is plagued by Guyanese nationals who gave their passports to the authorized persons and are having problems getting their documents back.

SMN News reporter called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Guyana on Wednesday who confirmed that they got written permission from Peters for Brotherson to visit the island to conduct consular services. A senior employee of Guyana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also clearly stated that the only person authorized to provide consular services on St. Maarten is the General Consular of Barbados Micheal Brotherson who is also a resident of that island. The senior civil servant further stated that Brotherson is veteran diplomat who has over 20 years of experience. However, the well versed "diplomat" chose to conduct his consular services in secrecy in one of the rooms of Maho Resort. One would expect that a veteran diplomat like Brotherson would establish all that is needed to do monetary transactions between two countries but instead of following proper procedures Brotherson did the same thing the other consul and his aides were doing over the years.

Members of the defunct Guyanese St. Maarten Foundation paid a visit to Brotherson at the Maho Resort and were told by Brotherson that he was on St. Maarten to conduct an assessment in order for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to appoint a consul on St. Maarten, but the Vice President of the defunct foundation Neville Mars said he was shocked when he went back to the Resort to meet Brotherson and witnessed what he considered a shady operation in one of the rooms of Maho Resort. Mars said that Brotherson basically brushed him aside and refused to allow him to go into the room because there were people in his room doing business with the assistance of Vanessa Fraser. Fraser, he said is a member of the Foundation who is currently unemployed and he warned her that what she was doing was illegal because the Guyanese Diplomat was not following basic and legal procedures."In fact he is holding state funds in his hotel room, conducting of state affairs has to take place in a public place with proper security measures but what the Guyanese Diplomats were doing is totally illegal and they can be held accountable for money laundering." Mars said when the Guyanese St. Maarten Foundation was established some years ago they are the ones who took the initiative to bring a Guyana Consul to St. Maarten because Guyanese nationals were having a hard time getting their documents. Besides that, there is a large Guyanese population on St. Maarten that was being exploited. Mars said the intention back then was for a consul from other islands to visit St. Maarten to provide the much needed service until the Guyana Ministry of Foreign Affairs appoints a consul here but they were unable to get that done because the consuls that come to St. Maarten decided they would exploit the Guyanese on St. Maarten instead of helping them.

Mars further explained that his late friend who was the President of the Guyanese St. Maarten Foundation tried his best to have the Guyanese Government appoint a consul here on St. Maarten because there is a large Guyanese population on St. Maarten and this person would also have been able to provide services to Guyanese nationals living in the BES islands and Anguilla. Mars further explained that the former President of Guyana refused to appoint a consul on St. Maarten because he claimed that in order for him to do that he would have to go through the Netherlands and for him (Guyana's former President) that procedure would have been too lengthy.

SMN News contacted Brotherson on Wednesday with several questions pertaining to his visit to St. Maarten and if he had met with the Government of St. Maarten. During the first phone conversation on Wednesday Brotherson claimed he met with the Government of St. Maarten and he did not just walk into St. Maarten to work. Later that same day, SMN News confronted Brotherson when SMN News reporter verified with at least four Ministers to see if they were aware of Brotherson's presence on the island. During the second phone conversation Brotherson said he met "with some people" at the Department of Foreign Affairs and they are aware of what he was doing on St. Maarten.

It should be noted that while St. Maarten is a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands matters relating to Foreign Relations remain under the authority of the Kingdom. The only authority the Bureau of Foreign Affairs of St. Maarten has is to execute the decisions taken by the Kingdom. Since the island became a country there has been no change in the constitutional agreements St. Maarten has with the Netherlands regarding Foreign Relations. SMN News also dispatched a letter to the Prime Minister of St. Maarten Sarah Wescot Williams and Deputy Prime Minister Dennis Richardson alerting them to the situation. SMN News also dispatched a letter to the Ambassador of Guyana raising several questions but up to the time this article is published the Guyanese Ambassador did not respond to the letter sent to her by SMN News reporter. SMN News also sent the letter and email to Office of the President of Guyana asking for an inquiry to take place.
Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson told SMN News that he will discuss the matter with the Council of Ministers as early as Monday.