Ghost employee Derby has to pay millions to Ennia – StMaartenNews.com – News Views Reviews

PHILIPSBURG — The Court in First Instance sentenced Clarence Derby, the former manager of The Towers at Mullet Bay to pay insurance company Ennia more than $2.1 million for payments he received without a legal basis between 2008 and 2018. The amount consists of unlawfully paid salaries and legal costs.

Derby started working for Sun Resorts in 1973. Fifty years later, on January 18, 2023, Sun Resorts placed Derby on non-active duty and stopped paying his salary.

Derby stated in court that he received a monthly payment of just over $14,900 from Sun Resorts and that part of this amount (around $9,600) was paid by Ennia. He said that he had three functions: General Manager of Sun Resorts and The Towers and Senior Vice-President of Sun Resorts.

He contested Ennia’s claim of 3,845,575 guilders ($2,148,366) saying that he had received only something like 1.8 million ($1,005,587). The court established that taxes and premiums due on the payments to Derby had been paid to the tax inspectorate in Curacao and that he is liable for the total amount.

Ennia’s attorney Pieter Soons told the court that Derby was a confidante of Hushang Ansary, the majority shareholder of Parman International. “He was a ghost employee who did not work for Ennia.” He also noted that Parman shareholders had withdrawn more than 223 million guilders ($124,581) from Ennia and that they had saddled the company with excessive costs.

In 2006 Hushang Ansary became the new owner of insurance company Ennia through his company Parman International. He also held the shares in Sun Resorts and he was the only statutory director of this company. Sun Resorts is the owner of Mullet Bay.

In 2005 and 2006 Parman injected capital to the tune of 98.5 million guilders in Banco di Caribe. After the bank issued shares, Parman kept 79.88 percent of them. The Banco di Caribe shares were delivered for a paper value of 100 million guilders to Ennia Holding, thus obtaining a stake of 22.5% percent in Sun Resorts.

Ennia Caribe Investments was established on July 22, 2006. Through several transactions it obtained a stake of 93 percent in Sun Resorts.

Ennia booked Mullet Bay for a (contested) value of $430 million in its administration.

The attorney for Ennia informed Derby in December 2022 that there was no legal basis for the payments made to him. There was no labor contract and not an contractors agreement either. On February 22, 2023, Ennia demanded repayment of the money Derby received between 2008 and 2018.

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Related articles:
ENNIA dossier
Mullet Bay dossier

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