The Netherlands’ Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie or “OM”) recently imposed a €525,000 ($625,000) fine against two subsidiaries of construction company VolkerWessels and a fine of €17,500 ($21,000) against a former director in connection with the payment of bribes to a high-ranking official in Sint Maarten. According to the OM, Volker Construction International BV and Volker Stevin Caribbean NV paid bribes to an unnamed Sint Maarten official in order to win a contract for the construction of the 700-meter-long Causeway Bridge in Sint Maarten. The contract was reportedly obtained after the subsidiaries promised to make bribe payments, through an intermediary, to a former deputy who eventually became minister of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Development, the Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) – a person that “wielded considerable influence on the island.”
According to the OM, Sint Maarten prosecutors reached a settlement with the intermediary in March 2019 – a key witness who confirmed that “ there was only one boss on the island” and who identified the boss as the unnamed civil servant in question. He further confirmed that if the civil servant had not been paid, the two subsidiaries would not have received new contracts. The intermediary also revealed that the civil servant demanded that the subsidiaries pay him 2 percent of the total contract price of $43 million. He also admitted to concealing the bribe payments in various ways, including secretly meeting with the civil servant in parking lots where he was repeatedly paid in cash “disguised in newspapers and drawings.”
The OM reported that, to date, it has prosecuted three “de facto executives” in connection with the scheme, two of which were fined in October 2025. A third executive – a director who received no personal financial benefit in the scheme – appeared in court on January 19, 2026. According to OM prosecutors, the director is accused of failing to take sufficient measures to prevent and end the bribery scheme.