Searches were conducted at a property in The Bottom and another in Zion’s Hill in Saba on Wednesday morning, Au­gust 25, in connection with an ongoing fraud investigation. Under the supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, the National Detectives (“Rijksrecher­che”) have, for some time, been conducting a criminal investi­gation concerning fraud in Saba, the Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday.

Within the framework of the investigation, searches were con­ducted under the supervision of the examining magistrate in co­operation with the Caribbean Netherlands Police Force KPCN and the Kingdom Detective Cooperation Team RST in Saba. Documents, data carriers and other items were seized during the searches for investigation purposes.

Due to the ongoing investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office did not provide more information about this case. However, it is understood that it involves former head of distribution at Saba Electric Company (SEC) J.R., who is under suspicion of forg­ery, fraud and theft of company property.

SEC dismissed R. with immediate effect in a letter on Decem­ber 1, 2020. “This is because you have falsely favoured a com­pany of your friend at the expense of SEC,” the utility company said in the letter.

R., who had worked for SEC for 31 years, is suspected of hav­ing approved six invoices from a local construction company that charged SEC for work it had not done. The work had actu­ally been done by SEC’s own employees. The invoices had been created on R.’s work computer.

The Daily Herald.