Treaty with Colombia on the horizon owing to Interbolsa scandal

WILLEMSTAD/BOGOTA — Demissionary Minister of Finance, José Jardim, is negotiating with his Columbian counterpart Mauricio Cárdenas a Tax Information and Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between both Curacao and Colombia, following the Interbolsa-scandal in Colombia. This scandal led to negative international publicity for Curaçao.

The major Columbian stockbroker which meanwhile was closed down, had supposedly channeled millions of dollars to Premium Capital, a company registered on Curaçao. The current investigation in Colombia is to disclose if this is true or not. According to a source, the international financial service sector on Curaçao sounded the alarm with the minister to make a statement so to prevent serious damage to the sector’s reputation on Curaçao.

Curaçao was to inform Colombia that the island is entirely willing to contribute in a transparent way with the investigations into possible irregularities. However, this requires signing a TIEA. Representatives of the sector, Minister Jardim and Prime Minister Stanley Betrian met last week. Also the embassy of the Kingdom in Bogotá is involved with the case.