Aruba Telecomms Official Sentenced to Prison for Bribery Scheme

A bribery scheme beginning in 2005 and operating up until 2016 was finally shut down by a Federal Judge in Miami, Florida.  An official of Aruba’s state-owned telecomms company was sentenced to prison for three years for moving bribe money from Florida to Aruba and Panama.  Additionally, Egbert Yvan Ferdinand Koolman, was ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution for accepting bribes while working as the product manager at state-owned Servicio di Telecommunicacion di Aruba N.V. (Setar).

Koolman pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and confessed that he conspired with Lawrence W. Parker, an owner of five Florida-based telecommunications companies that won nearly $24 million in mobile-phone orders from Setar, to launder money connected to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations.

Parker pleaded guilty and was charged in December 2017 with wire fraud and sentenced to 35 months in prison for conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

 

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