€4m Curaçao Consultancy Claim Challenged by New Figures

New financial figures have added another layer to Curaçao’s dispute over payments to Random Consulting. The company says its records do not support a claim that it was paid more than €4 million every year.

Curaçao Finance Minister Charles Cooper has been reviewing an arrangement involving Random Consulting, the firm led by former Malta Gaming Authority chief Mario Galea. Cooper previously said the consultancy was receiving XCG 8.3 million a year for work linked to the island’s gambling reforms.

15M reported on that investigation in July. The latest development concerns the company’s payment history and filed accounts rather than a new probe.

Filed Revenue Adds to the Dispute

Random Consulting says it received about €3.4 million in total between 2022 and 2025. The payments were uneven. The company says it received nothing in 2023, while the 2025 amount reached €2.5 million. Times of Malta also reported that Random Consulting recorded total revenue of €666,500 in 2023 and €1.1 million in 2024.

Those figures do not establish how much Curaçao paid under the contract. Company revenue and government payments can fall into different accounting periods, particularly when invoices are delayed. They do, however, sit well below the annual figure cited by Cooper.

Deferred Payments Could Explain Timing Gaps

Random Consulting says some money owed under the arrangement was postponed at the Curaçao government’s request. According to the company, Cooper attended the meeting where the deferral was agreed.

That may help explain why individual years differ sharply. It does not settle the broader dispute over the contract, its total value or the services covered.

Cooper had also said the alleged annual amount represented more than 35% of funds entering the government treasury. Curaçao media have since suggested he may have confused the consultancy’s payments with a wider budget allocation for the Curaçao Gaming Authority. Cooper had not publicly clarified the figure when the latest report was published.

Company Presses for a Public Correction

Random Consulting has asked the minister to provide evidence for the annual €4 million figure or correct it publicly. The consultancy has worked on Curaçao’s gambling regulatory overhaul since 2022.

Earlier company statements said its role included technology and operational support around the licensing system.

Payment Figure Remains Unsettled

In the meantime, the two sides are using quite different figures. According to Random Consulting, payments totaled €3.4 million over four years. Cooper, on the other hand, has put the yearly figure at XCG 8.3 million.

The next piece of evidence that might prove useful will be payment records themselves. Until then, the sum the government actually paid Random Consulting remains debatable.