Structurally 5 million euros available to tackle corruption
The Ministry of Justice and Security in the Netherlands is making 5 million euros structurally available for tackling corruption, part of which is intended for the National Criminal Investigation Department. The investigative capacity and expertise of the National Criminal Investigation Department are being strengthened and investments are being made in the purchase of advanced IT tools, data processing facilities and additional training. These investments were previously included in the JenV budget for 2025. The National Criminal Investigation Department plays a crucial role in investigating crimes committed by (semi-)government officials, particularly in the area of official corruption.
In 2024, a record amount of 409 million euros was seized in criminal property. The Ministry of Justice states that it can seize even more criminal money if legislation is amended. The Ministry of Justice sees the most in a national approach to combating money laundering practices, in which, among other things, cooperation is done with municipalities. They often have information about criminal practices, but cannot share this data with investigative services due to privacy legislation. The Public Prosecution Service also wants to make it more difficult for criminals in other ways.
Criminals can now easily and effortlessly register legal entities with the Chamber of Commerce. “Ingenious, often international money laundering structures are being set up and sometimes you have 400 legal entities at one address. It is the third year in a row that the amount of seized property has increased. In 2022, it amounted to 246 million euros and in 2023 to 363 million euros. Last year it was 409 million euros. The lion’s share (90 percent) was related to drug and fraud cases. The total amount circulating in the criminal circuit is many times higher. The central reporting point at the government where institutions such as banks, brokers and notaries must report suspicious transactions came to an amount of more than 25 billion euros in suspicious money for the whole of 2023. At the beginning of this year it was announced that 41 million euros worth of criminal crypto money had been seized in 2024. Criminals are finding their way to crypto more quickly in the digital world.
According to the AFM , accountants do not spend enough time and attention on fraud risks and the related audit activities in statutory audits . Audit activities are often insufficiently specific and insufficiently in-depth, which means that fraud can be overlooked. The AFM investigated 32 statutory audits of annual accounts. In two-thirds of the audits they found that the audit activities on one or more fraud risks were insufficient, despite the steps taken by the NBA and accountancy organisations in recent years.
This year, the Netherlands is in 8th place according to the list of Transparency International, an organization that investigates corruption every year. The Netherlands scores 79 out of 100. This means that the Netherlands is doing worse than a number of other European countries, including frontrunner Denmark, which has a score of 90. Since 2019, several reports have been published that point to serious shortcomings in the fight against corruption, particularly within the National Police and the Royal Marechaussee. In 2021, an evaluation by the European anti-corruption body GRECO showed that the Netherlands has not fully implemented any of the 16 recommendations. Some progress was only visible in 2023, but many recommendations remain partially or not implemented. The introduction of a lobby register and stricter rules for ministers remain points of discussion, but the pressure on the government to take action is increasing.
Worldwide, there has been a stagnation in the fight against corruption; most countries have again made little to no progress in the past year. The Netherlands has achieved the lowest score ever, mainly due to lagging regulations in the area of political integrity. People with influential political functions are involved in 14 billion euros in suspicious money transfers to and from the Netherlands with money from, among other things, bribery, extortion and embezzlement of the State. But even on a small scale, fraud is an offence that can no longer be eradicated.
The Public Prosecution Service and the National Criminal Investigation Department warn that there are insufficient possibilities within Dutch legislation for the prosecution of civil servants for corruption. This is evident from, among other things, an investigation into alleged bribery of former European Commissioner Neelie Kroes and civil servants of the Tax and Customs Administration by Uber . In several other European countries, investigating corruption of civil servants is less difficult. There are voices that also believe that the approach to corruption in Dutch legislation is not sufficiently anchored. Europe is currently working on a new anti-corruption directive. ‘There is a chance that Dutch law will also have to be amended for this.
The lack of adequate measures in the area of political integrity leads to a ‘revolving door’ for ministers and inadequate control over the financing of political parties. When it comes to supervision of the influence of lobbyists on politics, the Netherlands is one of the weakest regulated countries in Western Europe. In order to largely close this gap, a Bill on the Political Parties Act was sent to the Council of State for advice on 8 April 2024. Politicians regularly switch to a sector in which they were previously politically involved. For example, CDA MP Raymond Knops will lead the lobby club for the arms industry, while he was previously a substitute member of the Defence Committee of the House of Representatives.
Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen (Infrastructure and Water Management) went to the trade association of energy companies. Former VVD minister and European Commissioner Neelie (Smit) Kroes was chair of the eight-member International Policy Advisory Council. In 2004, Mrs Kroes declared in parliament that she would never again work for the business community after her EU commissionership, but on 8 March 2015 she became an advisor to the American BofA Securities (formerly Bank of America Merrill Lynch).
Banks and notaries must report unusual transactions to the FIU. In 2024, there were almost 3.5 million, a sharp increase compared to 2023, when the number of unusual transactions was still over 2 million.
Notorious recidivist Christiaan Rademakers still scams people
On Facebook and Marktplaats he is already a well-known scammer, but brazenly enough Christiaan Rademakers , despite his confrontation with Alberto Stegeman’s program, just continues. Often with small amounts, often from a shelter (omnizorg) in the Stationsstraat in Apeldoorn he still scams buyers of goods, which he then never sends. He uses all kinds of pseudonyms such as Christoffer Raderosters, Chris Rokers, Ricard van Bruggen, etc. He uses a bank account in Spain and says he has a Tapas restaurant in Winschoten, which makes it too far for many potential victims to drive and therefore prefers to have the product sent. He is said to live in Apeldoorn and is quite open there about his successful scam practices, for which he has already been convicted and has been in prison. Apparently not long enough because the lesson has not yet been learned, or it pays so well that it is worth it because he has been scamming people for over twelve years. A Belgian set up a closed group for victims on Facebook at the end of last year, mainly to put pressure on the police to stop fraudster Chris. In Belgium, fairground entrepreneurs have put a price on Rademakers’ head: a reward for his address. “They want to do something, because it keeps going on and no one is intervening.” On several occasions, victims have tried in vain to get their money back at the bank. The fraudster has already had to answer to a court of law several times, was imprisoned or chained to an ankle bracelet. He has not only been prosecuted for fraud, but also for many other crimes, such as theft with violence. For a long time, he used an Omnizorg shelter in the centre of Apeldoorn as a base for his fraudulent practices. The shelter is intended to give people who have gotten into trouble a chance. He doesn’t need much. A mobile phone and internet are enough. Chris Rademakers also uses hotels and usually shamelessly offers all kinds of goods for sale on the internet for attractive prices under his own name, but also under various aliases. One thing is always the same: he collects payments, but never delivers. That is also impossible. He does not have the goods that he puts in the window with beautiful photos and with which he rakes in a lot of money, in his possession at all.
Rademakers is so brazen in this that he does not even He shies away from offering for sale items that the police have seized during raids. He misuses photos that the police release on the internet during the search for the rightful owners. He also plays on emotions. For example, he sells items that supposedly belong to a deceased family member. As far as is known, he mainly makes victims in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Chris Rademakers mainly offers ‘his’ goods via Facebook, but also on Marktplaats, Instagram and TikTok. These include building materials, model trains, camper parts, tools, bouncy castles, pedal cars, beer taps and vacuum cleaners. They are small things, but also large ones, such as advertising panels or a car cleaning bridge. He has already scammed several people with this cleaning bridge. He often uses confidence-building tactics, such as sending a photo of his ID to convince his victims that he is honest. He maintains contact with the customer by telephone or via WhatsApp. He is always far away and often offers to have the goods delivered for a reasonable price in the second instance. Provided that the money is transferred first.
Once the money has been received, he then blocks the customer on his mobile phone. Since December, he has been sending some of his customers to the Van der Linden car company in Ghent, Belgium. They could pick up the purchased products there. It is easy to guess: they are in for a rude awakening, because the company knows nothing about it. Buyers sometimes also knock on the door in the evenings and on Sundays. The police say they can’t do much. He previously pretended to have a restaurant in Groningen and later one in Winschoten. Several deceived customers knocked there in vain, because it wasn’t his restaurant and the owners didn’t know anything either. By always asking small amounts for the products he offers, he stays under the radar. “He mainly offers products from 100 to 600 euros. In Belgium, fraud cases are only investigated if the damage is more than 2500 euros, but all together it now amounts to hundreds of thousands of euros in damage in money. Although Christian Rademakers has been making victims with his fraudulent practices for years, he now seems to have backed the wrong horse. One of his victims does not intend to rest until Christian Rademakers has been taken out and is proving to be a solid opponent.
This Chris from Belgium was defrauded at the end of September when selling machines. The way it went makes it clear why Christian manages to make so many victims. Christiaan always knows everything about the product he claims to be selling and uses several banks abroad.
How brazen and unscrupulous he is is evident from the fake advertisement for building materials. He uses a photo that he took from a police website. Photos of confiscated building materials, which originate from theft. The police published them to find their owners. He places them in fake advertisements and offers them for sale as if they were his. If you look closely, you can still see the police logo in a corner. The text says: we will probably agree on the price. Every day a new fake advertisement of his appears somewhere on the internet. If you place 10 of them and a few people fall for it, you still have a lucrative business.” This is also evident from photos and videos that the fraudster posts on social media. He shows that he makes a good living from it. “He also travels to Turkey and eats in expensive restaurants there. “When he heard that an entrepreneur was going to file a report, he sent a video in which he can be seen firing a firearm. His victim didn’t dare anymore. The police do not want to say much about the practices of Christian Rademakers, but do emphasize the importance of filing a report.
Microsoft data center bribes
British authorities are investigating possible bribery surrounding the construction of a Microsoft data center in Middenmeer, North Holland. Five properties in the United Kingdom have been searched and three arrests have been made in the investigation. The British government agency for large-scale fraud, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), is investigating the relationship between British construction and road construction company Blu-3 and former employees of global construction company Mace Group surrounding the construction of the Microsoft data center in the municipality of Hollands-Kroon. Employees of Blu-3 are suspected of having paid more than 3 million pounds (3.6 million euros) in bribes to former employees of Mace Group. American tech company Microsoft is not part of the investigation. More than seventy SFO investigators searched four homes and a business premises in London and Kent yesterday. A search was also carried out in Monaco. Construction company Mace says it takes the allegations extremely seriously. “We are determined to fully support the Serious Fraud Office in investigating allegations against former employees of the group.”
Corruption and fraud with PGB
In the Netherlands, there is growing concern about fraud with the personal budget (PGB), where private individuals deliberately purchase care from migrants at low rates. These practices undermine the care system and put vulnerable migrants in a precarious position. Research shows that some private individuals use care budgets to hire cheap labour, often by migrants without formal employment status or with limited language skills. These care providers often receive less than the statutory minimum wage and have few to no employment rights. Some cases even point to exploitation, with care providers being used for other work, such as in the criminal sector. The government and supervisory authorities such as the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) and the Labour Inspectorate have taken measures to combat these abuses. They carry out stricter checks and investigate reports of exploitation and abuse of care budgets. Nevertheless, it remains important that both care recipients and care providers are alert to possible exploitation and abuse of the PGB. It is essential that care money actually benefits care and is not misused for other purposes. Dozens of healthcare providers are suspected of declaring care that was not provided, resulting in millions of euros being paid out wrongly. The fraud was discovered after signals of irregularities in PGB applications and declarations. Research by the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) and the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) showed that some healthcare agencies structurally submitted false invoices, often with the knowledge of clients. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has conducted several raids and made arrests. “This undermines confidence in the healthcare system and harms people who actually need help,” according to a spokesperson for the OM. The government has announced stricter controls on PGB expenditure and calls on citizens to report abuses.
Corruption and fraud at Damen Shipyards
After seven years of investigation, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) is taking shipbuilder Damen Shipyards to court in two separate criminal cases. The family business from Gorinchem, the largest shipyard in the Netherlands, is accused of bribery, forgery, money laundering and violating sanctions against Russia. Several (former) directors, including CEO Arnout Damen and his father Kommer Damen, are also in the spotlight. The case threatens to have major consequences for the shipbuilder, which plays a key role in the delivery of naval vessels to the Netherlands and other NATO countries.
The first investigation, conducted by the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD), focuses on alleged corruption between 2006 and 2017. According to the OM, Damen paid high bonuses to foreign intermediaries to secure orders. It is suspected that some of these payments were passed on to bribe local officials. In addition, the company is said to have forged documents and laundered money. “This involves systematic fraud with payments,” reports the Volkskrant, which was the first to report on the case.
Sanctions violations against Russia (2022)
The second case, investigated by Customs, concerns violations of sanctions against Russia in 2022. Despite strict EU sanctions, Damen supplied goods and technology to Russia, which, according to the Public Prosecution Service, are said to have strengthened the Russian army. This would include civil cranes, although Nieuwsuur previously reported on possible involvement in the refurbishment of ships for Russian gas transport. Damen denies the allegations and states that the deliveries were limited and within the rules.
A conviction could have far-reaching consequences. Damen risks a four-year exclusion from government contracts, which would be a blow to the company that builds naval vessels for the Dutch navy and other countries. With 35 shipyards in 20 countries and 12,000 employees, Damen is a global player, but also vulnerable to reputational damage.
Damen Shipyards disputes the allegations and speaks of an “incorrect representation” by the Public Prosecution Service. The company emphasizes that it has always acted transparently and in accordance with the sanctions regulations. In a statement, Damen criticizes the link between the older corruption case and the recent sanctions issue, which the company claims are separate.
The criminal cases are the result of seven years of investigation by the FIOD and Customs. Previous attempts to buy off the case with a fine failed, partly due to new revelations in the media. The lawsuit marks a turning point for Damen, which is known for its innovative ship designs, but is now under scrutiny.
The outcome of the case will not only affect Damen, but also the Dutch maritime sector and international defense cooperation. As the Public Prosecution Service increases the pressure, Damen prepares for a legal battle that could determine the future of the company.
The FIOD’s efforts on various themes led to 461 reports and 280 requests for legal assistance from foreign investigative services in 2023
People with influential political positions are involved in 14 billion euros in suspicious money transfers to and from the Netherlands with money from bribery, extortion and embezzlement from the State. This is evident from research by the Anti Money Laundering Centre (AMLC), which works together with the police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM). The research focused on money transfers by politically exposed persons (PEPs), such as heads of state, politicians, ambassadors and members of the Supreme Court.
You buy something in a web shop, but the package is never sent. It happens to one in five young people. Half of them also know someone who has been scammed by a fake web shop. This is evident from research by information site Wijzer in geldzaken.
Uber traffic jams
In 2016, Kroes left StartUp Delta after 1.5 years as a special envoy and on May 1 of that year she joined the Board of Directors of Salesforce, a supplier of business software. In 2016, Kroes became chair of the policy advisory board of the international taxi company Uber . She left in October 2018. In her position at Parliament, Kroes has protected Uber on several occasions. It later emerged that the Dutch tax authorities also provided assistance to Uber and delayed investigations. The Tax Authorities leaked information about an international tax audit to Uber and delayed and delayed the investigation of other EU member states. In the Netherlands, Platform Investico, Trouw and Het Financieele Dagblad conducted research into the so-called Uber Files of a whistleblower or informant.
Panama Papers
The “Panama Papers” have led to more than 150 investigations in nearly 80 countries, resulting in fines and back taxes of more than a billion euros to date. The documents revealed the identities of owners of obscure offshore companies that were used to funnel profits into secret accounts in countries such as American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Guam, Macao, Cayman Islands, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, North Korea, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia or the United Arab Emirates.
The information that was revealed included names of famous athletes, celebrities, the father of the then British Prime Minister, FIFA and UEFA officials, members of the Italian mafia and Mexican drug cartels. The leaked documents originated from the trust office Mossack Fonseca from Panama. The heads of state of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Azerbaijan and Iceland were also named in the Panama Papers, as well as dozens of family members and employees of prime ministers, presidents, kings and the Chinese politburo. Following the publications, the FIOD carried out several raids as part of five criminal investigations into the laundering of 1.8 million euros in criminally obtained money. 512 Dutch (legal) persons were identified in the data that was made public in May 2016. Three years after the first publications, governments worldwide have imposed at least one billion euros in fines and additional assessments. In the Netherlands, a total of 8 million euros in additional assessments and fines were collected last year.
Dutch banks were also involved in a money laundering carousel, in which billions of euros were laundered in Europe and the United States. Supervision at the banks , both internally and by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), was found to be seriously inadequate, as demonstrated by 1.3 million leaked bank transactions, contracts and emails from two Lithuanian banks. This was referred to as the ‘Troika Laundromat’. Part of the money in this money laundering system came from companies involved in organised crime or fraud in Russia. For example, a shipbuilder from Oss laundered 43 million euros through a Rabobank account for the construction of two yachts for a Russian senator. State banks ING and ABN AMRO were involved in transactions with the hallmarks of money laundering. Until 2013, ING worked with a company in Moscow that it had suspected for four years of being involved in money laundering. Transactions amounting to 190 million euros were processed through an account of a former part of ABN AMRO. All 28 suspects were acquitted in June 2024. A judge in Panama City ruled that evidence from the servers of law firm Mossack Fonseca had not been handled according to the rules. Other evidence was not convincing enough to establish criminal behavior by the defendants, she said. Mossack Fonseca was accused of setting up 215,000 letterbox companies in tax havens where politicians, celebrities and athletes from all over the world could hide their assets and evade taxes. Eight years after the Panama Papers were released, a trial began in Panama in April against 28 people involved, including the company’s founders Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca. Fonseca died in early May. Prosecutors had demanded the maximum sentence of 12 years in prison for Mossack, Fonseca and three others. The other suspects were seen as accomplices, and lower sentences were requested against them. The Dutch tax authorities have so far been able to collect almost 33 million euros thanks to the Panama Papers. Worldwide, it even involves 1.3 billion dollars that could be recovered. The Panama Papers led to political scandals. For example, the prime ministers of Pakistan and Iceland had to resign after the revelation, which also revealed information about former British Prime Minister David Cameron. Incidentally, it is not clear how the Tax and Customs Administration obtained the information of the five hundred Dutch tax evaders who were on the list, but all documents eventually ended up with the German and Dutch tax authorities. The Panama Papers were followed up by the Paradise Papers (2017) and the Pandora Papers (2021). Money is also being recovered from these documents, according to De Groot. So far, this has yielded 2.6 million euros. ‘That is considerably less, but there were also simply far fewer Dutch people involved.
The Triodos certificate affair revolves around a complex mix of financial losses, legal disputes and attempts at reconciliation. The settlement of €10 per certificate, with a total amount of €101 million, is an attempt to end the conflict, but does not satisfy all certificate holders. The upcoming listing on Euronext may improve tradability, but dissatisfaction remains, as evidenced by ongoing class actions. DNB’s role in the Triodos certificate affair appears to be limited to failures in supervision and compliance with regulations. There is discussion about a possible designation in 2019 and the lack of action on complaints from certificate holders, which gives rise to speculation about transparency. The Triodos Bank certificate affair revolves around a long-standing conflict with certificate holders, mainly caused by the suspension of trading in certificates during the corona crisis and the subsequent sharp decline in value.
Triodos certificates were a type of shares with limited voting rights, intended to raise capital for the bank’s sustainable mission. Until 2020, certificate holders could only sell them back to Triodos itself. During the corona crisis, many investors wanted to sell their certificates, but Triodos’ internal trading system could not handle the supply (legal limit of 3% of the share capital). As a result, trading was halted, leaving certificate holders unable to access their money for years. When trading resumed in 2023 on a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) via Captin, the value of the certificates dropped sharply: from around €84 before the suspension to €50 immediately after the reopening, and later even to €26-€30. This led to legal proceedings in several countries, including the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium. In the Netherlands, the Stichting Triodos Tragedie is preparing a mass claim on behalf of around 1,200 affected certificate holders, who estimate the damage between €49 and €70 million. In the Netherlands, the Enterprise Chamber rejected a request for an investigation into mismanagement in 2023, because this would harm the bank and the trading solution. Triodos ultimately settled with the Triodos Bank Certificate Holders Foundation (SCTB), whereby certificate holders who held certificates on 28 June 2023 will be offered €10 per certificate in exchange for waiving further legal claims.
Pandora Papers
The Pandora Papers contain data from fourteen different so-called off-shore providers. Six of the fourteen firms in the investigation are based in the Virgin Islands. The ‘Pandora Papers’ revealed by the ICIJ consist of 12 million files with information about investors who place money in tax havens. The documents mention 300 politicians, including 35 heads of state. Ukraine is the first, with 38 politicians named. Russian and Latin American investors are relatively common, according to the researchers mainly because the 14 companies investigated are very active there.
Paradise Papers
The Paradise papers involve a wide range of data. For the first time, the registers of nineteen tax havens were made searchable. The administration of the consultancy firm Appleby (including the trust office Estera, which was spun off in 2016), which profiles itself as one of the most virtuous firms in this field, and of a somewhat smaller Asian firm were also searched. The data involved amount to 13.4 million: almost 7 million documents from Appleby and the trust office Estera, which was spun off in 2015, almost half a million from Asiaciti Trust, and more than six million files from the registers. The revelation has now definitively destroyed the illusion of secrecy in tax havens.
Tax havens
Money for development cooperation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs flows to various tax havens, with the knowledge of the state. A fund manager on the controversial island of Guernsey profited from this. In recent years, the ministry has transferred significant amounts to PIDG, via an asset manager. In 2021, this involved a loan of 11.8 million euros and a contribution of 5.4 million euros. The Netherlands has contributed a total of 178 million dollars to PIDG, of which approximately 30 million has been converted into shares in the subsidiary EAIF.
World leaders and politicians regularly use financial constructions via tax havens, including the King of Jordan, the presidential family of Azerbaijan, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, and circles around the Pakistani Prime Minister. Even our Minister of Finance, before becoming a minister, had interests in a letterbox company on the British Virgin Islands for years. The Czech Prime Minister bought a chateau in France for 22 million dollars via an offshore company. During his election campaign, the President of Ukraine sold a 25 percent stake in an offshore company to a friend who now works as his top advisor.
The family of the Azerbaijani president owns around £400 million worth of real estate in the UK. One of the properties was sold to the British royal family for £67 million. Such constructions often run via countries and islands in South and Central America. In 2018, an Azerbaijani woman had to explain where the money came from that allowed her to spend millions in the UK. Zamira Hajiyeva is married to Jahangir Hajiyev, a former CEO (2001-2015) of the Azerbaijani State Bank. He disappeared behind bars for fifteen years in 2016 for his part in a fraud and money laundering scandal, in which tens of millions of euros were embezzled. He also had to repay the bank 45 million euros. It is suspected that the Hajiyevs spent at least some of the missing money in London. Zamira spent £15 million shopping at London’s Harrods department store in a decade. In one day, she spent more than £150,000 on Boucheron jewellery, the next day £1,600 on wine, and on another occasion £100,000 on Cartier jewellery and £19,000 on “men’s luxury goods”. It was also revealed that she owns a house in Knightsbridge, which was bought by a company in the British Virgin Islands for £12 million in 2009. Two years later, another company she headed paid £10 million for a posh golf club in Berkshire.
An external blacklist of World Check contains over 2 million names that have been linked to unusual transactions, money laundering and financing of terrorism. The names include (former) politicians and their family members (PEPs (politically exposed persons)), criminals, terrorists, politicians and well-known Dutch people.
EU finance ministers have added the Caribbean islands of Anguilla and Barbados to the blacklist of tax havens. The Cayman Islands and Oman were removed due to reforms to their tax laws. The EU has maintained a list of tax havens since December 2017 and reviews it twice a year. It includes countries and territories where authorities levy (almost) no corporate tax, are not transparent and are unwilling to combat tax avoidance. Previous entries on the list include Fiji, American Samoa, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Seychelles, Vanuatu, Samoa, Palau and Panama.
The damage resulting from fraud in payment transactions amounted to almost 61 million euros in 2022. This is a slight decrease compared to 2021, but in 2023 the number of cases of digital fraud and scams increased in particular. The rapid developments in AI make fraud increasingly easier. One in eleven self-employed persons has committed fraud in the past when filing their income tax return.
Because tax offences can often be dealt with both under administrative law and criminal law, it follows from Article 5:44 paragraph 1 Awb and Article 243 paragraph 2 Sv that one excludes the other, as far as the law (una via principle and, by extension, the ne bis in idem principle, i.e. no double punishment of the same person for the same act). A choice must therefore be made, either to “tackle” tax-related or criminal, this usually follows from the consultation between FIOD, OM and the tax authorities. A new protocol has been in place for this consultation of the “weighing team” since 1 July 2023.
- Disadvantage at least €100,000. From 1 July 2023, it also applies to cases in which the disadvantage is insufficiently determinable. There must be a suspicion of intent.
- There is a new entity in Europe, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office . The EPPO is an independent body of the European Union and investigates and prosecutes crimes that could harm the EU’s financial interests. Sometimes cases will have to be referred to the EPPO, in which case the AAFD is out of the picture.
- AAFD also applies to criminal offences and the International Assistance Act (WIB)
- In addition, the evolution of the fine system is also mentioned (such as the participant fine (Article 67 letter o AWR / Article 5:1 AWB) and the possibility of making the names of offenders public (Article 67 letter r AWR)
A (fiscal or monetary) fine is not deductible (Article 3.14 paragraph 1 under c Income Tax Act). Fines, costs and charges related to this (or to a crime) are also not deductible (provided that the taxpayer has been irrevocably convicted). However, it follows from the law, the legislative history and some court rulings that confiscations are simply deductible. Confiscation is a punishment (sanction) in criminal law in which the court determines that the taxpayer loses the (convicted) ownership of an object (or money) and in which the state acquires that ownership. If the benefit is taxed and this benefit is taken away, it is (financially) logical that this is deductible (Article 3.14 paragraph 3 Income Tax Act). Deduction will take place in the year in which the confiscation actually took place. So far, it is clear.
Companies often have to file monthly returns (sales tax and payroll tax). In addition, a corporate income tax return (for legal entities) must be filed once a year. An incorrect return (for example, shifting or dragging VAT) can quickly be seen as fraud. If you remain below the thresholds below or if there is no intent, a fine will be imposed. This can be a default fine or a misdemeanor fine, this depends on the facts and is determined by a special “fine inspector”. You will usually receive a default fine if you have not filed a return on time and / or if there is no intent. In most cases, you or your company will simply receive a (default) fine. If there is more going on, a misdemeanor fine will be imposed, this can amount to 100% of the tax amount. It is also possible that a so-called penalty order will follow. The criminal court will then judge the fiscal actions of you or your company. The prosecution is unpleasant, but the punishment that follows has human and financial consequences (fine, prison sentence or community service). You or your company will receive a fine if you have deliberately not filed a return or have filed an incorrect or incomplete return . The threshold amount is also considered here, but usually the step to prosecution is not taken. The amount of the fine will depend on:
- The intent, deliberate action, gross negligence;
- Recidivism ;
- Knowledge of the subject;
- Size of the tax claim;
You can object to default and misdemeanor fines and also appeal to the court
Tax fraud carries a maximum prison sentence of 6 years. A supplementary assessment or additional assessment may also be imposed and you may be deprived of the benefit.
- Criminal prosecution of private individuals: loss exceeding €10,000;
- Criminal prosecution of entrepreneurs: loss exceeding €15,000.
The Tax Authorities are often the first to see the fraud or tax disadvantage. In such cases, this is then discussed internally. The inspector or controller can then decide to report your situation within the tripartite consultation (consultation between the Tax Authorities, Public Prosecution Service and the FIOD). Your situation is then discussed and formally tested against the AAFD Guideline . People with an exemplary function (famous people, accountants, lawyers and tax advisors) are more likely to be considered for criminal prosecution.
In the case of a penalty order, we actually leave the fiscal material law. There is then no longer a sanction (such as a default or misdemeanor fine), but we switch from all kinds of penalty legislation to criminal law. The result of this is that you can receive high fines and also a prison sentence (and therefore a criminal record). In practice, we notice that the impact of this can be enormous, in addition to a criminal record, this can have major consequences for your company. The most important are:
- Loss of reputation due to articles in the press;
- Customers and relations lose confidence in you or your company;
- Banks are withdrawing confidence (and financing);
- More checks by the Tax Authorities, AFM;
The Tax Authorities will not quickly take the step to criminal law; often, “simply” administrative fines (fines for default or misdemeanour) are imposed. In the event of serious irregularities, recidivism (you are a slow learner) or serious fraud, you may come into contact with (fiscal) criminal law. It usually starts with a letter, audit or interview. The Tax Authorities may then contact the Public Prosecution Service or the FIOD based on their findings. In such cases, the FIOD may suddenly be on your doorstep.
Preventing prosecution and calling in a specialist in time is often the best advice. Directors and major shareholders file annual income tax and corporate tax returns and even more often a turnover tax and/or payroll tax return is filed. A mistake is easily made and before you know it, there is gross negligence, intent or a case of fraud. A mistake can therefore sometimes have disastrous consequences.
In a book audit, the auditor may conclude that he must report your actions internally. In such cases, it is wise to continue talking to the Tax Authorities. It is important that you are well prepared for the discussions and do not provide information that could later be used against you. Sometimes something has gone wrong without you knowing or being able to know. In such cases, fraud is usually not involved.
In the case of criminal prosecution (but also in the case of some fines) stricter rules and guarantees apply to you. The most important is your right to remain silent when you are considered a suspect. Your home may also not be searched without permission from the investigating judge.
Sometimes the Public Prosecution Service does not come into the picture and the Tax Authorities impose a Fiscal Penalty Order (a FSB). This route relieves the judiciary and the Public Prosecution Service to some extent. Specific rules also apply to such processes (for fines over €2,000). The most important is that you are heard and can give your point of view in this conversation. The Tax Authorities employee will point out the caution (not obliged to answer / everything you say can be used in the investigation).
Corruption and Fraud in Banks
In July 2017, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase settled for 127 million euros in a fraud case over the manipulation of interest rates on the Japanese yen. Other banks , including Citigroup, HSBC, BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse, also settled to avoid further prosecution for price manipulation. In total, the banks settled for 5.8 billion dollars. Two-thirds of the 180 countries have high levels of corruption. New Zealand, Denmark, Finland and Sweden have the lowest levels of corruption, while North Korea, Somalia and South Sudan top the list of most corrupt countries.
According to whistleblower Wilson, the British HSBC has been illegally charging fees to individuals who had debts on mortgages, personal loans, shopping cards and credit cards for years. Hundreds of thousands of customers are said to have been duped by around 1 billion. A former trader of the bank has been found guilty of malversation in a transaction of 3.5 billion dollars for a customer. The trader, together with colleagues, ensured that the exchange rate of the British pound rose in a short time, just before the transaction took place. By buying billions of pounds for the customer at the higher rate, he earned millions for his bank in one go.
The Dublin-based Thema International Fund will pay victims of the Madoff affair $687 million. The Irish investment fund helped the notorious pyramid fund of Bernard Madoff, who duped thousands of investors in the early 1990s. The Irish fund was part of a network of offshore companies that had ties to Austrian banker Sonja Kohn and the Swiss investment family Benbassat. They provided Bernard Madoff with approximately $1.9 billion before his notorious pyramid fund in the United States began to dry up. Madoff’s clients were defrauded of approximately $17.5 billion. Madoff himself was arrested in 2008 and is serving a 150-year prison sentence. Five of his employees were convicted in 2014. Kohn and the Benbassat family, who set up several European funds and registered them in tax havens, walked free. The Irish fund always blamed Madoff and the HSBC bank in London. In 2013, HSBC settled with the Thema International Fund for $62 million. In total, HSBC had to write off around 6.7 billion euros in 2019, halving profits to 6 billion dollars with sales rising by more than 2 billion dollars to 55.4 billion dollars.
The American Morgan Stanley paid a fine of 249 million dollars for leaking information about sales orders of large clients for years to profit from it. The fraud took place in the department that executed so-called block transactions. In this case, a large, usually institutional investor wants to get rid of a large package of shares in one go. However, such a large sale can depress the price of a share. An investment bank therefore acts as an intermediary and buys the shares at a discount to the stock market price and then sells them on later. Morgan Stanley promised its clients to keep sales orders secret, but passed the information on to hedge fund managers who were able to quickly take advantageous positions. The deal was advantageous for Morgan Stanley, because the bank secured buyers for the shares.
Corruption and fraud in the European Parliament
The latest high-profile corruption case concerns the European Parliament. Belgian police have arrested a large number of people in an investigation into Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Huawei lobbyists are said to have paid bribes to MEPsin exchange for political support. 21 addresses were searched in Belgium and Portugal, with documents and items seized. No searches were carried out on the homes of members of the European Parliament. Approximately fifteen (former) MEPs were reportedly treated to football tickets, trips to China, gifts and possibly cash. Payments to MEPs were reportedly facilitated by a Portuguese company. The corruption is said to have taken place regularly and very discreetly from 2021 until now. Huawei, with its technology, plays a central role in the geopolitical tensions between the US, Europe and China. In exchange for the gifts, MEPs were reportedly encouraged to allow Huawei access to the European market. This is not the first bribery scandal in the European Parliament. In 2022, ‘Qatargate’ broke out, after Qatar and Morocco allegedly tried to influence decisions of the European Parliament by paying bribes. The Greek Vice-President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, was said to be the linchpin. She was arrested with three other suspects on suspicion of corruption, money laundering and membership of a criminal organisation. During house searches, 1.5 million euros in cash were found. The case is still ongoing and three of the suspects, including Kaili, have always denied the charges. Eva had been a member of parliament for the Greek party PASOK since 2014, which is a member of the social democratic group that also includes the PvdA. According to the federal prosecutor’s office, Qatar is said to have tried to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament by paying large sums of money or offering large gifts to people with important positions within the European Parliament. Eva Kaili and her father were arrested with hundreds of thousands of euros in suitcases and bags. Kaili was expelled from her party and group and lost her position as vice-president. The investigation into the corruption case is still ongoing and other MEPs and staff have been suspected or arrested. The scandal has also raised questions about the salaries and expense allowances of MEPs. Several other members of the European Parliament have also been arrested on suspicion of corruption. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calls for an ethics committee to monitor all EU institutions. Twenty searches were carried out. The Belgian public prosecutor (OM) arrested Eva Kaili, Francisco Giorgi, Eva Kaili’s husband, Alexandros Kaili, Eva Kail’s father, Pier Antonio Panzeri, Luca Visentini: Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation and NF an Italian lobbyist. Morocco and Qatar are said to have exerted influence on the European Parliament in this way. The Belgian authorities carried out twenty house searches.During one of the house searches, computers, telephones and €600,000 in cash were seized. At another address, €150,000 in cash was found. The hundreds of thousands of euros seized at the home of former MEP Panzeri are believed to have come from the Moroccan ambassador to Poland. Eva Kaili was suspended by parliament and expelled from the PASOK party. The Greek authorities have frozen her assets.
‘Pfizergate’
A controversial underhand deal between European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and Pfizer-BioNTech led to a request for her resignation in late May 2024. The European Union agreed in May 2021 to a massive contract extension with Pfizer-BioNTech for a potential 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses through 2023. Ursula von der Leyen, tweeted at the time that her office had approved a contract for a guaranteed 900 million doses (+900 million options). The new contract, which has the backing of EU member states, will not only include production of the vaccines, but also a guarantee that all essential components must come from the EU. The European Commission already had 2.3 billion doses from half a dozen other companies. The announcement was intended to underscore the EU’s confidence in the technology used for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is different from that behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Following the disclosure of phone calls and text messages exchanged between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during the COVID-19 crisis vaccine contracts negotiations raised doubts about impartiality. EU secretly paid environmental groups via a shadow lobby to promote Frans Timmermans’ green plans. This was to convince doubting politicians, among others, to support his controversial Nature Restoration Act, which had to be ‘promoted’ by the umbrella organisation of 185 environmental groups. 700,000 euros in subsidies had to be used to, for example, steer the farmers’ debate in the green direction.
On July 7, 2025, the European Parliament (EP) will consider the motion of censure of Von de Leyen by Gheorghe Piperea in Strasbourg. The secret text messages sent by Von de Leyen to the boss of vaccine manufacturer Pfizer and the behind-the-scenes negotiations on the vaccines are for many one of the examples of the lack of transparency. The motion states:
A. whereas in 2022 the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) opened an investigation into the conduct of the European Commission in negotiating and concluding contracts for the procurement of a COVID-19 vaccine with Pfizer, which is still ongoing in 2025 and raises legitimate concerns about possible legal and ethical breaches, as well as possible irregularities in the management of Union funds;
B. whereas in its order of 5 October 2023 in Case T-36/23, Stevi – The New York Times v Commission , the General Court of the European Union held that the Commission had failed to provide sufficient legal justification for its refusal to disclose the requested documents relating to the negotiations on the Pfizer vaccine;
C. whereas the Commission has breached its obligations under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents and infringed the principles of transparency, good governance and institutional accountability enshrined in the Treaties;
D. whereas the Commission has allocated EUR 35 billion in public funds to COVID-19 vaccines but has failed to ensure transparency and accountability, notably with doses worth EUR 4 billion remaining unused, raising serious concerns about financial oversight and administrative failure;
E. whereas in its judgment of 14 May 2025, the General Court annulled the European Commission’s decision to refuse access to text messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla between 1 January 2021 and 11 May 2022 concerning the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines;
F. whereas the Court of Auditors, in its Special Report No 22/2024, adopted on 26 September 2024, identified serious shortcomings in the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), including insufficient links between disbursed funds and actual costs, weak verification mechanisms, risks of double financing and delays in achieving investment objectives, raising serious concerns about the Commission’s oversight of one of the largest post-COVID financial instruments;
G. whereas the Court of Auditors has pointed out that the lack of proper controls and the reliance by Member States on self-reporting increase the risk of ‘double funding’, a situation where the same actions are funded several times, leading to inefficiency and potential misuse of funds;
H. whereas transparency and accountability are fundamental principles of the democratic legitimacy of the Union, in accordance with Article 10(3) of the TEU, and ensure public trust in the European Union institutions, particularly in contexts of major public health challenges and significant financial commitments;
I. whereas on 23 April 2025 the Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously adopted a non-binding opinion rejecting the use by the European Commission of Article 122 TFEU as a legal basis for the proposal for a regulation establishing the Security Action for Europe (SAFE), a EUR 150 billion defence financing initiative;
J. whereas the opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs states that the Commission’s recourse to Article 122 TFEU does not constitute a valid justification in cases of emergency, as the provision is intended for short-term measures addressing acute crises, and not for long-term defence investments;
K. whereas serious concerns have been raised about the unlawful interference by the Commission in elections in Member States such as Romania and Germany through a distorted application of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a single market for digital services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act),[3] which is intended to protect consumers but has been misused to justify voting restrictions and annulments of elections;
Conclusion: Concludes that the Commission under the leadership of President Ursula von der Leyen no longer enjoys the confidence of Parliament to uphold the principles of transparency, accountability and good governance, which are essential for a democratic Union.
July 7, 2025, at the end of the afternoon, the debate will follow on the motion by the European Parliament against the President of the European Commission and whether she should be allowed to continue with her second term.
Piperea collected 72 signatures (10 percent of MEPs) needed to table a motion of no confidence. If the motion were to pass, the rules would require the entire Commission to resign, and that chance is very slim. The two-thirds majority is expected to be far from being achieved.
Von der Leyen’s Christian Democrats, by far the largest party in the European Parliament, do not support the motion and the Social Democrats, the second largest party, certainly will not do so either
Following a criminal complaint filed by Frédéric Baldan, a Belgian lobbyist focused on China-EU trade relations, Belgian authorities launched the case in early 2023. The governments of Hungary and Poland subsequently joined the lawsuit. Von der Leyen “continued to stubbornly refuse to release contracts for the purchase of COVID vaccines […and] the electronic messages she exchanged with Mr. Bourla, CEO of Pfizer,” the letter said, saying her actions were contrary to “public morality” and “destroy the legitimate trust that citizens should be able to have in all members of the European Commission.”
A letter from the prosecutor’s lawyer to all 27 EU leaders and Manfred Weber, the chairman of von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP), unsuccessfully requested Ursula’s resignation. The prosecutor asked EU leaders “to refer the case [ Pfizergate ] to the Court of Justice so that it can order the compulsory resignation and forfeiture of pension rights not only of Mrs von der Leyen, but also of all the European Commissioners who are part of her Commission.”
Furthermore, the prosecutor asked “the European People’s Party to withdraw the candidacy of Ms von der Leyen for the post of President of the European Commission” and “to prohibit anyone from submitting the candidacy of Ms von der Leyen for the post of President of the European Commission.” The prosecutor also asked “the European People’s Party to withdraw the candidacy of Ms von der Leyen for the post of President of the European Commission” and “to prohibit anyone from holding the candidacy of Ms von der Leyen for the post of President of the European Commission.” The lawyer based her request on Articles 245 (act incompatible with their duties) and 247 (serious misconduct) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The applicant also contested the involvement of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which had requested to take up the case, as this body is, under EU law, intended to investigate, prosecute and bring to judgment the perpetrators of crimes affecting the EU budget. According to Baldan, the aim of the EPPO’s action was “to annul all the civil parties in this case and therefore to annul the entire investigation”, adding that the office may no longer have the necessary resources to complete its investigations by the end of 2024.
Nine MEPs were found guilty by the court in March 2025 of embezzling 4.5 million EU euros. In addition to the nine, another 11 were suspected of fraud. Among them was the French Le Pen, who as an additional punishment is not allowed to stand for the presidency for the next five years. She is allowed to remain in the European Parliament. Between 2004 and 2016, Le Pen and her party Front National are said to have embezzled millions of euros. The public prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of five years, of which three years suspended, and a fine of 1 million euros. She was eventually sentenced to four years in prison, of which two suspended, and a fine of 100,000 euros. The effective prison sentence is therefore two years, which she will serve with an electronic ankle bracelet instead of in prison, according to the ruling.
She will still appeal. Le Pen and her party received money for assistants in Parliament who were actually working for the party in France. Le Pen’s exclusion has major consequences for French politics. The next presidential elections will be in 2027, in which her party RN already seems to be in the lead. According to polls, Le Pen would easily win the first round of voting and reach the second round. Now that Le Pen has been excluded, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella is ready to replace her. He was not investigated in the trial. According to France24 , there are doubts about his possible candidacy due to his lack of experience.
Corruption and fraud internationally
Africa
A South African parliamentary committee is investigating whether a well-known accounting firm siphoned off money. One of the partners was also involved in insider trading in 2009. Under the leadership of a billionaire, 20 million dollars were allegedly earned through insider trading. Among other things, shares of the Hilton hotel chain, internet giant Google and IBM were traded. The employees of Intel, McKinsey, IBM and two employees of the New Castle investment fund were charged. The former partner was arrested at JFK International Airport in New York. The former first lady of Zimbabwe was suspected of large-scale smuggling of ivory and diamonds and is said to have headed a syndicate that shipped tons of ivory and diamonds out of the country. In 2020, Isabel dos Santos was charged with money laundering, embezzlement and fraud with government funds. She is said to have siphoned off hundreds of millions of euros from Angola via Dutch letterbox companies. A well-known hacker from Portugal claims to be the source of the so-called Luanda Leaks, the leaking of hundreds of thousands of documents about Isabel dos Santos. She is said to have amassed a total of around 2 billion euros through embezzlement, corruption and cronyism.
The internationally wanted drug criminal Leijdekkers has fled to the West African Sierra Leone. His father-in-law, President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, says he does not know who Jos L. is, although Leijdekkers can be seen in a video of a New Year’s mass in Bio’s birth village made by Bio’s wife. The president and his wife are sitting two rows in front of him. The Dutchman is sitting next to a woman, who news agency Reuters reports on the basis of three anonymous sources that it is the president’s daughter. According to unconfirmed reports, the two are even married. The president is not aware of the identity of the person in question,” the Ministry of Information of Sierra Leone wrote in a statement. The police have promised full cooperation with Interpol and the Dutch authorities. Jos L. was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison last year for involvement in drug trafficking and ordering murder. A reward of 200,000 euros has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the drug trafficker. He is on the list of most wanted criminals in Europe. L. is said to have been living in Sierra Leone since 2023. The country is an important hub for the international cocaine trade. Many drug shipments from South America go to Europe via Freetown. Sierra Leone is one of the ten poorest countries in the world, despite the presence of valuable raw materials such as diamonds, gold and bauxite. There is widespread corruption.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan is in third place of the countries with the most corruption, just after North Korea and Somalia. England is in tenth place together with Germany and Luxembourg. But Suriname and China are also there.
Antilles
A member of parliament, a police officer and five other suspects on Sint Maarten committed fraud at the port authority for 2.7 million euros. Justice accuses them of tax evasion and issuing false invoices. Sitting member of parliament Chanel B. is one of the main suspects, as well as the CEO of the port authority and the owner of the security company that guards the port. A special anti-corruption team has arrested USP member of parliament Frans R.
Argentina
The Argentine Public Prosecutor’s Office has prosecuted the former president and more than forty associates for corruption. He is suspected of leading a network that systematically collected bribes in exchange for government contracts.
Australia
The 52-year-old CEO of Australian bank Westpac, Brian H., has resigned after the bank was found to be involved in a major money laundering scandal. According to the country’s financial investigation service, the bank, the second largest in Australia, has violated anti-money laundering regulations on a large scale. The bank is even said to have facilitated payments to producers of child pornography. In addition to a lot of political commotion, the issue has also led to a loss of the equivalent of 4.6 billion euros in stock market value. In light of the money laundering case, chairman Lindsay M. also brought forward his departure to the beginning of this year. Australian ex-prime minister Scott M. secretly held five ministerial posts during the corona pandemic. The ministers who were already in the posts knew nothing about it. Parliament was also unaware
Belgium
The Gang of Nijvel committed violent robberies in the 1980s, with a total of 28 deaths and 40 injuries. The infamous burglary of a Colruyt supermarket in Nijvel (1983) cost the lives of a man and a woman. This was followed by a robbery of a gun shop in Wavre (1982), in which police officer Claude Haulotte was shot dead and fifteen weapons, including gendarmerie prototypes, were stolen. These weapons were used in murders, robberies and burglaries in Belgium in 1982, 1983 and 1985.
Frank Creyelman, a member of parliament for Vlaams Belang and party leader of the Vlaams Belang faction in the Mechelen city council, worked for more than three years as an informant for the Chinese secret service. He worked for Daniel Woo, an intelligence officer of the spy agency of the Chinese Ministry of State Security and had to influence discussions within European politics, such as about Covid and China’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong. Creyelman and Woo also discussed the possibility of influencing a Catholic cardinal to warn against politicizing the corona pandemic, when China was under pressure because of it. He also had to play Europe and the US off against each other in order to sow division in the European-American relationship. Creyelman was paid in crypto, among other things.
On March 28, 2022, the Belgian authorities raided PostNL depots for the fourth time in a short period. The raids were carried out in three warehouses, all three of which are sealed. The Belgian federal judicial police and the social inspectorate raided three depots in the Antwerp cities of Wommelgem, Turnhout and Willebroek. The public prosecutor’s office reports that eight people have been arrested.
At least 117 Belgian lawyers, accountants and financial advisors were in contact with Mossack Fonseca to set up companies in tax havens.
Walloon politician Marc Tarabella and his Italian colleague Andrea Cozzolino were arrested over a European corruption scandal within the European Parliament
In the 1980s, there was already the Agusta scandal. This involved bribery in a Belgian defense order in the 1980s. Willy Claes, then Belgian Minister of Economic Affairs, was accused of accepting bribes from the Italian helicopter manufacturer Agusta to win a contract for army helicopters. The scandal came to light in the 1990s, and Claes, now Secretary General of NATO, resigned in 1995 because of the allegations. He was later convicted of corruption.
In mid-January 2024, 3 corrupt Belgian police officers were arrested for their involvement in cocaine deals and transports via the port of Antwerp
Bolivia
A Bolivian opposition leader and former presidential candidate has been sentenced to five years in prison for corruption. He was a presidential candidate in 2009. A judge in Bolivia has issued an arrest warrant for former President Morales. He was due to appear in court to answer charges in a case involving the sexual abuse of a minor. When he failed to appear in court, the judge ordered his arrest. Morales, 65, is accused of fathering a child with a teenage girl in 2016. This is considered rape under Bolivian law. The incident is said to have occurred while Morales was still president of Bolivia.
Brazil
Petrobras paid bribes to key politicians, with former President Fernando Collor de Mello sentenced to 8 years and 10 months in prison. Collor received 6 million euros from a subsidiary of Petrobras. He was elected as the first president after the military dictatorship in 1989, resigned after three years due to corruption allegations, and lost his seat as senator last year. The corruption practices began in 1999 under the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and led to more than 100 arrests. More and more companies internationally appear to have paid bribes to Petrobras, according to revelations in the Panama Papers. 57 politicians from various parties were linked to 107 offshore companies with suspicious money flows. Former Petrobras CEO Jorge Zelada, manager Eduardo Costa Musa and two accomplices were sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption and money laundering, in which they received $30 million in bribes for a contract with Vantage Drilling Corporation in 2009. In Brazil and Europe, fraud was discovered in the meat industry, with JBS and BRF selling tainted meat. Inspectors from the Ministry of Agriculture accepted bribes and covered up tainted meat with carcinogenic substances. Raids on 40 slaughterhouses and meat processing plants resulted in 300 arrests. Tainted meat was exported via an Italian port and Rotterdam, including to World’s Finest Meat in Zoeterwoude. JBS was also convicted of paying bribes to Brazilian politicians. President Lula da Silva, who was decorated by the Netherlands in March 2003, was convicted of corruption.
Bulgaria
Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov was arrested in March 2022 on suspicion of misusing EU funds. There are 120 ongoing investigations by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in which other politicians have been arrested, including former Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov. Borissov is the leader of the conservative GERB party. He served as prime minister three times, most recently from 2017 to May 2021. In 2020, thousands of Bulgarians demonstrated to demand the resignation of his government. The protesters accused Borissov’s government of corruption. He allegedly skimmed off European subsidies and channeled them to a group of oligarchs.
Canada
A close friend and fundraiser of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Bronfman is said to have siphoned off millions of dollars to the Cayman Islands for twenty years through his investment company Claridge. A former senator, the late Leo Kolber, was also involved in the siphoning off.
China
Corruption in China is a common problem. The Macau casino industry is a paradise for gamblers. Gambling illegally is mainly done via “junkets” that allow wealthy Chinese to gamble with borrowed money. The fight against casinos in China has exposed a network with the Philippines, South Korea and several Australian cities. Most gambling businessmen are active on the stock exchange. Luxury auction houses and event organizers are also noticing the fight against corruption. China is working hard to eradicate corruption. In the meantime, Chinese spies have stolen trade secrets from chip machine manufacturer ASML on a large scale. High-ranking R&D employees turned out to have indirect ties with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. The former CEO of China Citic Bank has been sentenced to death for corruption. The banker, Sun Deshun, is said to have received a total of 134 million dollars in bribes. He pleaded guilty during a trial last year. Sun is alleged to have provided favorable loans to companies in exchange for bribes between 2003 and 2019 at several state-owned banks he worked for, including ICBC, Bank of Communications and Citic Bank.
German sportswear brand Adidas is investigating a major fraud case in China in which senior managers of the company are said to have collected millions of euros in bribes. Adidas received an anonymous letter from a whistleblower about the case with claims that it was written by employees of the company in China. Among others, a top manager of the marketing branch in China is said to have been involved in the fraud. That budget is said to amount to approximately 250 million euros annually. External service providers are said to have transferred large sums of money to employees of Adidas, possibly in exchange for assignments. A manager at another branch of Adidas in China is also said to have received real estate in addition to large sums of money. China is an important market for Adidas. In 2012, a fraud case was also opened against a former COO and a managing director of Adidas India, who were suspected of having used a network of secret warehouses to store Adidas shoes and clothing that had been fraudulently booked as turnover. In total, the men are said to have defrauded 8.7 billion Indian Rupees (124.5 million euros).
Colombia
Drug criminals have filled the power vacuum left by former FARC territories in Colombia. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has admitted that cocaine has often been a major export for the country in the wake of a report suggesting that cocaine is on track to overtake oil as Colombia’s top export. Police seized more than 12 tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of $350 million on November 8, 2017. However, despite the large-scale operation, only four people were arrested. The cocaine was stored underground on four farms in an area of the northwestern province of Antioquia, near the Panamanian border, and was owned by the Clan del Golfo. A leader nicknamed “Otoniel” was arrested. The operation was carried out by 40 commandos in Black Hawk helicopters and another 360 uniformed police officers. The cocaine was ready to be shipped to the banana port for export to Europe and the United States. In 2017, 362 tons of cocaine were seized in Colombia, compared to 317 tons in 2016.
Congo (Central Africa)
In 2011, a business partner of Glencore International AG bribed a Congolese high-ranking official. In return, he received minority shares in the state-owned mining company for less than their value. Glencore benefited from the benefits of this deal. In addition, according to the Swiss authorities, the company did too little to prevent corruption. Glencore was issued a penalty notice for this after a four-year investigation. The OAG ordered Glencore to pay a fine of CHF 2 million and damages of USD 150 million. With regard to some of the other facts investigated by the OAG, which relate to Glencore’s business activities in the DRC between 2007 and 2017, the OAG issued a desist order. Glencore also paid some EUR 1.3 billion in settlements and fines in 2022 for widespread corrupt practices. The group had to pay more than 1.1 billion euros to the American justice department for, among other things, bribing authorities in countries in Africa and South America.
Curacao
Emsley Deonicio Tromp, who has been director of the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten since 1991, was tried for tax fraud and money laundering in the private sphere. Tromp allegedly defrauded Curaçao of approximately 2.8 million euros, but was acquitted. Minister of Health Jacinta Constancia was sentenced to twenty months in prison for fraud. She is also not allowed to hold office as a minister for five years. 34 months had been demanded against Constancia. Her husband must also serve twenty months in prison. Constancia was a minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte from 2010 to 2012. She and her husband were tried for embezzling the equivalent of 200,000 euros. That money was intended for the purchase of 40,000 face masks that were never delivered. Former Minister of Finance George Jamaloodin of the same cabinet Gerrit Schottte (2010/2012) was found guilty in August 2019 and sentenced to 28 years in prison for ordering the political murder of 54-year-old politician Helmin Wiels. Jamaloodin had given the order and the money for the murder. His half-brother is the locally known gambling boss Robbie dos Santos and the victim may have been investigating illegal lottery sales in Curaçao. The murderer and an accomplice were sentenced to life and 26 years respectively.
Denmark
Danske bank is located in the Estonian capital Tallinn AFP. Between 2007 and 2015, an estimated 200 billion euros were laundered through bank branches in Estonia. Until 2015, criminal Russians, Moldovans and Azerbaijanis were able to bank without any problems. And they did so in large numbers. Tens of thousands of suspicious transactions were passed through without any checks. After a whistleblower revealed the money laundering practices in 2013, the bank started a brief investigation of its own, which was not shared with the bank’s top management. The Public Prosecution Service started its own criminal investigation in August 2018. The bank can expect a fine that is equal to or close to the fine that ING Nederland received, namely 650 to 750 million euros.
Germany
ING and ABN Amro had both lent around 180 million euros to the bankrupt German fintech company Wirecard , which was emptied just before the bankruptcy. Around 1 billion dollars may have been passed on to shady partners. At that time, Wirecard was already accused of accounting fraud. The company gave unsecured loans to companies, intended as advance payments to vendors who had their payments processed by Wirecard’s Asian partners. The flow of money accelerated before the bankruptcy, with the Dutch Ocap receiving almost 100 million euros. Wirecard used partners in countries where it did not have a license itself, set up by the former COO Jan Marsalek, who is now missing. The company collapsed in June after almost 2 billion euros disappeared from the balance sheet. Former CEO Markus Braun and three other former directors have been arrested. Ernst & Young (EY) is being summoned by the investors’ association European Investors-VEB for its role as accountant in the collapse of Wirecard. Jan Marsalek, former COO of Wirecard, has disappeared and is wanted by Interpol. He claimed to have a secret chemical formula for novichok , the world’s deadliest nerve agent. Marsalek, who has ties to secret services in Austria and Russia, is wanted in connection with his role in the Wirecard scandal. There are also possible ties to the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organization. The conclusions of the parliamentary inquiry are not expected for several months. In 2024, he was again in trouble together with Martin Weiss and Egisto Ott, two Austrians working for the secret service in Austria but who are said to be spying for Russia. Egisto Ott was arrested at the end of May 2024 but released at the end of June. He was a former head of Austrian state security. In 2017, there were already suspicions of espionage against him and he was even temporarily removed from his position more than once. gisto Ott is suspected of selling state secrets to Russia and providing information about Kremlin enemies in the West. He is also accused of hatching a plan with other officers to reorganize the security services as a new department of the Foreign Ministry, at a time when the ministry was headed by controversial pro-Russian Freedom Party member Karin Kneissl; there is no indication in investigation documents that she knew about the plan. Ott was also in possession of an analysis of the shortcomings of the Russian operation in Berlin, with recommendations on how to improve it.
British short seller Fraser Perring, who brought down Wirecard and targeted malpractice at Sofina subsidiary Byju’s, also made accusations against the Adler group, such as inflating the balance sheet. The German real estate company Adler Real Estate was subsequently searched on suspicion of forgery, market manipulation and accounting fraud. The Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office and the German police searched all offices, including those of former Adler advisor Cevdet Caner, in London and Monaco on suspicion of incorrect accounting, market manipulation and breach of trust. Around 21 properties, including commercial properties, apartments and a law firm in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Erftstadt, as well as in Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Monaco, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom, were searched by 175 officials from the German public prosecutor’s office and the police. It is suspected that the suspects made sham deals to drive up prices for projects. The suspected Germans, Austrians and Britons are suspected of having misrepresented the company’s balance sheets or of having assisted in doing so from 2018 to 2020 in their capacity as former board members. On behalf of Adler Real Estate, they are said to have concluded consultancy contracts and made payments for which no consideration was given. It is suspected that the suspects concluded bogus deals to drive up prices for projects and thus obtain a favorable ‘Loan to Value’ (LTV or jargon for debt ratio). This sent the wrong signals to the capital market, as the LTV is a key factor in investment decisions for shareholders and bondholders. The Adler Group closed 2023 with a loss of billions. KPMG’s accountants refused to approve the 2021 annual accounts. The financial supervisor BaFin also discovered errors in the 2019 balance sheet. In 2021, Adler Real Estate sold a fifth of its portfolio, 15,000 apartments and 186 shops, worth 1.5 billion to competitor Leg Immobilien. Adler Real Estate was created through a complex three-way merger. At the end of 2019, Adler acquired an Israeli company that had a large stake in another German real estate company, ADO Properties, which was financially stronger than Adler. Five days later, ADO Properties announced that it was buying its new co-owner, Adler, as well as a stake in a third real estate company, Consus Real Estate. The combined company was renamed Adler Group. Through this operation, the Austrian Kurd Cevdet Caner came on board. He plays a key role in the allegations of Perring and in the searches by the German police. Adler Real Estate is led by Thierry Beaudemoulin. The Frenchman is well-known in the Belgian real estate landscape. Together with Taco De Groot, former CEO of Vastned Belgium, he joined Brack Capital, a real estate investor listed in Tel Aviv. The president of the Supervisory Board left after all the commotion.
German prosecutors have opened an investigation into Petr Bystron, a member of the Bundestag from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. He is suspected of bribery and money laundering. Bystron is number two on the AfD candidate list for the European parliamentary elections in June and has been under fire for some time. In early April, the Czech newspaper Denik N revealed that Bystron, who was born in the Czech Republic, allegedly had ties to the pro-Russian network Voice of Europe of Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian Ukrainian businessman, politician and friend of President Putin. Bystron is also said to have accepted money. The MEP himself denies all accusations and speaks of libel and slander. The Bundestag has lifted Bystron’s immunity. German and Spanish authorities have searched properties in Berlin, Bavaria and Mallorca and seized evidence. Bystron is not the only prominent candidate of the far-right AfD who is under fire. MEP Maximilian Krah, like his party colleague, is said to have ties to pro-Russian networks. In addition, an assistant of Krah has been charged with espionage on behalf of China.
Philippines
Ferdinand Marcos senior, led the country in the 60s, 70s and 80s in a dictatorial manner. He and his family were symbols of corruption, a luxurious lifestyle and plunder. The amount involved is estimated at 10 billion dollars. There are all kinds of investigations into the stolen billions from that time, as well as a tax bill of no less than 4 billion dollars. His son, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos has nevertheless now won the elections in the Philippines by a landslide.
France
In France, politicians, ministers and even presidents are regularly brought to trial on suspicion of abuse of power or corruption. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy, 66, has been sentenced to a one-year ankle monitor instead of three years in prison. He was found guilty of attempting to bribe a judge in exchange for inside information about an investigation into the finances of his election campaign. The fraud was intended to conceal the fact that the campaign was more than twice as expensive as allowed by French law. In 2012, far more money was spent on the campaign than allowed, and thirteen other people are also considered suspects. Sarkozy, president from 2007 to 2012, was arrested in March 2018 and went to trial in 2016 for financing his 2012 election campaign. He has challenged his conviction all the way to the country’s highest court. But he has now also been sentenced in cassation to wear an electronic ankle monitor for a year. French President Chirac, who was decorated by the Netherlands in 2000, was given a suspended prison sentence for corruption.
Even a former head of the French internal security service (DCRI), Bernard Squarcini, was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended, for abuse of office and corruption. The court found him guilty of, among other things, abusing his network as head of DCRI for personal gain. The court also sentenced the 69-year-old Squarcini to a fine of 200,000 euros and a five-year ban on holding certain positions. Among the many charges against the former intelligence chief, who was nicknamed ’the Shark’, was that he used his contacts and powerful position to provide services for payment to the founder and CEO of the French group LVMH Bernard Arnault, who was also involved in the trial in which nine others were accused of embezzlement. In France, there has been an ongoing investigation into money laundering practices surrounding the founder and CEO Bernard Arnault. Together with Russian oligarch Nikolai Sarkisov, he is said to have been involved in a complex deal involving homes in the luxurious French ski resort of Courchevel in 2018. The real estate transactions were made through various companies in France, Luxembourg and Cyprus. He is said to have lent Sarkisov money for the deal and later became the owner of the chalets himself.
The IMF chairman has been found guilty of negligence in fraud and sentenced. A compensation award of hundreds of millions in the case against the owner of Adidas was not appealed, resulting in a settlement of over 400 million euros. At the same IMF, Bankia executives also made mistakes between 2010 and 2012 by using the bank’s credit card for private purposes, resulting in a total expenditure of 12 million on the black credit cards. A French presidential candidate appeared in court in the ‘Penelopegate’, in which he allegedly paid his wife hundreds of thousands of euros for work she had never done. Austria was fined 29.8 million euros for providing false information about its government debt.
Corruption at FIFA dates back to 1991, with more than 100 reports of suspicious financial activity linked to the awarding of the 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) World Cups. FIFA is also investigating PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who is accused of bribing the former FIFA secretary general for the rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Cups. Georges Tro, the 63-year-old former French secretary of state and mayor of Draveil, is running his town from prison for rape. In February, he was convicted of rape and sexual assault against a city hall employee, receiving a three-year prison sentence, two years suspended, and a six-year ban from running for office. The evidence against Platini and Blatter was insufficient and both were acquitted on appeal in March 2025.
BNP Paribas is involved in a controversial case regarding the aggravation of money laundering in numerous suspicious financial flows that occurred between 2019 and 2021 through TCR International Limited, a company incorporated in Cyprus. BNP Paribas Securities Services acted as banking partner to TCR International during this period.
During a house search at the home of the female Moroccan mayor Jamilah Habsaoui of the French municipality of Avallon, the police found at least 70 kilograms of cannabis on April 7, 2024. Habsaoui was arrested together with 6 others, including 2 of her brothers. The town hall and the pharmacy where she worked were also searched. 983 grams of cocaine, 7,000 euros in cash and about twenty gold bars were found. The 46-year-old Habsaoui had been a municipal councilor in Avallon since 2014 and was elected mayor in March 2021. She was also a regional councilor in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.
In two different submarine orders, there are suspicions of corruption and, among other things, the company Thales is being investigated. House searches have been carried out in the Netherlands, France and Spain in connection with possible corruption in the sale of submarines to Brazil . In another case, which has been ongoing for some time, an investigation is being conducted into corruption in the sale of submarines to Malaysia.
Right-wing radical Le Pen was found guilty by a judge of embezzling EU millions.
Georgia
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been sentenced to another nine years in prison for embezzlement. The former president has been in prison for almost four years after a previous conviction. That period will be deducted from his prison sentence. Saakashvili was president from 2004 to 2013. In 2008, Russia invaded the country and the countries were at war for several weeks. In addition, the last years of his term were characterized by authoritarian actions and police violence. He then left the country and held high positions in Ukraine. When he was expelled there after statements about corruption in the country, the former president temporarily settled in the Netherlands in 2018 because his wife is from Terneuzen. In the meantime, Saakashvili was convicted in absentia in Georgia for abuse of power. When the former president returned in 2021, he was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. He has been in a prison hospital since then. Concerns about his health have been expressed regularly. In March 2025, the judge imposed an additional nine years in prison and Saakashvili will be banned from holding public office for three years. Temur Janashia, the former head of the State Security Service, was also found guilty in the same case. He will be fined 300,000 Georgian Lari, the equivalent of around 100,000 euros. Together with Saakashvili, Janashia is said to have embezzled around 9 million Georgian Lari, almost 3 million euros, in state funds for personal purposes. This was done using secret documents that were unlawfully marked as ‘secret’.
Opposition members and the former president’s defense say the case is politically motivated. According to them, the regime fears Saakashvili and therefore wants him behind bars. The former president still has two ongoing trials. One concerns incidents such as the breaking up of anti-government protests and the other concerns an illegal border crossing upon his return to Georgia in 2021.
Honduras
Former Honduran President Hernández accepted bribes while serving on FIFA’s television and marketing committee. He was convicted in the US for large-scale drug trafficking. He faces a minimum prison sentence of 40 years. He will hear his sentence in June 2024. Hernández (55) was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022. He resigned in early 2022. A few months later, he was extradited to the US. The crimes date back to 2004, when Hernández was still a member of parliament. In the years that followed, he accepted millions of dollars in bribes to fund his political career. In exchange for the money, he arranged heavily armed police escorts for cocaine shipments through Honduras. In total, he helped smuggle more than 360,000 kilos of cocaine into the US. His brother is also serving a life sentence for large-scale drug trafficking and his cousin was convicted of participating in the criminal organization surrounding Hernández.
Hungary
Péter Magyar is a rising political star in Hungary. He comes from the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, but now accuses the regime of large-scale corruption and fraud with EU money in the country. The Central Criminal Investigation Bureau has filed charges and designated 54 individuals, including high-ranking officials, and 25 legal entities involved. The received grant money exceeded a total value of 64,614,993 euros. The charges relate to bribery and related crimes. Details indicate the involvement of 108 applications, mainly from the Operational Programme for Economic Development and Innovation, funded by the EU, in addition to 8 applications from the Health Support Programme, which is funded domestically.
India
Vijay Mallya, son of a beer magnate, became chairman of the United Breweries Group at the age of 28. In 2005, he expanded with Kingfisher Airlines and became known for his Formula 1 team Force India. Mallya has been convicted of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy at Indian banks, including state-owned IDBI. He defaulted on approximately $1.4 billion in debts for his bankrupt airline Kingfisher Airlines and has been summoned to Indian courts on 27 counts. In 2012, Kingfisher Airlines went bankrupt and in 2016, Mallya fled to London. In April 2017, he was arrested and his $1.5 billion assets were frozen. In May 2017, his 31% shareholding in UB was seized by the Indian government. Heineken now wants Mallya to step down as chairman and take over the shares in UB. Mallya was also involved with the Force India F1 team and was arrested in London in 2017. He is still awaiting extradition and has been sentenced to four months in prison by the court for contempt of court by donating $40 million to his children, in violation of an earlier sentence.
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani was indicted in the US in late November 2024 on fraud charges over allegedly orchestrating and concealing a $265 million bribery scandal between 2020 and 2024 to raise money in the US. The 62-year-old Adani is one of the world’s richest men, whose business empire spans everything from ports and airports to renewable energy. In the indictment, prosecutors alleged that the tycoon and other top executives agreed to pay Indian officials to secure contracts for his renewable energy company, which were expected to generate more than $2 billion in profits over the next 20 years. In 2023, US short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report accusing Adani of decades of “brazen” stock manipulation and accounting fraud. The allegations, which Mr Adani denied, led to a major market sell-off and an investigation by India’s securities regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Hindenburg later accused Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch of having ties to offshore funds used by the Adani group. Both Buch and the group have denied this. Executives are alleged to have raised $3 billion in loans and bonds, including from US companies, based on false and misleading statements regarding the company’s anti-bribery practices and policies, as well as reports on the bribery investigation. “As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure billions of dollars in contracts and… lied about the bribery scheme while seeking to raise capital from US and international investors. Officials said Mr Adani met with government officials on multiple occasions to promote the bribery scheme. US investment firm GQG Partners LLC, which has invested nearly $10 billion in the Adani Group, has said it is monitoring the charges and may take “appropriate” action across its portfolios. The case is also likely to cause a political storm in India. Mr Adani is a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has long faced allegations from opposition politicians that he has profited from his political ties, which he denies. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi demanded at a press conference that Mr Adani be arrested and Ms Buch removed from her post as head of Sebi. US Attorney positions in the US are appointed by the president. The filing comes just weeks after Donald Trump won election to the White House on a pledge to reform the U.S. Justice Department.In November, Mr Adani congratulated Trump on his election victory on social media and pledged to invest $10 billion in the US. In November, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and seven others – including his cousin Sagar Adani – were charged in the US with bribery and fraud. Adani paid the bribes to secure large government solar projects in India with a projected profit of $2 billion over 20 years.
Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife are accused of corruption and accepting tens of thousands of euros in gifts from Israeli and foreign businessmen. About 20,000 people protested in central Tel Aviv on December 2, 2017, against government corruption and the alleged slowness of the ongoing investigations into Prime Minister Netanyahu. The charges against the prime minister, which include fraud, bribery and deceit, were filed by Avichai Mandelblit. This marks the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been indicted but does not have to step down until his final conviction. The preliminary investigation has lasted two years. The prime minister is alleged to have received nearly a quarter of a million euros in gifts and to have worked to secure a US visa for an Israeli-born Hollywood tycoon by raising the issue with then-US Secretary of State Kerry. He is also alleged to have agreed to curb a free newspaper in exchange for positive coverage by a rival newspaper, although this deal never went through. Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, was officially charged with state fund fraud on June 21, 2018, in which she allegedly misused official funds of approximately 87,000 euros for expensive catering by well-known restaurants from 2010 to 2013. As of 2020, no fewer than three corruption cases involving the Israeli prime minister have been pending in Israel. They are called Case 1000, 2000 and 4000. “All three cases revolve around allegations that Netanyahu used his influence as prime minister to advance his personal interests in the media. Benjamin Netanyahu will soon have to testify in his corruption trial. A Jerusalem court has rejected his request for a postponement. Even US President Donald Trump has intervened in the case. He believes the entire trial should be called off. According to the judges, Netanyahu’s request “does not provide a basis or detailed justification” for canceling the hearings.
Italy
The mayor of Milan resigned after being officially suspected of corruption in the allocation of permit applications for Expo Milan 2015. At the same time, the Guardia di Finanza raided Rome’s city hall and arrested the mayor on suspicion of corruption, along with his contractor. In Calabria, almost 150 people, including civil servants, politicians, workers, entrepreneurs and journalists, have been charged in the trial against the organised crime group Ndrangheta. The charges range from murder, money laundering, extortion, corruption to voter fraud. Former professional footballer Vincenzo Iaquinta has been sentenced to two years in prison for helping his father obtain weapons, which supported the Ndrangheta. In the Netherlands, the Ndrangheta is mainly involved in drug trafficking via the flower industry. In December 2018, police and judicial authorities from the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Belgium carried out a coordinated raid (Operation Pollino), resulting in five arrests in the Netherlands and 85 elsewhere in Europe. Raids have been carried out in The Hague, Zoetermeer, Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Velsen, Rotterdam, Tegelen and Sittard, among others. The investigation began in 2016, and a total of 84 arrests have been made, with two million euros, 140 kilos of ecstasy pills and three to four thousand kilos of cocaine being seized. The port of Rotterdam is mentioned as a major location for most drug shipments. In February 2019, Italian police seized more than 740 million euros from UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banco BPM and a subsidiary after a large-scale diamond fraud. More than 100,000 customers were defrauded by bank employees into investing in diamonds, receiving compensation, smartphones, antiques, expensive trips and jewellery. The diamonds were sold for prices far above their estimated value. In 2017, four banks were already fined for similar fraud by the competition authority. About 70 suspects are currently under investigation by the financial investigation service. Berlusconi was prime minister three times and was a businessman and billionaire outside of politics and also a controversial man. His life was marked by power, sex scandals and constant accusations of corruption and tax fraud. He died on June 12, 2023.
Former Italian MEP Panzeri was bribed for more than a decade to gain influence in the European Parliament. Panzeri was a key figure in EU-Morocco relations, where he also pushed the European Commission to allocate more money to Morocco. Panzeri also supported Morocco’s trade and fisheries agreement. Italian Deputy Minister of Culture Vitorio Sgarbi is in possession of a stolen 17th century painting. Italian police suspect he knew the painting was stolen and have launched an investigation into handling stolen goods and money laundering. Sgarbi says he found the painting in an abandoned villa his mother bought in 2000 and denies all charges.
A university based in Palermo, Sicily, was presented as the Italian branch of Goražde University in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The institution offered online courses and internships, but was not registered as an educational institution in Italy and its parent university in Bosnia was not licensed. Italian “university medical degrees” are found to be worthless. Students paid registration fees, followed online courses with leading doctors and did internships in hospitals. Yet, around a hundred Italian students discovered that their medical or nursing degrees were invalid. Another 150 students had to abandon their studies. The diploma for which they paid 6,500 to 20,000 euros per year in tuition fees is found to be worthless. The Italian Ministry of Universities and Research declares that it is a case of educational fraud. “Rector” Salvatore Messina was also arrested in 2004 after embezzling millions in European money. The Sicilian region had awarded that money in exchange for courses that Messina never taught. He was initially sentenced to eight years in prison. The sentence was later waived because the case had expired.
The criminal organization ndrangheta has its origins in Calabria, a region in the tip of the boot of Italy. The organization is said to have smuggled almost 25,000 kilograms of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022. From Calabria, 22 million euros were also channeled to South America via the Netherlands and Belgium. In early May 2023, the police with more than 1,400 officers across Europe, in collaboration with Europol, carried out a massive operation against the organization, which is the largest and most powerful mafia organization in the world. 132 people were arrested, two of whom were on the European list of most wanted criminals. The arrested persons are suspected of money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and arms and drug trafficking. The drug shipments went from South America to Western Europe. The proceeds were laundered through real estate transactions, but also via restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and car washes. The operation was made possible because intercepted messages could be read via the encrypted messaging service SkyECC. In Italy, 108 arrests were made, most of them from the southern region of Calabria, where the ‘ndrangheta originates. In Germany, more than fifty houses, apartments, offices and business premises were searched in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and fifteen people were arrested. In Rhineland-Palatinate, ten people were arrested and in Bavaria four. There were also searches in Thuringia. In Belgium, 25 locations were raided, including Genk, Maasmechelen and Hasselt. There, 13 people were taken in for questioning and four expensive cars, several weapons and 60,000 euros in cash were seized. There were also actions in Brazil, France, Panama, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. In Italy, one of the most wanted criminals was arrested, Pasquale Bonavota, a leader of the ‘ndrangheta. In Italy, 61 more mafia members were arrested on May 10, 2023, on suspicion of fraud, drug trafficking, infiltrating the government and extorting local farmers. More than 500 agents were involved in this operation. A total of 167 people were targeted. The raids are part of the international operation Eureka.
The Italian mafia collects EU subsidies for farms that only exist on paper. In the Italian Abruzzo, the greenest region of Italy, there are on paper many agricultural companies for which millions in European agricultural subsidies have been obtained in recent years. The mafia owns most of the land there. Farmers who do have a real company had to close because at auctions the land did not go to them but to a whole network of companies that rented land from the municipality for high prices. Because of all these illegal constructions it is almost impossible for young farmers to start their own company in the area. The land is now in the hands of all these ‘virtual companies. This large-scale fraud has been made possible because the system in Italy is not right. The systematic fraud by organised crime is not only financial gain, but also gives control over the land that could be used for other illegal activities. In the system, farmers are intimidated if they do not play along and their stables are set on fire, agricultural machinery stolen, etc. The European agricultural subsidies are also abused in the Netherlands by labelling land as agricultural land, while this is not actually the case or by splitting up companies. More than 8 billion euros of the European budget has not been spent according to the rules. That is 5.6 percent of the total budget of the European Union.
Italian financial police seized €121 million worth of goods from Amazon’s Milan facility in July 2024. The company is accused of tax evasion and worker exploitation and is suspected of illegally transferring logistics services to subcontractors in order to reduce labor costs and pay less tax. in connection with allegations of tax evasion and worker exploitation. The company is alleged to have used a system in which large companies illegally transfer logistics services to subcontractors (cooperatives and limited liability companies) in order to reduce labor costs and pay less tax. The Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting similar investigations into other logistics companies, including UPS and DHL.
Japan
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida has had to replace four cabinet members after they accepted bribes and concealed tens of thousands of euros in donations. Five deputy ministers involved are also being replaced. Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno has resigned, and Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Suzuki has also resigned upon request, as have Minister of Agriculture Miyashita and Minister of Economic Affairs Nishimura. Investigations have revealed that dozens of members of the largest faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), better known as the Abe faction, have cheated on fundraising reports and pocketed millions of euros.
Ruling LDP lawmaker Yoshitaka Ikeda, 57, was also arrested in connection with the corruption case. It is the first arrest in a scandal involving fundraising for politicians that has long ensnared Prime Minister Kishida’s party. Ikeda is a member of Japan’s Lower House and previously served as deputy minister of education. According to the Justice Department, he received around 300,000 euros in bribes between 2018 and 2022. His office was searched.
Japanese metal producer Kobe Steel has committed fraud with the results of quality inspections for steel wire, which is used in car engines and to reinforce tires. Kobe Steel admits to having falsified the strength and lifespan of aluminum and copper products, among other things, but also appears to have committed fraud in the production of its steel. Kobe products are used in cars, airplanes and trains. The fraud involved approximately 20,000 tons of aluminum and copper destined for Toyota, Nissan, Boeing and the aerospace division of Mitsubishi, among others. CEO Hiroya Kawasaki had to resign.
Nissan sold 20 percent fewer cars due to irregularities in mandatory inspections of new vehicles. Inspections were carried out in Nissan factories by people without the correct certificates. It also emerged that copies of stamps that officially confirm the quality inspection of cars were in circulation. The board fired Chairman Carlos Ghosn and Director Gregory Kelly in November 2018 after Ghosn was arrested in Japan on suspicion of tax fraud. Ghosn was also the CEO of Renault and the Franco-Japanese auto alliance Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. The 64-year-old Ghosn is banned from running a publicly traded company for 10 years and must pay $1 million in a settlement with the SEC. Nissan also settled and must pay $15 million. Ghosn is said to have received $94 million in compensation between 2009 and 2018, while this was concealed from the public. Gregory Kelly also has to pay $100,000 and is banned from being a director of a listed company for five years. Ghosn was released on bail and is under house arrest in Tokyo.
Toyota ’s testing woes follow similar problems at Toyota group companies Hino Motors, Daihatsu Motor Co. and Toyota Industries Corp. over the past two years. Shinji Miyamoto, a Toyota executive, said Toyota began investigating its testing after problems emerged at those group companies. Daihatsu halted deliveries of all new car models in mid-December 2023 after it was revealed that safety tests had been tampered with, including by Toyota models. Daihatsu admitted in April that it had falsified crash test results for a batch of 88,000 vehicles it produced in Thailand and Malaysia in 2022 and 2023. Investigators found 174 irregularities in 25 different tests, involving 64 models from the Daihatsu, Toyota, Mazda and Subaru brands. Parent company Toyota apologized in a statement for any inconvenience the situation has caused. The Dutch claims organisation Daihatsuclaim wants to claim more than 50 million euros in damages on behalf of concerned motorists. The fraud in certification tests for seven Toyota car models was a reason to suspend the production of three models. The faulty tests involved outdated or incorrect data in crash tests, airbag inflation, damage tests on the rear seat and falsified emission tests. The models involved are the Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio and Yaris Cross, with several models that have been withdrawn from the market also involved. An investigation by the Japanese government into Toyota began in January.
Mazda Motor Corp. also reported irregular certification tests and halted production of the Roadster and Mazda 2 because of faulty engine control software. Mazda has admitted to crash test violations for three discontinued models that do not affect vehicle safety. Takata also cheated with tens of millions of the company’s airbags that sometimes exploded too powerfully, causing motorists to be injured or even killed by metal fragments. Takata has gone bankrupt as a result of the scandal. 50,000 older vehicles are being rushed back to the garage. Owners of the cars are being advised not to drive for repairs because the airbags could explode. The affected vehicles include Corollas from 2003 and 2004, the Corolla Matrix from 2003 and 2004 and RAV4s from 2004 and 2005.
Kenya
Kenyan President Kenyatta and family members have assets in several shell companies. As a businessman, he has been the subject of controversy over land grabs for decades. Most notably, in 2013, Kenya’s High Court ordered Ruto to forfeit a 100-hectare farm in the Rift Valley province after he illegally seized the property. The International Criminal Court charged Ruto with inciting violence in the aftermath of the 2007 presidential election, which left 1,200 people dead.
Latvia
The governor of Latvia’s central bank, Ilmars Rimsevics, is accused of accepting bribes of at least €100,000. The case against Rimsevics comes at the same time as an investigation into Lithuanian bank ABLV was closed after US authorities accused him of money laundering and violating sanctions against North Korea. Rimsevics has been governor of the Latvian central bank since 2001 and is also a member of the board of the European Central Bank. Pending the investigation, he has been suspended by Latvian authorities as central bank governor and has also had no involvement with the ECB. In his ongoing cases, Rimšēvičs has been accused of accepting bribes from shareholders of Trasta komercbanka, which was closed by regulators. He has refused to resign and has consistently denied his guilt.
Lithuania
Since the turn of the year, the number of reports of fake fines to the Fraud Help Desk has increased significantly. The fake fines appear to come from the Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB), but have a Lithuanian account number.
Malta
Caruana Galizia, 53, has blogged regularly about the Panama Papers and corruption in Malta and Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife. She published her last blog about a legal case between two Maltese political leaders. The journalist was murdered with a car bomb. She had reported threats two weeks earlier. Chris Fearne, the deputy prime minister, announced his resignation on 10 May 2024 after allegations of fraud in connection with the privatisation of hospitals. He also requested that his candidacy for the position of European Commissioner be withdrawn. Fearne’s resignation comes after both he and former Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat were implicated in a long-running case in connection with the privatisation of three hospitals. Muscat is alleged to have received €60,000 from a company linked to the US group Steward Health Care, which acquired the hospitals from Vitals Global Healthcare in 2018. Joseph Muscat became Prime Minister of Malta in 2013 and resigned in January 2020 under public pressure following the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Morocco
Vehicles are regularly smuggled into Morocco from Europe. After they arrive, the cars are transported to various African countries, where smugglers have a network to sell them on the illegal market. Large sums of money are earned.
Mexico
According to the research agency Laboratorio Electoral, 30 people running for political office have been murdered in Mexico since June 2023. Recently, in Mante, a city in northeastern Mexico, one of the candidates in the upcoming mayoral elections was murdered. And in the southern state of Oaxaca, the body of a mayoral candidate who had been kidnapped earlier in the week was found
A Mexican construction company has committed fraud with approximately 100,000 non-existent houses for which expenses and income were booked. The fraud amounted to $3.3 billion. The company claimed for decades non-existent projects in the southern United States. After discovery, the company agreed to a settlement with the American justice department. Drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as the leader of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman (60), is in custody in New York and his trial is ongoing in Brooklyn. El Chapo routinely raped 13-year-old girls, sometimes after drugging them. El Chapo was extradited from Mexico to the US in January 2017 and must stand trial for drug trafficking, murder, and leading a criminal organization between 1989 and 2014. It is said that 14 billion dollars were converted in the United States under El Chapo’s leadership. El Chapo was the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, or Confederation. Guzmán began his criminal career in the 1980s alongside Miguel Ángel “El Padrino” Félix Gallardo, Mexico’s top drug lord at the time. A witness in the trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has reiterated that the Mexican drug lord previously paid ex-president Enrique Peña Nieto $100 million.
Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico’s former defense minister, was arrested in mid-October 2020 on suspicion of drug trafficking and money laundering by order of the DEA, the US government agency that combats illegal drugs. The 72-year-old general was defense minister from 2012 to 2018. During that time, the military was accused of violating human rights. For example, in 2014, 22 suspects were killed in a shootout between the military and a criminal gang. An investigation later revealed that many suspects had already surrendered when they were shot dead. Arrest warrants had previously been issued for military personnel who were allegedly involved in the disappearance and death of 43 students in 2014. Mexican authorities have issued dozens of arrest warrants for police officers, officials and soldiers who are alleged to have been involved in the disappearance and death of the students.
Grupo Salinas, the conglomerate of Grupo Elektra and broadcaster TV Azteca of Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, must pay about $1 billion in back taxes. According to the tax authorities, he owes about $3 billion with his companies.
Former Mexican minister Genaro García Luna has been sentenced to 38 years in prison in the US for accepting large sums of bribes from a drug cartel. García Luna was Mexico’s minister of public security from 2006 to 2012. He was arrested in Dallas in 2019. A jury in New York had already found him guilty in February of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to protect the violent Sinaloa cartel that he was supposed to tackle. The former minister maintained his innocence during the hearing. “I have a deep respect for the law. I did not commit these crimes,” he told the judge. According to prosecutors, the former government official handed over intelligence about law enforcement investigations into the cartel, as well as information about rival drug gangs and safe routes for transporting drugs, in exchange for the millions. The judge told García Luna that he was not impressed by previous praise he had received as minister for his role in the fight against drugs. In addition to the prison sentence, the judge imposed a fine of two million dollars on García Luna.
Monaco
Prince Albert is said to have used a secret bank account at BNP to pamper his mistresses. In this way, millions were allegedly paid over the years to “ex-lovers and illegitimate children. Prince Albert is said to have given a three million dollar apartment in New York to one of those children and bought an apartment in London for his ex-lover, plus made an expensive investment in a clothing boutique of hers. The French newspaper Le Monde reported espionage, influencing judges and journalists, setting up offshore companies, managing accounts in Switzerland and evading the French tax authorities.
Mozambique
The lawyer of Mozambican presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane was shot dead along with a senior party official in the capital Maputo on October 19, 2024. The killings came as the country awaits the results of elections that could end the nearly 50-year rule of the ruling Frelimo party. Lawyer Elvino Dias and Podemos spokesman Paulo Guambe were attacked by gunmen in two vehicles late on Friday night while driving their car on a busy main road in Maputo. Their car was “riddled with bullets. Dias was Mondlane’s legal adviser and is said to be playing a key role in challenging the election results in the Constitutional Court. The October 9 election, in which Mondlane ran as an independent candidate with the support of Podemos, has been criticized as unfair by the opposition, which accuses Frelimo of electoral fraud.
Myanmar
Myanmar is a country in Southeast Asia and borders Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. Last year, the army killed and raped thousands of members of the Muslim Rohingya minority with ‘genocidal intent’. The top military leadership should be brought to justice for this, says a United Nations commission of inquiry. Two journalists who published about this were recently sentenced to seven years in prison by a court in Myanmar after they were lured into a trap with a transfer of secret government documents. The commission of inquiry recommends that the military leadership (Chief of Staff Min Aung Hlaing and the five generals Aung Aung, Kyaw Zaw, Maung Maung Soe, Soe Win and Than Oo) be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Myanmar is widely known for facilitation payments, bribery, money laundering and giving or receiving bribes.
Ukraine
In May 2023, the president of the Supreme Court was arrested for receiving $3 million in bribes. Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi resigned in mid-May 2024 amid allegations of illegally acquiring state land worth €6.9 million. This is not the first time that Solskyi’s ministry has been in controversy. Last year, one of his deputies was accused of involvement in an embezzlement scheme. Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov was dismissed in September 2023 over several corruption cases within the ministry. A US report has found that Ukraine is experiencing enforced disappearances, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, appalling and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrest or detention, serious problems with judicial independence, restrictions on freedom of expression, including for media representatives, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, as well as censorship, severe restrictions on internet freedom, significant interference with the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, restrictions on freedom of movement, serious government corruption, widespread gender violence, systematic restrictions on workers’ associations and the existence of the worst forms of child labour. A court has ordered the arrest of Agriculture Minister Mikola Solski on suspicion of involvement in an illegal deal to purchase land from the government worth €6.5 million.The case concerns corruption dating back to before he became a minister in 2022. Solskyi was the first minister in the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to be prosecuted by the judiciary for corruption. Ilya Vityuk, a senior official at the SBU security service, was dismissed after allegations of corruption. Vityuk was head of the SBU’s counterintelligence in the field of cybersecurity. Vityuk’s wife had already bought a luxury apartment in the center of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. President Zelenskyi has often promised a rigorous fight against corruption and embezzlement. This is also a condition for his country’s EU membership. A few days ago, Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi was forced to resign over a bribery scandal. According to a report to the US Congress by Inspector General Robert Storch of the Pentagon, corruption in Ukraine is still among the highest in Europe. According to his findings, bribery and kickbacks are common practices, and the Ministry of Defense inflates prices during tenders. Ukraine is still confronted with corruption scandals almost every week. The population has gotten used to it by now. Under pressure from the West, the government is tackling the problem, but the results are meager and suspects are even given management positions within the government. “As long as corrupt officials do not receive real punishments, the situation will not change. Ukraine is shocked by corruption scandals almost every week. The population has gotten used to it by now. Zelensky himself is also not without controversy because of the assets he holds via the Cayman Islands. Zelensky’s wealth mainly comes from his successful career in the entertainment industry via Kvartal 95, a company that generated considerable income through TV productions, films and live performances. The use of offshore companies such as Maltex was not exactly transparent, as were his possible ties to oligarchs, but there is no evidence that his wealth would come from illegal sources, as is often claimed on social media.
Uzbekistan
The company of the eldest daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, must pay a fine of almost 1.6 million euros in the Netherlands for bribery and forgery. The shares that the company owned have been confiscated. Since the corruption case became known, the woman has been under house arrest in the capital Tashkent. Through a letterbox company in Gibraltar (Takilant), she accepted bribes from telecom companies Vimpelcom and TeliaSonera to obtain mobile telephony licenses in Uzbekistan. These companies were officially established in the Netherlands and used Dutch lawyers and (ING) bankers for the payments. The Public Prosecution Service originally demanded a fine of almost 5 million euros and confiscation of an amount of more than 300 million euros in illegally obtained benefits. Telecom company Telia settled the case for 274 million dollars, with three Rotterdam-based subsidiaries of Telia accepting the Public Prosecution Service’s settlement proposal. ING transferred bribe payments from Vimpelcom to an Uzbek government official without reporting this. VimpelCom itself settled with the Dutch and American authorities for 795 million. The company paid over 100 million euros in bribes to gain access to the local telephony market and to obtain 3G and 4G licenses. Various suspicious money flows ran via ING, Fortis, ATB and Svenska Handelsbanen. Accountancy firm EY is also suspected of not reporting suspicious transactions and has been officially designated as a suspect. Three bank employees were banned from the profession by the Disciplinary Law Foundation for violating the banker’s oath.
Austria
Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, had to resign in October 2021 after suspicions of corruption. The chancellor and several employees used taxpayers’ money to buy positive media coverage. In August 2023, he was charged again because he may have made false statements in the corruption scandal. Kurz stated in 2020 that he had played hardly any role in the appointment of the head of a large state-owned company. He was said to have been informed in advance about the decision to appoint Thomas Schmid as Öbag’s boss, but then did nothing with it. Based on chat messages, it appears that Kurz was very closely involved in the appointment. ‘Ibiza-gate’ revolved around the party leader of the right-wing populist FPÖ, Heinz-Christian Strache. A video of him recorded in Ibiza has emerged in which the impression is given that he was prepared to commit corruption. At the time of the scandal, Strache was vice-chancellor in Kurz’s government. In 2016, Kurz was also under fire for allegedly using government money to manipulate opinion polls. Kurz resigned in October 2021 after the Public Prosecution Service launched an investigation. A court in Vienna sentenced former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (37) to an 8-month suspended prison sentence for perjury. The Vienna Court of Appeal acquitted Kurz of perjury on appeal, but the other cases are still ongoing.
Pakistan
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption. Sharif could not prove how he obtained the money to buy a steel mill in Saudi Arabia. Sharif was prime minister of Pakistan three times. The Supreme Court removed him in 2017 for concealing income. In July, he was also sentenced to 10 years in prison in a corruption case over the purchase of luxury flats in London. An Islamabad court later suspended the sentence after Sharif’s lawyers appealed.
People associated with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, such as the Minister of Water Resources, also tried to stash money in an offshore company. Khan’s finance minister owns four offshore companies. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan himself was arrested again in May 2023 for corruption. This happened in a courthouse in the capital Islamabad where other charges against him were being heard. Khan was taken out of the courthouse by police and put in an armored car that then drove away. Khan was recently sentenced to 3 years in prison for making 600,000 euros from selling corruption gifts. Khan appealed but missed participation in the new elections in November 2023 due to his conviction and arrest. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced to 14 years in prison in January 2025. His wife Bushra Bibi was sentenced to seven years. This was the fourth major case in which the former prime minister has been convicted. Three previous convictions related to corruption, leaking state secrets and violating marriage laws.
Peru
The court suspects the 61-year-old Peruvian President Dina Boluarte of unlawful enrichment. She is said to have worn undeclared luxury watches of the Rolex brand during the period when she was still a minister. Boluarte is already under investigation for, among other things, “genocide” after the deaths of more than 50 people during the two months of social unrest that coincided with her appointment as president in December 2022. She has returned the “borrowed” watches to her friend, the governor of the Ayacucho region. Thanks to parliamentary support and her presidential immunity, no legal prosecution occurred. In the past five years, there have been six presidents in Peru, some of whom have been linked to or convicted of corruption. Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo was sentenced to a prison term of more than 20 years for accepting bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht . The 78-year-old Toledo was president of Peru from 2001 to 2006. Toledo (2001-2006) a twenty-year prison sentence. During his presidency, he is said to have received 35 million dollars from the construction company in exchange for a major contract. In exchange for the bribes, Odebrecht was commissioned to build a road connecting southern Peru with Brazil. Odebrecht, now called Nonovor, admitted in 2016 to having bribed officials in several countries. Dutch companies were also suspected of involvement in the major corruption case. The former president lived in the United States for many years. There, he was arrested in 2019 at the request of Peru, after which he was placed under house arrest. Last year, Toledo was extradited to Peru. A special prison has been built for former presidents on the outskirts of Lima. Former president Pedro Castillo is also in prison after he wanted to dissolve parliament just before an impeachment procedure against him. This led to his impeachment and arrest. In September 2024, former President Alberto Fujimori, who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his involvement in the murder of 25 Peruvians in the 1990s, died. He was released early last year due to health problems. Another former president, Peru’s Alan Garciá, was also suspected of taking bribes from Odebrecht. Garciá shot himself in the head during his arrest and died from his injuries. Current President Dina Doluarte is also accused of taking bribes. Peru’s Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against her in May of this year. Former President Ollanta Humala was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He and his wife Nadine Heredia are said to have been bribed by Odebrecht.and the then Venezuelan dictator Chávez accepted around 2.5 million euros in bribes to finance election campaigns in 2006 and 2011. The former president was immediately sentenced to prison, although he can still appeal. His wife entered the Brazilian embassy in Lima before the court’s verdict to request political asylum. She is said to have cancer. Brazil has approved her application and that of her youngest son. They are allowed to leave Peru. Humala (62) is a former army officer who participated in an uprising against then-president Fujimori in 2000 and was a candidate for the presidential elections in 2006. The court found it proven that the money for that campaign and that of 2011 came partly from Odebrecht and the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez (1999-2013). In 2006, his name also surfaced in an investigation by the Brazilian police into the payment of bribes by Odebrecht. Former President Fujimori (1990-2000), who died in 2024, also served a 25-year sentence for corruption and human rights violations. Former President Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) is in pre-trial detention. He is suspected of “rebellion”. He tried to dissolve parliament in 2022. It wanted to remove him because he was suspected of corruption.
Poland
In Poland, 62 civil servants from the previous government led by the right-wing nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) have been charged with misuse of public funds. After a six-month investigation, 62 people from the previous ruling elite have been charged. More than 100 other civil servants are still under investigation. Since the pro-European Donald Tusk won the elections in late December against the nationalist-conservative PiS, he has made a major case of investigating financial malpractices from the PiS government. They have reported crimes involving 740 million euros to the public prosecutor. According to Prime Minister Tusk, a team of 200 tax inspectors has been tasked with investigating 17 ministries and 90 units. The total scale of unexplained expenditure could amount to as much as 23 billion euros. ‘We have reported crimes involving 740 million euros to the public prosecutor.
Portugal
Vitor Escaria, Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s Chief of Staff, was caught with large sums of cash hidden in his room at the official residence in the Sao Bento Palace in Lisbon. The money was in wine boxes and books. A total of 75,800 euros was found. Escariac was arrested in November 2023 along with four others and released pending trial, after which the prime minister resigned. However, Costa himself is also a suspect, along with one of his ministers and a businessman friend. The money is said to have come from bribes for the licensing of lithium mines and green hydrogen. The fraud investigation had been ongoing since 2019. Prime Minister António Costa resigned in November 2023 after his official residence was also searched in an investigation into illegal deals surrounding the extraction of lithium and the production of hydrogen in Portugal. Infrastructure Minister Galamba is also a suspect in the case. Costa’s chief of staff and a close friend of his have also been detained. The mayor of the city of Sines and two entrepreneurs are also in prison. Costa, leader of the Socialist Party, has been prime minister since 2015. Since he was re-elected for a second term in January 2022, ten ministers and state secretaries have left, for various reasons. In the parliamentary elections on March 10, the leader of the center-right Democratic Alliance claimed victory.
Qatar see Saudi Arabia
Romania
Two parliamentary speakers, Liviu Dragnea (House of Representatives) and Calin Popescu Tariceanu (Senate), are accused of corruption by the judiciary. Dragnea was previously convicted of election manipulation. The cabinet of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu wanted to weaken an anti-corruption campaign at the end of January 2017. The contested decision was reversed after mass protests and Justice Minister Florin Iordache had to resign.
Russia
Former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony for corruption. He is accused of embezzling 3.2 billion rubles (25 million euros) from a Russian bank. He is also accused of embezzling more than 200 million rubles (over 2 million euros) from the purchase of two ferries intended to serve Russia-annexed Crimea.
Several top officials are accused of stealing large amounts of money intended for major military projects. Ivanov was appointed deputy minister in 2016. He oversaw construction projects for the military until his arrest in 2024.
Ivanov was also fined 100 million rubles (over 1 million euros). One of his former aides, Anton Filatov, was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison.
Russian investor Yuri Milner has invested in Twitter and Facebook, among other things, for the Russian government. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, which was previously used in the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Great Britain. Novichok is a liquid nerve agent that causes serious respiratory problems and can even lead to suffocation. Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko succumbed in 2006 after being poisoned with radioactive polonium in his tea and pointed to Putin on his deathbed. Navlny survived the attack and was imprisoned in Russia, after which he unexpectedly died on 16 February 2024 while out for a walk.
Arkady Romanovich Rotenberg, a Russian businessman and tycoon, co-owner of the Stroygazmontazh group with his brother Boris Rotenberg, evaded sanctions through multimillion-dollar art deals that took money out of the US and used it for state-funded infrastructure projects. An investigation by the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and State Affairs revealed that art dealer Grigory Baltser played a key role in these deals. The Rotenbergs are said to have made a total of $91 million in art deals in the US after they were sanctioned.
Since 2004, Putin and his cronies, including Gennady Timchenko, Arkady Rotenberg, Boris Rotenberg and Lieutenant General Yuri Kovalchuk, have been extracting $10-15 billion a year from Gazprom and others for personal gain. Yury Kuznetsov, head of the Defense Ministry’s Personnel Directorate, was later arrested on charges of large-scale bribery between 2021 and 2023, as head of the 8th Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Searches of his home found more than 100 million rubles (€1.09 million) in Russian and foreign currency, gold coins, collector’s watches and luxury items. Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was also detained on bribery charges.
The combined wealth of Putin, Timchenko, the Rotenbergs and Kovalchuk is estimated to be between $195 billion and $325 billion. The main purpose of the vast hidden wealth is to stay on top in Russia, but it also offers opportunities to influence politics in the EU and elsewhere. Russian state-owned companies or loyal oligarchs can give prominent Europeans well-paid board positions, consultancies or business deals. One example is the supervisory board of Rosneft, which has seven foreigners and is chaired by Gerhard Schröder, whose official annual salary is $600,000. Schröder has also been chairman of the shareholder committee of Nord Stream since 2005. Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and invasion of eastern Ukraine in the summer of 2014, the EU and the US have imposed significant sanctions on Russia.
A total of 113 Aeroflot employees have had their US visas revoked. A total of ten people, including former crew members, have been charged with smuggling mostly stolen iPhones, iPads and Apple watches worth $50 million to Russia. Some crew members took hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods on a flight.
Former Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov has been arrested on suspicion of fraud at a sprawling military theme park outside Moscow. Popov is accused of misusing Patriot Park’s funds for personal gain, allegedly forcing the park’s contract workers to perform unpaid construction work on his private property in the Moscow region between 2021 and 2024. He is also accused of smuggling construction materials intended for the park into his own home. Located in the town of Kubinka, about 63 kilometers (39 miles) west of Moscow, Patriot Park is a military theme park and exhibition center featuring interactive displays of weapons, equipment and shooting ranges. It is also home to a grandiose Orthodox cathedral dedicated to the Russian Armed Forces. Popov continued to use Patriot Park’s funds to maintain his personal property even after construction was completed. Investigators have accused Popov of colluding with Patriot Park director Vyacheslav Akhmedov and senior Defense Ministry official Vladimir Shesterov. Both Akhmedov and Shesterov were arrested earlier this month on similar charges.
Authorities said they discovered property worth 500 million rubles ($5.4 million) linked to Popov and his family in the Moscow region and the Krasnodar region in southern Russia. Popov, a retired general, served as deputy defense minister from November 2013 to June 2024. He is the third deputy defense minister and one of several senior military officials arrested this year on corruption charges, seen as part of a broader crackdown on corruption within the Russian military. The arrests began in April with the detention of former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who was seen as an ally of former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Shoigu was replaced in May and is now the head of Russia’s Security Council.
Saudi Arabia
On 10 December 2022, Belgian police searched the offices of MEPs Marie Arena and Marc Tarabella, both members of the Walloon Socialist Party. Marc Tarabella, who is also the mayor of Anthisnes, was arrested and questioned on 10 February 2022. His bank vault in Liège and offices in Anthisnes were searched, as was his home in a separate raid. According to former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, he paid Tarabella between €120,000 and €140,000 to represent Qatar’s interests in the European Parliament. Around €600,000 in cash was seized in 20 house searches, along with data carriers such as computers and telephones. Five people were arrested, including European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili, who was caught with tons of cash in her home. In early December, an EP committee voted to lift visa restrictions for Qataris, in which the detainees may have been involved. Two arrests have also been made in Italy in connection with the corruption scandal, including the wife and daughter of former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri. They are accused of involvement in illegal activities and have been placed under house arrest. Qatar is accused of giving large sums of money and gifts to individuals in or around the European Parliament in order to exert influence.
In November 2017, banks in Saudi Arabia blocked more than 1,200 bank accounts of individuals and companies on government orders. A large number of princes, businessmen and officials were arrested and held in a hotel, including Prince Bin Talal. They were all eventually released after paying billions in settlements. Around the year 2000, the Saudi royal family accepted bribes of 450 million euros from Ballast Nedam for military construction contracts worth 580 million dollars for two airports in Saudi Arabia. Ballast Nedam settled the bribery with the justice department in 2012 for five million euros and dropped the case on the advice of the Timmermans Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ballast Nedam received billions of euros in construction contracts for airports for the Saudi air force and bridges. The director of Ballast Nedam also paid an annual bribe of $533,333 to two employees of the Saudi tax authorities. In 2012, Ballast Nedam bought off prosecution for these bribery practices by paying the Public Prosecution Service five million euros. In gratitude for his mediation, the prince was awarded the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2003. The ribbon was pinned on him by then Minister Dekker. Saudi Arabia has been investigating corruption for three years, in which at least 86 billion euros have disappeared. Two hundred and eight people have been questioned about the “systematic corruption and embezzlement”. Seven of them have since been released without being charged. Millions of euros in bribes from the construction company, intended for the Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, were siphoned off via a secret bank account in Switzerland. KPMG is said to have helped conceal the bribes in the accounts. The criminal investigation against three KPMG accountants involved is still ongoing. In 2012, Ballast Nedam had to settle with the justice department for five million euros for bribing the Saudi royal family for 500 million euros. Former directors Martin W. (73) and Rob A. (70) had to appear before the court in Utrecht. Martin W. was sentenced to two months in prison in July 2018. He also had to pay a fine of 100,000 euros for laundering more than 2.4 million dollars and is not allowed to hold a management position for five years. He has to repay the 5.1 million euros. Construction company Strukton also had to pay tens of millions to the late Prince Mishaal bin Abdulaziz al Saud in order to secure an order for the Metro network in Riyadh. The FIOD raided Strukton in mid-February to investigate suspected corruption and forgery in obtaining the order. Strukton settled with the Public Prosecution Service for 10 million euros for this bribery. Thanks to the deal, the company will no longer be prosecuted. Former CEO and ownerGerard Sanderink still has to fear prosecution. Prosecutors are investigating his involvement in alleged corruption and have yet to decide whether they want to bring him to court. In 2019, the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) raided Strukton for an investigation into alleged bribery and forgery. Strukton itself is now ending that case. The company acknowledges the facts and circumstances, but does not admit guilt. Investigations are still ongoing into several people involved. Two years ago, Sanderink’s lawyer acknowledged that the entrepreneur was also among the people under investigation.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will not be prosecuted in the United States for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The court agrees with the Biden administration’s reasoning that Salman enjoys immunity because he is prime minister in his country. Khashoggi, who regularly criticized the Saudi royal family, was murdered more than four years ago in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. His body was dismembered and has never been found. The White House defended it in a tweet, arguing that it was a standard request that would logically follow Salman’s recent appointment as prime minister. As a foreign head of government, he would therefore automatically qualify for immunity.
The royal family of Dubai has done business with mafia kingpin Raffaele Imperiale. It involves the purchase of an island and the development of villas with a total value of tens of millions of euros. When Ridouan Taghi was the Netherlands’ most wanted criminal after a series of underworld murders, the Dutch police knew for sure in 2017 that he was in Dubai. The Netherlands sent information to Dubai almost 50 times to find Taghi, but was unable to track him down and extradite him.
Scotland
Peter Murrell, 59, the husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the Scottish National Party. He was taken into custody and questioned by detectives from Police Scotland. He was previously arrested as a suspect on 5 April 2023 before being released without charge.
Somalia
Somalia has topped the list of most corrupt countries since 2013 and is plagued by corruption, civil wars and terrorism. The International Monetary Fund has been trying in vain for years to help with subsidies in exchange for major reforms and tackling corruption in the country. The Giro 555 counter for Somalia, among other countries, is over 30 million euros and the Netherlands structurally gives another 45 million per year to the country from development aid. A majority of the House of Representatives wants to increase the amount by another 15 million.
Spain
In Spain, the ‘caso Nóos’ case came to light ten years ago. The brother-in-law of the Spanish king and his business partner pocketed at least six million in public money. The court sentenced him in ‘caso Nóos’ to a prison sentence of six years and three months, for fraud, money laundering, embezzlement of public money and abuse of his royal connections. A prison sentence of eight and a half years was demanded against his business partner. The acquittal of the sister of the Spanish king for tax fraud is final. There will be no appeal to the Supreme Court. An eight-year prison sentence was demanded against her, but the court of Palma acquitted her. Former King Juan Carlos is said to have purchased several overseas plots of land against her will through his alleged mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. She was abused for tax purposes because she lives in Monaco.
The Spanish opposition party held a protest in Madrid in early June 2025 that attracted tens of thousands of people. The party demanded the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and new elections. The Popular Party organized the demonstration under the slogan “Mafia or Democracy” in response to alleged corruption scandals involving political allies and family of Sanchez. Sanchez is embroiled in a series of lawsuits – all still in the investigation phase – targeting a former member of his cabinet, as well as his wife and, most recently, his brother.
Spanish police have raided the headquarters of Prime Minister Sánchez’s party in Madrid. The raid was part of an investigation into corruption involving Santos Cerdán, a former party colleague of the prime minister. Cerdán was the secretary of his PSOE party, a member of parliament and a confidant of the prime minister. He resigned last week after a Spanish court wanted to question him under oath in a corruption case. The justice department suspects Cerdán of having awarded public contracts to companies in exchange for bribes. He is said to have done so together with former Spanish Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos and his assistant.
According to the police, Cerdán accepted the payments. A police report also contains transcripts of recordings in which the three discussed bribes. Cerdán denies the accusations. During today’s raid on the PSOE headquarters, the police secured Cerdán’s email traffic. A building belonging to the Ministry of Transport was also searched. The police are also investigating Cerdán’s bank accounts and companies that are suspected of paying bribes in exchange for public contracts. A total of 500 bank accounts are being investigated.
The corruption case is the latest in a series of scandals in Sanchéz’s party. Last year, his wife was accused of corruption after allegedly arranging government support for an airline in exchange for sponsorship. He considered stepping down as prime minister at the time, but decided to continue. The new scandal is shaking Sanchéz’s minority government, and not surprisingly, it is because of Sanchéz’s refusal to pay 5% NATO membership. The Spanish opposition is demanding that Sanchéz step down and call early elections.
Sri Lanka
Suriname
A judicial investigation into the then boss of the Central Bank of Suriname, Robert van Trikt, has been ongoing since February 2021. He is said to have invoiced incorrect amounts when purchasing very expensive vehicles and to have concluded contracts that were disadvantageous to the bank. He is facing charges for, among other things, violating the anti-corruption law and money laundering. His lawyer Irvin Kanhai has said that Van Trikt did not act alone at the time, but did so on the orders of Minister Hoefdraad. Hoefdraad has been Minister of Finance in Suriname since 2015. Before that, the 57-year-old Hoefdraad was, among other things, president of the Central Bank. Hoefdraad is a fugitive and has taken the computers with any incriminating evidence with him. Robert van Trikt, Faranaaz Hausil, former director of Legal, Compliance and International Affairs at CBvS, his business partner Ashween Angnoe and the former director of the Surinamese Postal Savings Bank (SPSB), Ginmardo Kromosoeto, had to spend Christmas and New Year in jail. Judge Maytrie Kuldip Singh denied their lawyers’ request for interim release.
Santokhi was elected two years ago over former president Bouterse. However, members of his cabinet are mainly concerned with appointing friends and family to important positions, while Santokhi had promised to put an end to that. “One of the first things he did was appoint his wife to the board of directors of the state oil company, while she was actually too young for that. The rules were adjusted for her. Leo Brunswijk became a member of the same committee. He is the brother of vice president Ronnie Brunswijk. And his CV was also inadequate. Civil servants at the Ministry of Finance had free rein to transfer money to private accounts. That is how 2 million euros disappeared.
Former Surinamese president Bouterse staged a coup in 1980, which became known as the sergeants’ coup. Initially, a large part of the population sided with the military regime led by Bouterse, because things had not been going well in the country in the years before. On December 20, 2023, Desi Bouterse heard on appeal that he had been definitively sentenced to 20 years in prison for the December murders in 1982, but he was not arrested. The case revolved around the torture and shooting of his fifteen political opponents. They included journalists, lawyers, professors, entrepreneurs, military personnel and union leaders. Bouterse’s lawyers appealed in vain to the amnesty law amended in 2012, under which Bouterse and other suspects were acquitted. The Constitutional Court ruled in 2021 that this law does not apply. According to the lawyers, legal errors were made at the time. The term for a request for clemency has now expired. Bouterse is a fugitive and had to report to prison on January 12, just like his four accomplices. However, Bouterse did not show up and is now officially a fugitive and is reportedly staying in Venezuela. His party, the NDP, called for an uprising on the day he was taken into custody, but there was little enthusiasm for it. The four ex-military men Benny Brondenstein, Stephanus Dendoe, Iwan Dijksteel and Ernst Geffery are also sentenced to fifteen years in prison and they did report on January 12, 2024. Interpol placed the 78-year-old Bouterse on the wanted list on March 13, 2024. He died at his hiding place at the age of 70 during Christmas 2024 from liver failure due to his alcohol abuse.
Syria
President dictator Bashar Al-Assad and his family lived in extreme luxury until his ouster in early December 2024: from golden palaces to a large collection of extremely expensive cars. The collection includes a Ferrari F50, a Lamborghini Diablo, a Mercedes-Benz SL65 Black Series, an Audi R8, a Revcon Trailblazer, an obscure six-wheeled camper from the 90s. In addition, dictator icons such as a Mercedes-Benz 600 and a Lamborghini LM002 SUV were found. Large stockpiles of drugs produced by the regime were found during the takeover. There was a warehouse full of captagon , a substance that had become Syria’s largest export product and a major source of income for the state.
Thailand
Thailand has asked British authorities to extradite Yingluck Shinawatra, who fled to the United Kingdom in August 2017 and was ousted as prime minister in 2014. She was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for corruption and rice subsidy fraud. She fled shortly before the highest court sentenced her. Thailand had issued an international arrest warrant for her. She denies the allegations and calls the trial politically motivated. The former prime minister was ousted by the Constitutional Court in 2014 for abuse of office. At the start of the trial, her passport was confiscated, but in vain. In Thailand, used gloves with holes, bloodstains and other stains were washed and dyed with blue dye. Gloves were also offered that were of poor quality, made of the wrong material or not suitable for medical use. In a ten-month investigation, CNN discovered that tens of millions of inferior gloves were entering the US. An importer reported this in early 2021, but deliveries from the Thai company continued until the summer. Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (74), who was decorated by the Netherlands, was released early because he was too ill or too old for prison. The politician was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2010 for corruption.
Czech Republic
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis bought a chateau in France for $22 million through an offshore company.
Turkey
Top managers of the Turkish Denizbank are said to be involved in a high-profile fraud case with famous footballers as victims. This was announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Recently, court documents revealed that a branch manager of the Denizbank has been accused of a pyramid scheme worth 44 million dollars. Former Barcelona midfielder Arda Turan, Emre Belözoğlu, who previously played for Internazionale and Atlético Madrid, and Galatasaray goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, among others, say they have fallen victim to it and have lost their savings.
Venezuela
Incumbent President Maduro claimed victory in the 2024 elections, hours after the polls closed. This would have marked his third term as president. But the opposition is certain that rival candidate González won by a landslide and that there was fraud. Independent polls had already shown that the opposition had a good chance of winning. Venezuela refused to allow European Union observers to observe the presidential elections.
United Kingdom
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigated corruption at British American Tobacco (BAT). In late 2015, a whistleblower and former BAT employee reported to the British broadcaster BBC that he had paid bribes in Kenya. Shortly before the BBC revelations, BAT ended its seventeen-year relationship with accountant PwC, due to a dispute between BAT and paper manufacturer Windward Prospects. BAT and Windward had a dispute in 2015 over the costs of cleaning up polluted river water in Wisconsin. Windward’s parent company, Sequana, was advised by PwC, so BAT also sued PwC. British American Tobacco suspected of paying politicians in ten African countries with bribes. Including a sum of several hundred thousand to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.
The United Kingdom requested too low import duties for clothing and shoes from China between 2013 and 2016. OLAF, the EU’s fraud service, is now asking the European Commission to collect almost 2 billion euros in lost customs revenue from the British. Women’s trousers were fictitiously valued at 91 cents per kilo, while the market price of cotton was already 1.44 euros per kilo. The large-scale import fraud with false invoices has not yet stopped and is still growing. The goods were traded to the black market in Germany, Spain, France and Italy. They have lost 3.2 billion euros in VAT revenue due to the too low prices.
Several employees of the British Conservative Party have gambled illegally on the election date. The British gambling regulator is now also investigating Nick Mason, chief data officer at the party. Mason may have gambled with inside information, which is punishable under the Gambling Act. According to the newspaper, the party employee has wagered money dozens of times on the election date.
United States
New York Mayor Eric Adams is facing corruption charges. The investigation began in October 2023, and in November police seized his phones and an iPad. Adams allegedly accepted campaign donations in exchange for illegal advocacy from Turkey, Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and several other countries. Police also raided his main fundraiser at the same time. In early September 2024, Adams’ confidants were also visited and their phones seized. His police chief, education director and general counsel have already resigned.
New Jersey Senior Senator (Democrat) Bob Menendez (70) committed sixteen criminal offenses, including bribery, fraud, obstruction and acting as a foreign agent, and was involved in the prosecution of Assange. He was tried in Manhattan federal court along with New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, is also charged but will be tried separately. Menendez accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for political favors and aid to the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Representative Henry Cuellar (68) is also alleged to have accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank. For decades, the senator played a leading role in shaping US foreign policy for Biden and was one of the most influential Latino politicians in the US. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez used his power and influence to favor the governments of Egypt and Qatar in exchange for the bribes and gifts. In total, Menendez faces 18 charges. His wife, Nadine Menendez (56), is also accused of involvement in the corruption activities. She is said to have been the contact person between her husband and those who were seeking political favors. Menendez blames his wife and claims not to have known anything about the gold bars in his house. Menendez resigned after a previous conviction in July 2024. Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar is also accused of corruption. In this case too, the politician’s wife is suspected of involvement. The couple is said to have received almost 600,000 dollars from an Azerbaijani oil and gas company and a Mexican bank. In return, Cuellar is said to have used his power to steer US policy in favor of Azerbaijan and the Mexican bank. Like Menendez, the politician is said not to be allowed to act as a foreign agent, but he also claims to be innocent. The accused Democrats are also both Latino. Despite the similarities, the Congressmen are not treated equally by colleagues. Both are members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), a group within Congress that consists of Latino members. Menendez (71) was sentenced to eleven years in prison for his corruption. He was already found guilty in July of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars, gold bars and a car in exchange for influence. Menendez was a long-standing influential Democrat. He served in the Senate for the state of New Jersey for more than eighteen years. A month after he was found guilty, he resigned as a senator. The New York District Court announced the prison sentence on Wednesday. The former senator was convicted of accepting bribes from, among others, businessmen and the Egyptian government. For example, he is said to have arranged for Egypt and Qatar to receive more support from the United States. He is the first American senator ever to be convicted as a foreign agent. Before the allegations came to light, Menendez was an ally of former President Joe Biden.He has served in the Senate since 2006. Before that, he served 13 years in the House of Representatives. The trial of his wife, Nadine Menendez, has been postponed because she is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. The judge ordered Menendez’s prison sentence to begin on June 6 so that he can attend his wife’s trial.
Five men who worked for Nixon were caught red-handed in a break-in at the Democratic headquarters (the Watergate scandal of the 1970s). Initially, the men were convicted of burglary and wiretapping, but during the trial it emerged that they had acted on orders from the top of the government, which had subsequently tried to conceal its involvement. In total, 43 people were convicted of involvement in the case – many of them close associates of Nixon. On August 9, 1974, Richard M. Nixon resigned as president. During the Reagan administration, the US sold arms to Iran, despite the arms embargo against that country at the time. The US claimed that this was to increase the chance of the release of several American hostages who were being held captive by terrorists in Lebanon. However, the proceeds from the arms sales were secretly used to support the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who wanted to overthrow the then regime in their country.
In 2014, the town of Hampton was found to be totally corrupt. Even the mayor was arrested by the federal police after he tried to sell drugs to an undercover officer. 31 very serious federal offenses were filed against the city and police department. Federal agents have made arrests and arrested dozens of suspects for fraud and tax evasion. Most of the suspects are former dignitaries. A striking example was the abuse of the highway that runs through the town. The local police had found a lucrative business by moving traffic signs, manipulating them or simply not posting the speed limit. This resulted in 13,000 illegal tickets and this on a stretch of highway that was less than 360 meters long.
Donald Trump was sentenced to a fine of over 354 million dollars for misleading banks and other financial institutions. By systematically stating his assets were too high, Trump was able to obtain loans and insurance on favorable terms. This saved him around 168 million in interest payments. The judge found, among other things, that Trump at one point reflected the value of his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, as 23 times higher than it actually was. The surface area of his penthouse in New York was only slightly more than a third of what Trump made of it. A separate trial, which will begin in early October, will determine whether Trump and his sons will be fined 250 million dollars and whether they will be banned from doing business in the state of New York. Four charges were filed against Trump in the past six months and his The Trump Organization was previously fined 1.6 million dollars for tax fraud. His chief financial officer was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in that fraud. His now former lawyer Michael Cohen was ordered to pay porn actress Stormy Daniels hush money. Cohen, cornered by an FBI investigation, settled with the Justice Department. Cohen had previously admitted to paying Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) $130,000 to cover up her affair with Trump, and $150,000 was transferred to Playmate Karen McDougal, who also said she had a relationship with Trump. An audio recording was leaked in which Trump and Cohen can be heard discussing the payment to McDougal. An FBI raid also revealed that Cohen had evaded millions in taxes and committed bank fraud for his own real estate empire and his family’s taxi companies. He is also being tried for campaign-law violations, grand larceny and tax evasion. A former ally of Trump, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, was also found guilty of tax evasion, fraud and money laundering. A court also ordered Trump in a second civil trial to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll, whom he sexually assaulted in a fitting room at a New York luxury store in 1996 and later defamed. The jury initially awarded the writer $5 million in damages.
Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, has unexpectedly pleaded guilty in the tax case against him. He has been charged with failing to pay approximately $1.4 million in taxes. The charges would concern taxes between 2016 and 2019, during which time he said he struggled with his drug addiction. According to the indictment, he spent enormous amounts of money during that period on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, luxury cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature”. The verdict is on December 16. Biden faces a maximum prison sentence of 17 years and a fine of $450,000. Earlier this year, Biden was already convicted of violating the gun law. It was the first time that a child of a sitting president was convicted and it had a major impact on the election campaign of then presidential candidate Joe Biden. That trial revolved around a gun application that Hunter Biden made in 2018. In that application he stated that he did not use drugs, while at the time he was struggling with a drug addiction. Biden was found guilty of the charges, but was pardoned by his father.
A victim accused Maxwell and Epstein of directing her to have sex with several of their high-profile acquaintances, most notably Britain’s Prince Andrew, between 2000 and 2002. The lawsuit was settled in May 2017, just before a trial was set to begin. Maxwell was convicted in New York in December 2021 of trafficking underage girls for sex with Epstein. Last year, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Epstein was accused of raping young girls. His prosecution ended with his suicide in 2019.
Former ambassador and top diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha was indicted in late 2023 on charges of spying for the Cuban government over a period of 40 years. He was the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia and, according to the indictment, served as a covert agent for Cuban intelligence since 1981. Rocha is alleged to have met with Cuban intelligence agents and provided false information to the U.S. government. He is accused of three offenses: conspiracy against the United States, working as a covert agent for a foreign government and using a passport obtained with a false statement. Rocha, now 73, worked for the State Department from 1981 to 2002. He held top positions in Argentina, Bolivia and the U.S. He also served in Italy, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and worked as a Latin America expert for the National Security Council. Rocha was unmasked after an FBI agent contacted him about a year ago, posing as a Cuban intelligence agent. A series of meetings with the undercover agent followed, during which Rocha allegedly bragged about his longstanding loyalty to the Cubans, repeatedly calling the U.S. “the enemy,” according to the indictment.
German software company SAP has settled in the United States for more than $220 million to avoid prosecution for bribing officials in South Africa and Indonesia to win government contracts. The company has entered into a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, according to the ministry.
Charles McGonigal, a 55-year-old former FBI official, was sentenced in February 2024 to more than two years in prison for allegedly receiving about $225,000 in 2017 from a man working for Albania’s intelligence service. McGonigal oversaw national security operations for the FBI in New York for nearly two years before retiring in 2018. In December, he was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for conspiring to violate sanctions against Russia for a Russian oligarch he once investigated. He will serve a total of 6.5 years in prison.
Eighteen former associates of Donald Trump are being charged in Arizona with fraud in attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
In the United States, nearly 200 healthcare workers have been charged after they illegally distributed pills and billed the American National Health Insurance for people over 65 for care that was not provided. A total of $2.75 billion, or about 2.57 billion euros, has been defrauded. Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals have been arrested across America. Luxury vehicles, gold and $231 million in cash have been seized.
New York Mayor Eric Adams is facing corruption charges. The investigation began in October 2023, and in November police seized his phones and an iPad. Adams allegedly accepted campaign donations in exchange for illegal advocacy from Turkey, Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and several other countries. Police also raided his main fundraiser at the same time. In early September 2024, Adams’ confidants were also visited and their phones seized. His police chief, education director and general counsel have already resigned.
In 2020, the American bank Goldman Sachs settled for 2.9 billion dollars in a corruption case in Malaysia. In 2024, arms manufacturer RTX settled for 950 million dollars in bribery in Qatar. Donald Trump wants an end to these types of prosecutions. The cases worsen the competitive position of American companies abroad, he writes in a decree that he signed last night. The American approach did not only focus on corruption of American companies abroad. Dutch companies have also been fined or settled with the American authorities in recent years. For example, Philips paid 62 million dollars in 2023 for corruption in China.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) sponsored legislation that funneled millions into his wife’s nonprofit environmental organization, Ocean Conservancy. She’s received nearly $2.7 million, while the group has raked in more than $14.2 million in federal grants, funded by bills the White House voted through! Now, an ethics watchdog is demanding an investigation into the blatant corruption.
President Donald Trump recently described the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as “incompetent and corrupt”
Vietnam
The 66-year-old female real estate magnate Truong My Lan of VTP in Vietnam was suspected of embezzling 44 billion euros and was sentenced to death. She is said to have siphoned money through thousands of shell companies and paid bribes to government officials. It is the largest financial fraud case in Vietnam’s history. In addition to Lan, 85 other people are being investigated, including her husband Eric Chu Nap-kee, who works in the real estate sector in Hong Kong. VTP was one of the wealthiest real estate companies in Vietnam and responsible for major projects. The government’s anti-corruption campaign has led to the investigation of thousands of government officials and company executives, even at the highest levels. As a result, former President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and two deputy prime ministers also resigned in January 2023. They are held politically responsible for corruption scandals during the corona pandemic. The new president of Vietnam was forced to resign after only a year under pressure from the ruling Communist Party, which is conducting a major anti-corruption investigation.
Iceland
Iceland’s prime minister was forced to resign after it emerged he had hidden millions of family fortunes in an offshore company.
West Africa
Nigeria has recovered 22 million euros in a corruption investigation against the Minister of Poverty Reduction. Betta Edu had siphoned the money off to no less than 50 bank accounts. In January, Edu, who is responsible for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction on behalf of the government of the West African country, was already suspended. She was suspected at the time of siphoning off more than 600,000 euros to her own account.
South Africa
The former prime minister of Lesotho has been formally charged with the murder of his wife in 2017. Thomas Thabane, 82, was charged during a closed-door hearing at the Lesotho High Court, in the presence of his current wife, who was previously charged with involvement in the murder. Lipolela Thabane was shot dead in her car near her home in 2017, two days before her husband became prime minister of the southern African nation for the second time. At the time of the murder, the couple were in the process of divorcing. A few months later, Thomas Thabane married his current wife Maesaiah. Maesaiah had been in a relationship with Thabane for many years. During his first premiership in 2015, she served as the unofficial First Lady. For example, Thabane took her with him on state visits while he was still married to Lipolela, who did not want to give up the title of First Lady and the associated financial benefits until they were officially divorced.
South African President Ramaphosa, accused of corruption, is receiving support from the top of his own party, the African National Congress (ANC). Ramaphosa came under fire in the summer of 2022, when a Zuma supporter said that the president had concealed a theft. A large sum of cash was said to have been stolen from his game farm. The money was said to have been hidden in a sofa. The president admitted that money had been stolen, but according to him it was 580,000 dollars and not 4 million, as was initially claimed. The enormous sum is said to have come from the sale of buffalo. The 70-year-old head of state came to power in 2018 with a promise to fight corruption. He was the successor to Jacob Zuma, who also belongs to the ANC. The party is therefore divided between supporters of Zuma and those of Ramaphosa. Jacob Zuma must return to prison, after he was conditionally released in 2021 after eight weeks in prison, due to his alleged ill health. The Constitutional Court ruled that the release was unlawful. Zuma was president from 2009 to 2015. In 2021, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court. He is said to have tried to undermine the rule of law in various ways. For example, he refused to cooperate in an investigation into corruption. The ANC in South Africa expelled Zuma from the party in July 2024. Zuma (82) had campaigned for another party before the elections at the end of May.
South Korea
The South Korean president must revoke the appointment of the prime minister she appointed and then leave the election of a new prime minister to parliament. She is said to have favored her girlfriend. At Samsung Electronics in Seoul, the authorities searched for evidence of payments (2.8 million euros) to a company owned by the prime minister and her daughter, which were used to pay for the daughter’s horse riding training. There are said to be ties between Samsung and the Korean Horse Riding Federation and the organization is suspected of having changed the rules to favor the prime minister’s daughter. Samsung CEO Lee Jae was arrested in February 2017, convicted and released a year later. He was in charge of the company’s day-to-day management and is said to have donated money to foundations that in return supported a merger Samsung was working on. The president is also said to be involved in the corruption. The president’s confidant is said to have used her relationship with the president to force Samsung to hand over money to funds she managed. The corruption scandal led to the resignation of President Park Geun-hye, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for abuse of power and bribery, with an additional fine of 13 million euros. The Samsung CEO was convicted of bribing a confidant of the former South Korean president. In return, the president is said to have approved a controversial merger of two Samsung divisions. Lee’s sentence has been halved to 2.5 years, but he does not have to serve it. He will, however, be on probation for four years. Former President Lee Myung-bak (76) was charged with corruption and suspected of money laundering and tax evasion (Lee was President of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. As part of the investigation, homes and offices of the former president and his family were previously raided. Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to fifteen years in prison in early October 2018 and must pay a fine of approximately 8.5 million euros. The court in Seoul ruled that Lee is guilty of, among other things, abuse of power and accepting bribes from companies. The Consumers’ Association is launching a claim against Samsung because consumers who bought a television between 2013 and the end of 2018 paid too much, due to market manipulation. During that period, Samsung put pressure on online retailers not to drop the prices of televisions below the recommended retail price. The regulator, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets, fined the company 39 million euros for this in 2021. South Korean prosecutors have charged former President Moon Jae-in with bribery, a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service said on Thursday. The case concerns the appointment of his former son-in-law to a Thai airline.
Moon, 72, is being “charged with corruption for receiving 217 million won (nearly 134,000 euros) in connection with facilitating his son-in-law’s employment at an airline,” the prosecution’s statement said. According to the prosecution, Moon’s son-in-law was appointed general manager of budget airline Thai Eastar Jet despite lacking “any relevant experience or qualifications in the aviation sector.” The airline, which was headed by a former lawmaker from Moon’s party, had given the job in an attempt to curry favor with then-president
Sweden
Swedbank, one of Sweden’s largest banks, has been implicated in “systematic money laundering” that has lasted for almost a decade. Some 5.1 billion euros were siphoned off between Swedbank and Danske Bank via suspicious accounts. Of this, 26 million dollars is said to be related to Russian tax fraud exposed by whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky. Russian lawyer and whistleblower Magnitsky also exposed possible money laundering by Danske Bank. He died in a Russian prison in 2009 after exposing tax fraud. The former CEO was charged. Due to the findings of a damning investigation report, Birgitte Bonnesen, the CEO of Swedbank, had to resign. After being fully acquitted by the Stockholm Court of Appeal in January 2023, she was found guilty on one of the seven charges by the Svea Court of Appeal in September 2024. The bank has decided not to pay a severance package, which had previously been agreed. The compensation was equivalent to more than €2.4 million. A case may still be filed against her predecessor Michael Wolf, which Swedbank is still considering.
Swedish Ericsson, which supplies technology for 5G internet to several providers, may have paid bribes to the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq. Ericsson employees were also guilty of corruption, fraud and bribery in that country between 2011 and 2019. A leaked internal investigation revealed that the company went to great lengths in Iraq in recent years to increase its market share. Even when several of the company’s subcontractors were kidnapped by IS militia members in 2014, local Ericsson managers did not want to know anything about temporarily suspending work. In order to be allowed to do business in Iraq, no means were shunned, such as taking a subcontractor hostage, possible terrorist financing and widespread corruption. Ericsson financed a local transport company to have equipment transported quickly through parts of Iraq. The transport company chose a route through IS territory for the sake of speed. Some of the money that the transport company received ended up with militia members who were active in IS territory. The CEO of a local telecom provider received half a million dollars when his company entered into a contract with Ericsson, which was done through a false invoice. In December 2019, Ericsson settled with the US Department of Justice for more than 1 billion dollars, for fraud and corruption in countries including China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Part of the settlement was that Ericsson would keep the US Department of Justice constantly informed of new discoveries within the company. The leaked documents also include a list of thirteen other countries where Ericsson employees appear to have crossed the line with fraud, corruption or bribery to win contracts. The list describes internal investigations by Ericsson in countries including Spain, Portugal, South Africa and the United States. These countries were not covered by the settlement with the US. Since 2019, the company has laid off several employees and has said goodbye to intermediaries and subcontractors who may have been involved in fraud.
Fraud cases in the Netherlands
It is estimated that around 16 billion euros are laundered annually in the Netherlands. The FAD warning register, compiled by approximately sixty large retail chains with a total of 180,000 employees, includes 1,826 ex-employees who were dismissed after theft or fraud in the store where they worked. In 2016, 430 people were added to the blacklist. In 2022, 220,000 employees fell within the scope of the register. This number is in line with the number of people working in the sector. The number of screenings in the FAD register has now returned to the familiar level, but the figures for 2022 are on the low side compared to the FAD statistics. The number of registrations in the register was 335 and is in line with previous years.
A former purchasing director of De Mandemakers Groep must repay 9.3 million euros to the company. He earned a lot of money from the import of sanitary and kitchen products from China. The now 60-year-old man from Zaltbommel worked for more than 20 years for De Mandemakers Groep, which includes Brugman Keukens and Keukenkampioen. From 2008, he was also a business partner of the furniture group. He took a 49% stake in a newly established purchasing company. After he left De Mandemakers Groep, the group discovered that the purchasing director was also the owner of another company that acted as an intermediary. According to De Mandemakers Groep, the man pocketed 10.4 million euros in this way. The judge states that the former purchasing director seriously disadvantaged the furniture group by not being open. The man has been ordered to repay 9.3 million euros.
The Netherlands ranks fourth in the EU and ninth worldwide as a country with many suspicious letterbox registrations
On some holiday parks in the Netherlands, there is (subversive) crime, such as money laundering, illegal prostitution, drug-related offences and human trafficking. Many actions have already been taken to reduce subversive crime on holiday parks, such as the Gelderland Ariadne project, the drafting of an action framework for municipalities and the establishment of an expert group for holiday parks. The Gelderland Ariadne project, which tackles crime and subversion around holiday parks, is successful and the project will be continued for another three years. In addition, the Ariadne project proactively shares information and expertise with municipalities elsewhere in the country, so that they can set up the same approach. In order to provide municipalities with insight into the instruments available to combat crime on holiday parks, the Centre for Crime Prevention and Safety (CCV) is working on an action framework for municipalities on behalf of the Ministry of Justice and Security.
Major Dutch banks are halting a large part of the ‘Transaction Monitoring Netherlands’ (TMNL) collaborative action intended to jointly combat fraud and money laundering
Government, politicians, civil servants and accountants
Royal House
The late Prince Bernhard had advised the Dutch government to purchase equipment from the American aircraft manufacturer Lockheed and received 1.1 million dollars in bribes from the aircraft manufacturer for this. The asset manager of the Royal House is suspected of fraud. The Public Prosecution Service conducted a criminal investigation into Box Consultants from Waalre for possible fraud involving millions of euros with hidden commission payments. The 55-year-old Remy M., as director of asset manager Box Consultants, is said to have paid out more than €8 million in commissions not to clients, but to Box and his private company Boulder. Box Consultants manages billions of euros for the royal family. Remy M. was also previously held in custody for four days in 2015 after Fiod raids. He is the personal account manager of the Royal House. The entire criminal case was hushed up and nine years later, no criminal case has been started against Box or Remy M. and the case was dropped. In October 2023, the Public Prosecution Service announced that the investigation was still ongoing and that it had not yet made a decision about possible prosecution.
Court
In an investigation by the National Criminal Investigation Department, Sana C., an employee of the Amsterdam court, was arrested on March 10, 2025 for breach of her duty of confidentiality and computer hacking. The 33-year-old woman from Woerden passed on personal data from the automated systems of the court to criminals for payment. The woman came into the picture when an envelope with the logo of the Amsterdam court was found in a house behind the lining of a bank in August 2024 in another criminal investigation. The envelope contained the complete personal data from the municipal basic administration (GBA) of six people. The envelope with personal data was made available to the National Criminal Investigation Department. The investigation led to the employee of the court. The woman probably requested information from the court systems for a long time until her arrest and provided it to contacts in the criminal environment for payment. When she was arrested, several dozen printouts from the court with information about people were seized. The woman is now also suspected of extortion. Sana C. came to the attention of the police last year when an envelope from the Amsterdam court was found in a home during another criminal investigation. The envelope contained the personal data of six people from one family. The investigation eventually led to Sana. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the woman probably requested information from the court systems for a “long period of time” in order to provide it to contacts in the criminal environment in return for payment. When she was arrested, several dozen printouts from the court containing information about people were seized. During the first preliminary hearing at the court in Zwolle, the Public Prosecution Service said that 270 transfers totaling almost 93,000 euros had been made to the suspect’s bank account. The money was transferred to her by a plumbing company. According to the Public Prosecution Service, she allegedly received the amount through extortion. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the data, which she allegedly sold on for prices between 500 and 750 euros, were used to commit attacks in The Hague and the shooting of a home in Waalwijk. The data may also have been used to prepare a liquidation. The Public Prosecution Service accuses C. of having misinformed her employer by listing economics diplomas on her CV, while she had not completed those studies. The woman will remain in custody for the time being. The next hearing is on 16 September.
Bailiffs
Collection and bailiff office BSR, with offices in The Hague and Rotterdam, has gone bankrupt and has not only plundered the customer account but also increased the costs of collections. The company’s account, which contained approximately three million in collected money, is empty. The company sold its head office in the Riouwstraat in The Hague to restore liquidity and the staff was asked to hand in part of their salary. A takeover by Flanderijn Gerechtsdeurwaarders from Rotterdam ultimately fell through due to BSR’s poor financial condition. Two of the company’s bailiffs were suspended in connection with emptying the customer account and were held personally liable. Contracts with clients had been accepted for some time at rock-bottom prices. Intrum Justitia, which outsourced bailiff work to BSR, is one of the victims. The board and the financial director were still held liable by the curators at the beginning of October 2020.
On May 20, 2025, the police raided debt collector Ramón AB with a great show of force. Masked, armed officers in bulletproof vests entered his home with the aid of a battering ram in search of, among other things, the accounts of the controversial entrepreneur. The eldest of the two debt collectors AB was not taken away by the police. Remarkably enough, eyewitnesses saw his younger brother Pascuál dragging goods out of his brother’s home after the raid. Pascuál’s home was also searched. It has now become clear that the debts incurred by the brothers are much greater than was initially apparent. Creditors such as Rabobank, the Tax Authorities and affected customers of the debt collection agency have outstanding claims worth more than 21 million euros. On top of that, there are several large and smaller claims of millions of euros. The trustee had previously filed a report on at least fifty cases in which money was collected but not paid out to customers. In addition, a report was filed of the secret embezzlement of money just before the company went bankrupt and of irregularities in a credit application of more than twelve million euros from Nova Incasso at Rabobank. Sources close to the investigation call it inevitable that the AB brothers will be prosecuted. For years, the AB brothers were regarded as the golden boys of the debt collection world with their Nova Incasso. They turned over millions in turnover and opened branches of their debt collection agency worldwide, they claimed. At the end of 2024, the fairy tale was over: their Nova Holding went bankrupt. The company turned out to be an empty shell. According to the curators, the debt collection brothers filled one hole with another for years, they regarded the debt collections outsourced to them as their own assets, and they inflated their turnover figures enormously. The debt collection agency had a debt of more than twelve million at Rabobank. The brothers needed that money to quickly repay money to venture capitalist Willem Blijdorp. He believed in the castles in the air that had been presented to him. Blijdorp paid an advance of ten million euros, but when he wanted to inspect the books, the debt collection brothers did not respond. The largest part of the advance had disappeared. In order to pay Blijdorp back, Ramón and Pascuál turned to Rabobank, which provided a mortgage of more than twelve million without any alarm bells going off. The brothers Pascuál and Ramón AB from Emmen were praised as young self-made millionaires and awarded business prizes. Pascuál and Ramón AB from Emmen were still in college when they founded Nova Incasso in 2011. The brothers are young entrepreneurs with big dreams, a smooth talker and a crystal-clear promise: transparency, innovation and revolutionary software. Ramón was the marketing guy, Pascuál the whizzkid.” There were many reports against the ‘debt collection brothers’. ‘They collected money,but did not pay that out to clients’ The brothers garner admiration and win prizes. In 2017, Nova Incasso won the FD Golden Gazelle, a prize for the fastest growing company in the Netherlands. A few years later, the duo made their debut in the Quote Top 100 of young self-made millionaires. “The exterior was right: expensive suits, fancy cars and an exclusive skybox at Ajax.” Behind the scenes, the picture was completely different. When the company was taken over after the bankruptcy, it turned out that only 30,000 euros worth of orders were outstanding. “There was no cash, just some rented offices.” Ramón AB announced at a press conference of Lycurgus last year that he was going to take a majority stake in the volleyball club with his company. It slowly became clear what was going on at the brothers’ company. Money that was collected for clients was presented as turnover. The turnover of 30 million euros that the brothers were bragging about turned out to be mainly fictitious.
Notaries, accountants and disciplinary judges
Almost three quarters of civil-law notaries employed by large civil-law notary firms fail to disclose all secondary functions. This is evident from research by NRC. Three disciplinary judges, whose task it is to judge their fellow civil-law notaries, also appear not to adhere to this legal obligation themselves. NRC investigated whether civil-law notaries have learned lessons from the major fraud case at state attorney Pels Rijcken, in which chairman of the board Frank Oranje embezzled millions. He used fictitious and unregistered secondary functions for this, among other things. By far the most errors concerning the reporting obligation concern the failure to report the management of one’s own holding company. In addition, management positions at, among others, investment and investment vehicles, homeowners’ associations, charities and Rotary are not reported.
In Amsterdam, massive mortgage fraud was committed with approximately 800 homes that were then mainly used as a storage location for drugs, as a hiding place for criminals, or to house migrant workers. The police discovered the case in 2023 when they investigated hidden spaces in homes, cars and furniture where weapons, drugs and money were hidden. In that investigation, a suspect surfaced who had once been convicted of cocaine trafficking. The man had worked his way up to become a real estate agent and was part of a large network of service providers, mortgage advisors and administrative offices. He was able to order a mortgage from certain real estate agents for a cash amount between 7,000 and 14,000 euros. That real estate agent works with fraudulent service providers and administrative offices that set up forgeries such as exaggerated or fictitious annual accounts and work statements so that the lender ultimately sees papers that appear to be fine. Ten people have been arrested, twelve others are suspects. The Public Prosecution Service and the financial investigation department have raised the alarm with the municipality of Amsterdam and all players in this entire chain. The investigative services are calling on mortgage providers in particular to check the packages they see more thoroughly. A 2014 trial already showed that 40 percent of mortgage applications were forged. That was already a sign for the Dutch Banking Association at the time that something had to be done about this.
On August 8, there will be a first preparatory hearing in the Breda court. The three directors of Bulk Terminal Zeeland will then have to appear in court for the first time. The substantive hearing of the case will have to wait a while. “The investigation is not finished yet. They have seized a lot of goods and they are still investigating them.” The company has since gone bankrupt and two million euros have been seized. The police had already infiltrated the company for some time and had had the company smuggle 100 kg. of cocaine.
The 70-year-old US Senator Bob Menendez, who had been in the Senate since 2006, had to resign after he was convicted in New York on 16 counts of corruption and bribery. Together with his wife, he allegedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars, gold bars and a car from Egypt in exchange for information, which he had informed about American plans. The senator also served in the House of Representatives for thirteen years.
Victims of dubious trading in small plots of agricultural land can go to court . For the first time, a judge has ruled that a land dealer must reverse the sale of two plots of land and pay back 160,000 euros to a married couple.
Many notary offices are in financial difficulties despite the passing of 1.5 million mortgage deeds and the finances do not meet the standards of the Financial Supervision Office. 59 of the notary offices even have negative equity. Multinationals avoid paying taxes in their own country with the help of notaries and accountants and by using empty letterbox companies, or letterbox firms. More than 4000 billion euros flows through the Netherlands each year as a linchpin in tax structures.
A notary from an office in the province of Flevoland was arrested on September 5, 2017 for fraud and money laundering. He allegedly assisted in laundering criminal money, forged official documents and failed to report unusual transactions to the official financial reporting center (FIU-NL). His home and office were searched and his administration, data carriers and over 12,000 euros in cash were seized.
Eighteen suspects of seven illegal online gambling sites that were arrested in 2013 and 2014 are on trial. Among them is the director of an Eindhoven gambling company that probably functioned as a money laundering factory for drug money. According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), more than 100 million in criminal money is said to have been laundered in this way. In addition to the owners and operators of the sites, a lawyer, a tax advisor and a former director of a financial company are also on trial. The lawyer is said to have lied in the application for a permit, to have forged contracts and to have devised the structure of the company. The verdict is expected on 20 December 2018.
At the end of April 204, more than 11 million was seized again and a 26-year-old suspect was arrested for fraud, embezzlement and money laundering with gambling platform ZKasino. Gambling platform ZKasino received more than 30 million dollars in cryptocurrencies. During the house search, physical and digital administration, digital data carriers and more than 11.4 million euros in real estate, a luxury car and various cryptocurrencies were seized. The criminal investigation started on April 25, after signals on platform X and information from intelligence departments of the FIOD. ZKasino presented itself as a gambling platform and blockchain casino. Investors were told that they would get their investments back within 30 days. The investigation was carried out in close collaboration with employees of the Financial Crime Compliance and Investigations Team of the crypto trading platform Binance, which made it possible to secure millions of euros in cryptocurrencies. In order to be able to return the millions invested to the victims, it is technically necessary that those involved in this fraud cooperate. This was also expressly communicated to them.
On March 20, 2018, notary Bart Voorwinde was declared personally bankrupt after he was removed from office and his office Voorwinde Notariaat was also declared bankrupt after more than 2.1 million euros disappeared from the escrow account of the office in Amsterdam Buitenveldert. The notary concealed the malpractices by falsifying bank statements. Two notaries who had previously been removed from office, Paul Vierveijzer and René Boerekamp, also worked at the office under a false name. Voorwinde was already suspended by the Chamber for the Notary Profession on December 8, 2017.
On 21 February 2023, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Amsterdam Chamber of Bailiffs of 1 June 2022, in which a bailiff from North Holland was removed from office. The bailiff may still perform work as an additional bailiff if a period of three months has expired. The bailiff was removed from office in 2022. An investigation by the Financial Supervision Office, which exercises government supervision over bailiffs in the Netherlands, revealed that there were repeated custody deficits on the third-party funds account and that the bailiff had not complied with the administrative obligations. In addition, funds had been transferred from the third-party funds account during the existence of a custody deficit. On appeal, the bailiff no longer contested the validity of the complaint. He only objected to the measure of disqualification imposed by the chamber and the provision that he cannot be appointed as an observer or assigned to another judicial officer for a period of five years. Like the chamber for judicial officers, the court considers the measure of disqualification from office appropriate and necessary. However, the court limits the period within which the judicial officer cannot be assigned to another judicial officer to three months. Although the court considers the judicial officer unsuitable to run his own judicial officer’s office, it does not want to deprive him of the opportunity to perform official duties as an assigned judicial officer under the responsibility of another judicial officer. There are no grounds for doubting his suitability for this. He indicated at the hearing that he wanted to focus on these duties.
The Public Prosecution Service demands a prison sentence of one and a half years, of which nine months conditional, against ex-notary Peter G. from Sint Philipsland, for coercion and defamation. Even after G. was removed from the notary’s office due to financial disorder, he continued his work. The 56-year-old Peter G. is a leader of the Van Maerloo sect, which persuades followers to give away property. According to the judiciary, notary Peter G. played a ‘crucial role’ in stealing valuable jewelry and money from a woman who belongs to the Van der Valk catering family . Notary G. is also suspected of placing an advertisement stating that a Van der Valk hotel was bankrupt. Maerloo zpon a complex web of companies at home and abroad, even in Macedonia and Suriname, through which money from followers flows. More than 5 million euros has been invested in real estate, including fourteen homes in Zeeland. Peter G. came to the attention of the Public Prosecution Service through a report by Titia Bollen. She was married to one of a Van der Valk descendant, and was a member of Maerloo until 2018. She signed for, among other things, the giving away of a house and 1.5 million euros from a foreign bank account. During the hearing of the criminal case in Middelburg, Bollen also filed a claim for damages of approximately half a million. This claim concerns, among other things, the appraised value of rings and earrings at €350,000 and more than 100,000 in legal fees. According to G’s lawyer, Frank van Mullekom of Weski Advocaten, the judiciary has ‘completely insufficient evidence’ and the claimed damages ‘do not make sense’. Statements by Titia Bollen may be unreliable, and G. did not accept any items, Van Mullekom argued. The lawyer also called declaring bankruptcy in the newspaper ‘not a crime’ and something that the average reader will see as a ‘joke’. The criminal case is the culmination of years of investigation by the judiciary and the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) into the activities of Maerloo, a Zeeland association around a now deceased alternative healer, with hundreds of followers in the Netherlands and Belgium. Experts describe Maerloo as a sect that isolates members from the outside world and puts them under pressure to hand over salaries, inheritances and pensions. Forming a sect is known as a popular ‘cover’ for crimes. A complicating factor is that ‘manipulation’ is not punishable by law. And if adults give permission for certain actions, it is difficult for the judiciary to prove ‘coercion’. The Public Prosecution Service now believes it is in a strong position to obtain a conviction. Partly because of statements by Titia Bollen and a verdict by the civil court that previously concluded that she was under ‘undue influence’. In addition, Maerloo and G. have been sentenced to return property, and now also to pay 4 million euros in penalty payments. The judge also found that money was deposited with a trust company of Maerloo, a construction that was set up to make assets ‘difficult to trace and to make their recovery more difficult’. From everything it follows that Maerloo is ‘a money-driven organisation’ that does not choose victims at random, according to Public Prosecutor Yorg Vermeulen. G. had a prominent position, as ‘right-hand man’ of cult leader Carine Bolijn, whose criminal case was dropped after her death. G. drew up documents, including ‘IOUs’ and deeds of sale, and also signed them in his function as notary. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Bollen was confused by means of manipulative techniques such as ‘gaslighting’: twisting truths so that someone starts to doubt themselves and is undermined. Bollen was persuaded to keep money safe, because her ex-husband and children were after it. Later it was said again that she had stolen money from Maerloo, and ‘had the devil in her’.She had to ‘reminisce’ every night for a month and appear before an internal tribunal. After that, she left Maerloo, convinced that she was ‘a bad person’ who had also planned a murder. Peter G. can remember little of the events, but thinks he knows that ‘Bollen is not my girlfriend’. He says he suffers from personality disorders and heart problems and is now deaf in one ear and almost blind. G. also has to pay off a loan of €1 million, which a Maerloo member gave him. Source: https://fd.nl/bedrijfsleven/1545628/om-eist-1-5-jaar-cel-tegen-notaris-sekte-maerloo-die-een-vrouw-miljoenen-ontfutselde
State Attorney, the Schaap case
Frank Jan Oranje (4/5/62) from Terneuzen in Zeeland was a notary, chairman of the board and partner of the state advocate Pels Rijcken in The Hague from 1996 and siphoned off around 11 million euros via shadow accounting. This despite his fee of over 400 euros per hour. He lived in his expensive villa Ekeby in The Hague, which he had bought in 1999. Oranje started committing fraud almost immediately after joining Pels Rijcken in 1996. The fraud lasted a total of 23 years. Oranje was said to have been bullied a lot at the student association Minerva during his student days. Oranje was a sponsor of Gouden Gilde, the foundation of friends of the Hofvijver, the photography museum etc. and lived in a grand villa that he had completely renovated and filled with works of art. Not long before he ended his life, he gave a speech to 1200 colleagues and fellow professionals about integrity. In the fraud, Oranje embezzled amounts through various foundations, which he had fellow notaries set up, but which were under his control. Oranje opened bank accounts in the names of his clients and forged payment orders. For example, Oranje was also the notary at the State Lottery. The Financial Intelligence Unit Netherlands only discovered the money laundering practices at the State Advocate in 2019 and passed this on to Minister Grapperhaus, who then did nothing about it. The Fiod then worked behind the scenes for another 1.5 years to get all the facts in order. (the Schaap case) The money flows went to various private accounts and foundations. Oranje led a double life and was very much a loner. Colleagues and professionals admired him for his craftsmanship, integrity and perfection. From 2019 onwards, the Functional Public Prosecution Service investigated the fraud with money from third-party accounts and he was confronted with this by Minister Grapperhaus in the summer of 2020. Frank Oranje had, in fact, helped minister Wopke Hoekstra and also minister Grapperhaus to distance themselves from private interests because of their office and had provided all kinds of financial services for this. The FIOD gave him a week to inform his office partner Reimer Veldhuis about the case, which he did on the afternoon of September 13, 2020, after which he was immediately suspended. The office then started its own investigation with the help of Van Doorne and Deloitte and it then turned out that the fraud was much bigger and the office itself filed a report on October 30, 2020. The Public Prosecution Service gave the case as little publicity as possible because of the business ties with their involved minister Grapperhaus and deliberately kept the case very small. Oranje took his own life in his holiday home two months after the discovery on November 6, 2020. Oranje is said to have forged documents to make transfers appear to be in order. The Pels Rijke office had blind faith in their colleague and colleagues were too afraid to contradict the impeccable Frank Oranje.The office also claimed to have been misled. The Chamber for the Notary later reprimanded two notaries and a candidate notary of Pels R. The candidate notary had a personal relationship with Frank Jan Oranje and therefore did not take the control very seriously and deliberately looked the other way. They went on holiday together and had a very personal relationship. The three had not looked critically enough at the actions of their colleague Oranje. One of the parties injured in 2010 was his own foundation Converium Securities Compensation Foundation, which he managed together with Philip van Hilten to pay out money to affected investors to the listed insurer Converium Holding AG. A total settlement of 58.4 million dollars was reached, 20 percent of the settlement amount, more than 11.5 million US dollars, went to the American lawyers. Oranje received the remaining amount under his management. In total, he embezzled more than 25% of the amount, approximately 9.5 million euros. Bart Groen, partner of Pels Rijcken until 2007 (former colleague and personal acquaintance of Oranje) was appointed as director of the foundation. The lawyer of the foundation was Jurjen Lemstra, also employed at Pels Rijcken. In addition, Oranje committed fraud with dozens of others, including the Central Bureau for Horticultural Auctions (The Greenery), Xerox, the ANWB, Travelcom, ZLTO, Billiton and the Province of Gelderland. Even Goldman Sachs and RBS were defrauded of 1.74 million euros. In five of the fraud files, interests of the State were also involved and he abused the name and reputation of the Red Cross. Pels Rijcken hired crisis & communication agency Hill & Knowlton and Norton to “carefully” bring the case to public attention in March 2021. Pels Rijcken decided to completely dismiss the notary department following the findings of the BFT. Thirteen notaries were dismissed. In May 2021, Pels Rijcken had still not compensated the victims. This was only finally achieved after Hilten called in the examining magistrate. A number of affected investors, including pension funds of large companies from Switzerland, Germany, England and the US, were entitled to almost fifty million euros. Oranje had siphoned off part of this money. In the meantime, the office was still the subject of an investigation for a long time by both the notarial supervisor BFT and the Hague Bar Association. Two notaries and a candidate notary from Pels Rijcken were reprimanded by the disciplinary judge. Their administration and control of the fraudulent actions of former notary Frank Oranje were inadequate. The Hague Chamber for the Notariat also called Oranje’s working methods ‘more brazen than brilliant’. Their sentences were lower because the two notaries had indicated that they were quitting their profession. In addition, the defendants cooperated with the investigation into the fraud and the financial recovery.In the opinion of the accountancy firm Pheiffer and Princen, Pels Rijcken is partly responsible for the fraud. Documents that were made public after a Wob request and confirmed by the Public Prosecution Service showed that Pels Rijcken and Van Doorne had refused to make the internal fraud investigations public to the Public Prosecution Service by invoking theirright to refuse to testify and duty of confidentiality. After months of delay, due to a decision by the examining magistrate, the Public Prosecution Service finally had access to the secret conversation reports. On November 6, 2020, the Pels Rijcken office paid back 9.7 million euros to the victims, to later recover this from the widow, the children, the other heirs and the proceeds from the sale of Oranje’s capital villas. After his death, the Public Prosecution Service continued to investigate for years without really finding out where Oranje had siphoned off those large sums of money. In May 2022, it became known that the BFT had filed a complaint against Frank Oranje’s widow for complicity in the matter. She was accused of money laundering, because she allegedly profited from the millions embezzled by her husband. The Public Prosecution Service wanted the BFT investigation reports to see whether information about the remaining suspects could be found in these files. In August 2023, the court ruled in favor of the Public Prosecution Service that the BFT must hand over its investigation reports, interview reports and disciplinary complaints to the Public Prosecution Service. The court ruled that the BFT does not have an independent right to refuse to testify. The BFT did not agree with the court’s view and appealed in cassation. As a last resort to prevent the Public Prosecution Service from obtaining these files. The secret files will remain in the safe of the examining magistrate until the Supreme Court’s ruling. It remains to be seen whether there are more people involved who are to blame. This also puts Grapperhaus’ sudden departure in a different light. Ferdinand Grapperhaus (1959) was Minister of Justice and Security from October 26, 2017 to January 10, 2022. In November 2021, under pressure, Grapperhaus initially no longer ruled out a departure of Pels Rijcken as State Advocate. With the establishment of the Silvis committee in May 2022, this was prevented and the contract with the State Attorney was amended with additional requirements regarding the business operations within the office. This contract has now been further amended following the advice of the committee. Despite the establishment of an advisory committee (Silvis) set up by the Government, the millions are still missing. On 6 December 2022, the Ministry of Justice and Security took several measures to prevent recurrence, but did not terminate the relationship with the State Attorney, due to the lack of availability of another experienced office that could defend the interests of the Government for 30 million euros per year. Pels Rijcken continued as a law firm after the case and transferred all notarial matters. The supervision of the Government, from which a lot of money was stolen, also left much to be desired. Mazars, the responsible accountant, appeared to have provided insufficient supervision. The Pels Rijcken office has been the State Attorney for decades and still is to this day. Former Prime Minister Rutte has always defended the office.Many involved still refuse to take responsibility. NTR devoted a 4-part documentary to it. Later, the state attorney made another mistake in the handling of the benefits affair, which caused it to get completely out of hand and was unnecessarily delayed.
Not much later, the State Advocate got into trouble again On June 18, 2024, a disciplinary case was started between law firm Stibbe and State Advocate Pels Rijcken after suspicions of Pels Rijcken violating the right to refuse to testify. The case arose from the criminal case against Box Consultants, in which Pels Rijcken advised and filed a disciplinary complaint against a Stibbe partner. Accusations were made of incorrect information and guidance in the event of a violation of the right to refuse to testify. Stibbe then filed summary proceedings against the Public Prosecution Service and the State, accusing Pels Rijcken of lying and successfully filed a disciplinary complaint against them. According to Stibbe, Pels Rijcken was a safe haven for the Public Prosecution Service and had been violating the right to refuse to testify of Stibbe lawyers for years. The NVSA is joining the summary proceedings. During the investigation, FIOD and OM officials are said to have gathered information for years from confidential e-mails between Box and Stibbe’s lawyers, including Doorenbos. Pels Rijcken has acted as legal advisor to the OM in this procedure since 2016. In a response, the Dutch Association of Criminal Lawyers (NVSA) describes the OM’s contested working methods as ‘sustainable and common practice’. The association also speaks of ‘a shocking picture, numerous abuses and inadequate safeguards’. The NVSA therefore also joined the summary proceedings. ‘The test regarding the right to refuse to testify should only be carried out where it belongs: in the office of the examining magistrate.’ According to the NVSA, which saw Stibbe’s summons, the OM ‘deliberately circumvents the rules by demanding all e-mail correspondence’. ‘The OM and investigation apparently believe that they can assess for themselves, and therefore without judicial intervention, whether the right to refuse to testify applies. Almost three quarters of the notaries employed by the large notary offices have since failed to disclose all secondary functions. Three disciplinary judges also appear not to adhere to this legal obligation themselves. By far the most errors concerning the reporting obligation concern the failure to report the management of one’s own holding company. In addition, management positions at investment and investment vehicles, homeowners’ associations, charities and Rotary are not reported. On 9 September 2024, in a ruling in the case of Stibbe against Pels Rijcken, the Disciplinary Board issued a warning to State Attorney Reimer Veldhuis for retaining e-mails that fell under the right of non-disclosure. The board ruled that the State Attorney had acted independently enough in the case in question. The complaint case was a result of the legal proceedings between Stibbe and Pels Rijcken that had been dragging on for years, in which the Public Prosecution Service was also involved. The aim was a series of emails between Stibbe lawyers and their client, the asset manager Box Consultants.The Public Prosecution Service had secretly obtained this information in an investigation. According to Stibbe, the e-mails fell under the right to refuse to testify. The Public Prosecution Service has now dropped this criminal case under the name Castor and admitted that it handled the data incorrectly. Stibbe subsequently also filed a complaint about the storage of the e-mails by State Attorney Veldhuis. In the complaint case, the Disciplinary Board has now issued aruling , after the hearing on 17 June of this year. The council declares the complaint about the retention of the e-mails well-founded. “Even after an irrevocable ruling established that Mr. Doorenbos’s right to refuse to testify had been violated, the State Attorney retained the emails in question. Minister Van Weel emphasizes that the warning for the State Attorney, although a disciplinary violation was established, does not indicate improper or deliberately unethical conduct. The Minister sees the issue as a matter of legal nuance, in which the State Attorney acted in good faith, but still violated a professional standard. The cooperation between the State and Pels Rijcken will remain unchanged for the time being, with the State Attorney’s office continuing to adhere to the integrity requirements that apply to government attorneys. The incident will be discussed further in administrative consultations to prevent recurrence in the future. The continued retention of emails that had in the meantime been established as falling under the right to refuse to testify affects the core value of confidentiality and is reprehensible under disciplinary law. Pels Rijcken & Droogleever Fortuijn has been a member of the 1969 State Advocate and has been in disrepute for years . The annual turnover of around 55 million euros consists mainly of tax money: half comes from the State, a significant part of the rest from municipalities and provinces.
Police, Defense and Justice
The Public Prosecution Service has demanded a prison sentence of 3.5 years against a former police officer for leaking information from police systems. Fouad el A. (36) from Alkmaar worked as a dog handler for the police in Amsterdam and is said to have sold police data to criminals for more than a year and a half via his brother Anouar el A. (27). In addition to the prison sentence, the prosecutor demanded an eight-year professional ban. The now ex-police officer confessed in court in Amsterdam that he had looked up information about criminals for payment using various accounts of his direct colleagues. At the request of his brother, he searched for license plates and names of people who wanted to know whether they were on the radar of the police.
The ex-police officer tearfully admitted in court that he felt pressured. “After my shift, I was cornered near Alkmaar and men asked me whether I was going to cooperate or not, otherwise they would kidnap my children,” the suspect said. “I knew it was wrong,” he continued. “I held it off for a long time, but at some point it happened.” El A. was also in an app group in which he posted messages warning of traffic checks and called his colleagues at the traffic police ‘cockroaches’. “Very stupid, I regret it very much,” he responded in tears.
The younger brother called it “extremely stupid” to act as a conduit between his criminal contacts and his brother. “In the beginning it was cool and I gained respect. At first I only asked for information for my friends. But it spread like wildfire. I couldn’t control it anymore and I started getting more and more requests from people I didn’t know. It became grimmer and darker. Then they threatened to approach my brother themselves.”
Haarlem resident Anouar is suspected of drug and medicine trafficking and money laundering in addition to bribing his brother. He is facing a prison sentence of eight years. Co-suspect in the drug case is 22-year-old Youssef B from Amsterdam, who is also suspected of possession of weapons. He has made procedural agreements with the Public Prosecution Service and has agreed to a prison sentence of five years. The court still has to decide on this and will give its verdict on 8 July.
The suspects came into the picture when leaked police information was found in an ongoing investigation in Central Netherlands. The officer was arrested in June last year on suspicion of computer hacking, breach of official secrecy and corruption.
On May 13, 2025, the National Criminal Investigation Department arrested a former civil servant (58) of Defense at Schiphol on suspicion of official corruption. The Rotterdam resident, who no longer works for the ministry, was involved in international purchasing contracts. The National Criminal Investigation Department tracked him down after a tip from abroad. The Public Prosecution Service suspects the man of having accepted bribes for the award of contracts in 2023. Others, from abroad, are also said to have been involved and to have accepted money. The Public Prosecution Service says it cannot provide any further information in the interest of the investigation. Two other Dutch nationals have also been arrested. They were not civil servants. All three are in restricted custody and are only allowed to have contact with their lawyer.
Amsterdam BOA Christina H. was given a two-year prison sentence, of which 6 months were conditional, for passing on data to criminals. She was also given a five-year professional ban. As a BOA, H. retrieved data such as addresses in municipal systems between November 2023 and October 2024. She passed these on to criminals so that they could carry out attacks on those addresses. The 60-year-old BOA did this for an unknown person she called Ronaldo. According to her statement, she was not paid for it, but she received money borrowed from ‘Ronaldo’. “He would pay money back and in the meantime he urged me to do those inquiries,” the suspect stated. According to the judge, H. received 2,000 euros and a watch. According to the judge, chat data shows that there was no coercion. The judge ruled that H. put people in great danger. The data that H. passed on was used in crimes in which violence was also used. H. was convicted of computer hacking, breach of official secrecy and bribery.
The government withheld important information about the activities of lawyer nephew Youssef Taghi, who maintained contacts and was involved in criminal acts. The case mainly revolves around the question of whether the government was powerless when Youssef Taghi was given access as a lawyer to the high-security Extra Secure Institution (EBI), where Ridouan Taghi was held. Youssef Taghi was given access to the EBI for years, while he was suspected of passing messages between his uncle and the criminal network he controlled. However, in the Netherlands, the right to freely choose a lawyer applies, which makes it difficult to deny a lawyer access to a client. This led to a complex situation in which the government struggled with the question of how they could exclude Taghi without acting in violation of the law. On December 1, 2020, Youssef Taghi reported to the gate of the EBI in Vught to visit his uncle Ridouan. Despite the fact that he was not registered as Ridouan’s lawyer and his defense already consisted of three lawyers, his request caused great unrest. Behind the scenes, the police, the judiciary and civil servants feverishly tried to find a way to refuse him. There was great fear that he would act as a messenger for his uncle’s criminal network. However, at that time there appeared to be insufficient evidence to definitively deny him access. In December 2020, a few weeks after Taghi first requested access to the EBI, he was checked by the police. He was in a car with three other people, including Oussama B., who was later convicted of involvement in the murder of lawyer Derk Wiersum. The car appeared to be registered in the name of Youssef Taghi, which further fueled concerns about his involvement in criminal activities. However, this information was not shared with the director of the EBI, who could possibly have made different decisions based on it. At that time, the government was already aware of various suspicious activities by Youssef Taghi. He had close ties with family members who were linked to serious crimes and was in contact with criminal networks. He also used a secret number: a number that may not be tapped by the police, but that was associated with a snack bar that served as a meeting place for criminals. However, this information was not shared with the EBI management, despite internal requests to share “all information”. The ADpreviously revealed that much crucial information about Youssef Taghi’s role had not been shared with the relevant authorities. This raises the question of whether the government was really powerless, or whether there was incomplete information provision. In order to gain more clarity, the newspaper requested a large number of documents via the Open Government Act. However, the openness that was provided was very limited. The government let deadlines pass and even paid penalty payments to gain more time. After months of legal battle, in which the judiciary and police refused to provide full openness, the AD has decided to go to court to get answers about why certain information was not shared and what the underlying reasons are. Three judges recently considered the case, and the verdict is expected within six weeks.
The court in Den Bosch has imposed a community service order of 120 hours on former justice employee Mustapha F. (42) on 27 June 2025 for copying confidential information about security within the Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Vught and the prison at Schiphol. Four years ago, the Hilversummer emailed 29 PDF files with sensitive information from his business address to his own hotmail address. He said he did this because, in his opinion, the job descriptions did not match the range of tasks in practice at the Transport and Support Service (DV&O). This included procedures regarding prison security, names of his colleagues, license plates and an email from the Criminal Intelligence Team about alleged plans for an attempted escape by Ridouan Taghi from the EBI.
A major investigation into the encrypted chat service Encrochat has revealed a lot of corruption in the police force. Encrochat was popular with criminals for years because they thought they could do their business unnoticed. The police managed to crack the service and listened to conversations for months. They also heard police information being leaked to criminals.
On June 18, 2024, the National Criminal Investigation Department arrested a second 35-year-old police officer living in Alkmaar on suspicion of computer hacking, breach of official secrecy and corruption. The man – who works for the Amsterdam police unit – is suspected of having sold information from police systems for a long time. On May 13, 2024, a 34-year-old police officer from Heemskerk was already arrested. The officers worked for the North Holland police. In addition to the police officer, three other suspects were arrested for involvement in the corruption. They are a 26-year-old man from Haarlem, a 32-year-old man from Zaandam and a 29-year-old man from Amsterdam.
The 30-year-old police officer Abdel A. was arrested and convicted in Drachten after he was found to be in possession of a kilo of cocaine and a large amount of money in his car. He was already under investigation for money laundering and mortgage fraud. Child and animal pornography were also found on his phone. The now dismissed police officer from Groningen worked for the East Friesland district. His brother Khalid A. (37), the owner of Groningen Dance Center, was also arrested on September 8, 2020 on suspicion of sexually abusing at least ten of his underage dance school pupils. Brother and dance school owner Khalid A. claimed to the police that the cocaine found on his brother was his. He is said to have borrowed his brother’s car and accidentally left the coke in it. Motorcycle cop Orm K. (44) from Utrecht appeared in court on August 25, 2020 because he allegedly received large sums of money from January 2018 to May 2020 in exchange for leaking extremely sensitive information about ongoing investigations, including a liquidation case. The police officer is the son of Utrecht detective Arie, who was shot dead by an RAF terrorist in 1977. K. is suspected of violating official secrecy, corruption and computer hacking or improper use of police systems. Disciplinary measures had previously been taken against K. for misconduct during arrests.
A former police union chairman and two other union members have been dismissed for serious dereliction of duty. They held management positions at the police union ANPV, but were still employed by the police and violated the rules and regulations of both the ANPV and the police. They tampered with police budgets and received unjustified allowances while also submitting incorrect and excessive declarations. One of them also enriched himself with the budget for police officers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The case came to light in early 2017 when other ANPV board members reported suspicions of fraud to their superiors within the police. They passed on the signals to the National Criminal Investigation Department, which started an investigation. After the National Criminal Investigation Department investigation, the police started an internal investigation into the employees who have since been dismissed. The Public Prosecution Service has informed the ANPV that a criminal investigation has been started and suspects criminal offences by a total of seven former (board) members. A number of them do not work for the national police. In 2019, the Netherlands had to deal with 150 bad and leaking agents who were fired. That is thirty more than in 2018.
A 35-year-old detective from The Hague is suspected of having looked into police systems for a year and a half to see if there was an investigation into certain suspects. The detective was arrested in October 2017 and had to appear in court in early February 2018. Confidential information ended up in the criminal circuit via two intermediaries who have since been arrested. Over the past five years, some eighty corruption cases have come to light in which police officers and other law enforcement officers have become involved with criminal organizations. In half of the cases, it involved police officers. In five years, sixteen officers with a migration background have leaked to organized crime. For example, a 41-year-old police officer from Limburg has been sentenced to prison for leaking police data and membership of a criminal organization that traded in drugs. On November 16, 2017, the court in Maastricht sentenced the police officer to two and a half years in prison and to repay 36,000 euros that he earned from selling police data. The man worked in the wiretap room, where tapped conversations are received. His cousin, like him, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, his uncle to nine months and his aunt to almost eight months. A fourth suspect who was not related was sentenced to two years in prison.
A 29-year-old corrupt police officer from The Hague, Amine A., was sentenced to 4 years in prison on October 24, 2017 for violating his official secrecy and membership of a criminal organization. He also repeatedly passed on information from the police systems about cannabis farms to a criminal friend.
The police in the eastern Netherlands have arrested two police officers from Almelo who are suspected of participating in a criminal network. They were already suspected of violating their official secrecy. They may have shared confidential information with suspects who were arrested in early September during an action against a criminal network in Almelo with organised cannabis cultivation in the Nieuwstraatkwartier district. The officers worked for the police in Gelderland and Overijssel.
A 37-year-old military police officer from Barneveld and a 42-year-old fellow resident were arrested in early December 2017 after a year-long investigation on suspicion of, among other things, drug trafficking.
A non-commissioned officer of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee at Schiphol was sentenced to four months in prison for defrauding travellers. In his position, he was responsible for checking travellers entering the country via Schiphol. Two defrauded Argentinians reported the fraud to their embassy. In total, he managed to talk five different travellers out of 4,500 euros. In September 2019, he went to the airport outside of work hours, where he then pretended to be chief immigration. Using this false status, he convinced travellers from outside Europe in an office that something was wrong with their travel insurance. He told a Colombian man that the minimum coverage of the travel insurance was too low. According to the website of the IND immigration service, that minimum coverage is 30,000 euros, but according to the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee non-commissioned officer, the requirement was 60,000 euros and the victim’s 50,000 euros coverage was not sufficient. He then showed his human side and told the Colombian that he could make an exception, provided that the man would still pay a fine of 500 euros. The man did so after his mother had transferred 500 euros to him via Western Union. In exchange for the money, the victim was given a document with which he could prove that he had been admitted after all. In order to prevent the fraud from being discovered, the soldier signed the document with the names and service numbers of fictitious colleagues. He stamped the documents with stamp numbers that could not be traced back to him. According to the military court, another proof of the ‘fraudulent’ conduct is that the man had a victim pay with a PIN device that did not work. In this way, he ensured that the payment was made in cash. The fact that the man had a higher rank is held even more against him by the judges. He therefore had an exemplary function and was supposed to prevent corruption. As mitigating circumstances, the judges took into account that he had no criminal record and had been dismissed by the military police. The judges sentenced him to eight months in prison, of which he must serve four in any case, as the public prosecutor had also demanded. He was given a probation period of 3 years. The non-commissioned officer has appealed because his family will also be seriously affected if he really has to go to prison.
On April 21, 2023, attorney Inez Weski was arrested for the unauthorized forwarding of messages from outsiders to and from Ridouan Taghi, whom she had been assisting as a lawyer for years. Weski’s pre-trial detention was lifted on June 1, 2023, but she remained a suspect. In February 2024, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced that it wanted to prosecute Weski for participation in a criminal organization. Her former client Taghi was previously sentenced to life imprisonment in the Marengo trial. The OM offered her a secret residence abroad if she wanted to testify, but that is not an option even for a former lawyer. According to the OM, Inez Weski exchanged more than eight thousand crypto messages with the 24-year-old son of her former client Ridouan Taghi. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) suspects Weski of participating in the criminal drug and money laundering organization of Taghi, the main suspect in the Marengo trial. The former lawyer is said to have shared information from Taghi from the extra secure facility (ebi) in Vught with his contacts in the outside world. The Public Prosecution Service says it has “ample evidence” for this. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the former lawyer received a crypto phone from the organization when she took on Taghi’s defense. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Weski also shared messages with others and a number of these were about assets and payments in the context of organized drug trafficking. “Even the organization’s accounting was shared and discussed,” says the public prosecutor. The first, preparatory hearing in the criminal case against Weski is January 14, 2025 in the Rotterdam court. Weski will not be there. According to her lawyers, she will be present at the substantive hearings. Weski was arrested on Friday, April 21, 2023 after a months-long investigation by the Public Prosecution Service. A few days after her arrest, she resigned from Taghi’s defense. She has since resigned as a lawyer. Taghi’s eldest son is currently in custody in the Netherlands. He was arrested in Dubai in August 2023 and extradited about a year later. He is suspected of participating in a criminal organization that deals with international drug trafficking, money laundering and preparing violent crimes. The Public Prosecution Service suspects that he took over his father’s criminal activities after his arrest at the end of 2019. The Public Prosecution Service emphasizes that Weski has nothing to do with violent crimes. Taghi was sentenced to life imprisonment in the extensive Marengo liquidation trial at the beginning of last year.
An employee of the Penitentiary Institution (PI) in Alphen aan den Rijn was summarily dismissed in May 2024 after it emerged that he was involved in the import of contraband and shared information with inmates without permission. A week earlier, two employees of the PI Alphen were also summarily dismissed. They had ‘unauthorized contact with inmates.’ In the past four years, almost 160 prison employees have been dismissed. A large number turned out to be corrupt or susceptible to blackmail: they smuggled drugs or telephones into the cell or had a relationship with an inmate. The prisons are struggling with a lack of places due to the influx of non-Western convicts and the enormous shortage of staff. Offenders have to wait to serve their sentence and often go home with an ankle monitor. The state has sold four prisons in recent years. Zikos departments (Very Intensive Short-term Observation and Stabilization) also have an admission freeze. The inspection visited the departments after disturbing signals and drew harsh conclusions. One of the two Zikos institutions then imposed a freeze on admissions. Young people speak of extreme isolation, with an average of more than twenty hours of isolation per day. They say they are sometimes held in check forcibly. This further increases the shortage of guards and prisoners with sentences of up to four years are walking around at home with an ankle monitor instead of being in prison.
In mid-May, another prison employee of the Penitentiary Institution (PI) of Alphen aan den Rijn was caught bringing contraband into the prison. The guard was dismissed on the spot. Between the beginning of 2022 and May 2024, approximately 35 integrity investigations were conducted in Penitentiary Institutions and the Transport & Support Service. This led to disciplinary measures and ten times to dismissal. One employee was found to have participated in an armed home invasion. An employee is also said to have assisted in the theft of weapons, bullet cartridges and cans of pepper spray from a building of the judicial service in Zutphen. Abuse of power, intimidation and corruption among guards are rampant within the service. In addition, many employees have been reprimanded for not maintaining a professional distance from prisoners or ex-prisoners. For example, in 2021, an employee was dismissed for having contact and transferring money to former prisoners.
Vincent L., 48, then deputy chief public prosecutor at the Functional Parket (fraud prevention), appeared in court in The Hague on May 10, 2021 for indecent acts with a minor for money and child prostitution in 2016. The demand is an unconditional prison sentence of eleven months. L. gave a negative answer to the question whether he should not have been extra alert given his position. L. was arrested on April 19, 2017 as one of eleven suspects (38-61 years old) from Amstelveen and Amsterdam because they independently had paid sex with the boy. Leenders almost got off scot-free due to a blunder by the Public Prosecution Service. The case came to light in January 2017 after the boy’s parents went to the police. The Public Prosecution Service suspected a total of eleven men of indecent acts for money. Ten men have now been convicted. Vincent, who was previously a board member of the VVD youth association JOVD, temporarily avoided prosecution, but was immediately suspended by the Public Prosecution Service after the case became known and was definitively dismissed in January 2018. The Public Prosecution Service was greatly embarrassed by the indecent assault scandal within its own ranks. According to the public prosecutor, it involved a vulnerable child. “He is 27 years younger than the suspect and even had to be treated in a clinic because of his problems. Vincent was aware of this and yet he made an appointment with him. Vincent L. had been the second man at the Functional Parket in Amsterdam since May 2016. Vincent had been a public prosecutor since 2008 and the face of the approach to serious fraudsters. In the period 2012-2015, 117 employees at the Public Prosecution Service were reprimanded or dismissed for fraud, stealing, leaking sensitive information or for appearing drunk at a hearing.
The Coldenhove case concerns alleged abuses at the Judicial Centre for Somatic Care (JCvSZ) in Scheveningen, a prison hospital where, among other things, serious criminals are treated. Whistleblower Huig Plug, who worked there as a nurse, has made various accusations, such as fraud, corruption, intimidation, abuse and rape of detainees. He also claims that there is a connection between this case and the Joris D. affair. Plug was charged and convicted for defamation, sedition and stalking. He has accused several people, including judges, lawyers, journalists and politicians, of child abuse and child murder. He has also made death threats and harassed people via social media and telephone. The Coldenhove case is still ongoing. There are still several lawsuits and witness hearings pending, both by Plug and his opponents. The case has generated a lot of attention and controversy in the media and politics. On December 8, 2023, Plug appealed against his conviction.
RDW
At the Dutch Road Traffic Agency, criminals could illegally obtain personal data from car owners via chat apps such as Telegram against payment of amounts ranging from 50 to 150 euros. In some cases, the mobile number could also be purchased. The mobile numbers were requested via the municipality. The data could be used to look up a car owner at home, for example, after a traffic accident. It was also possible to see at the Schiphol parking garage whether and which homeowners were not at home.
Rijkswaterstaat
A Rijkswaterstaat employee was caught committing fraud. He submitted more than 2.3 million euros in false invoices. The purchasing employee had been at fault since 2012 and sold, among other things, Rijkswaterstaat goods to a supplier, in order to pocket the proceeds of 18,000 euros. Forgery carries a maximum sentence of six years. And for bribing a civil servant, the maximum sentence is six years or a fine of up to 820,000 euros. Article 272 of the Criminal Code stipulates a maximum sentence of 1 year for breaching official secrecy. However, this does not appear to be an obstacle for a large number of fraud and corruption cases.
Leroy S., 29, from Rosmalen, worked for Rijkswaterstaat under a false name for months. He had been in prison a year earlier because he worked as a nurse in a hospital without a diploma at the beginning of the first corona wave. He offered his services at the Jeroen Bosch Hospital in Den Bosch in March 2020. He cared for patients and administered their medication. He was fired after two weeks because colleagues saw that S. was not professionally qualified. He only had a first aid diploma. In April 2023, he was sentenced to nine months in prison. He was also banned from working in healthcare. He had already served his sentence in pre-trial detention. More than a year after this conviction, he was appointed to Rijkswaterstaat and had already worked for five months as a tunnel operator at a Rijkswaterstaat location in Wolfheze, west of Arnhem, before he was unmasked. A tunnel operator ensures safe traffic flow. This is especially important in the event of accidents or other incidents on the road. Leroy introduced himself to colleagues as Quincy. In January of this year, he was no longer seen at work. A team leader told colleagues in a message that the collaboration with Quincy had ended due to “personal circumstances”. To start working at Rijkswaterstaat, a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG) is required. and an oath of office must also be taken at the start, in which one declares, among other things, to perform the job in an honest manner.
Ministry of Defense
Renault Nederland settled for 2 million euros for bribing the Ministry of Defence. The importer bribed defence official Jaques H. for millions to secure tenders for official vehicles. Renault treated the defence official to trips and a dealer paid the lease amount and damage to the official’s private cars. The latter was done with the cooperation of a Renault sales manager. Renault benefited from the bribery by 1.4 million euros. This amount must be repaid plus a fine of 600,000 euros. The sales manager is no longer employed by Renault but is still being prosecuted. The official travelled eleven times to Paris, Athens, Turin, Vancouver, Wimbledon, Scotland, Iceland and made several mini cruises to the Mediterranean. A total of 26 trips to 13 different destinations in less than ten years that were paid for by Pon, Peugeot, Renault. The trial against a total of eleven suspects will last fifteen days. On 9 January 2018, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded a three-year prison sentence against 65-year-old Jacques H., former fleet manager of the Ministry of Defence, and former police officer Rene P. was sentenced to one year in prison. Community service orders of 40 to 120 hours are demanded for the other suspects. The highest community service order is demanded against the two directors of Renault dealer chain VKV, who had a pot in the accounts where the bribes for Jacques H. were parked. Because the government was disadvantaged by this, the OM also demanded fines of 10,000 euros each against the suspected directors V. and K.
Ministers and top civil servants of Defence regularly requested special treatment for Jacques H., the main suspect in the extensive corruption case surrounding the purchase of cars by the ministry. Luxury extras in official cars, special suspension or more expensive upholstery that ministers’ wives found more attractive than the standard black interior of their husbands’ official cars were internally referred to as ‘special sandwiches’. Fleet manager Jacques H. specialised in arranging these special requests, such as special suspension for Minister Kamp’s BMW 530 or a rental van for him to transport a Moto Guzzi to a VVD campaign meeting for a photo opportunity. An Audi TT convertible purchased by Minister Kamp in Germany was taken to importer Pon to make it roadworthy for the Netherlands. Pon gave a discount of 263.50 on the invoice. Civil servant Jacques H. had a close relationship with Pon. Unlike Minister Kamp, Jaques H. is being prosecuted for accepting gifts, fuel cards and discounts in exchange for information about large government orders. In the case (Dotterbloem), twelve community service sentences were handed out to car dealers. The cases against 20 suspects were dropped. The Public Prosecution Service also settled with Pon for 12 million euros and with Peugeot and Renault (each 2 million euros). The six civil servants suspected of corruption all had to appear in court. Civil servants René P. and Jacques H. were treated with the utmost respect by PON and were able to lease cars on very favourable terms, for themselves and for their family members. And H. went on an all-expenses-paid holiday with his wife fourteen times between 2001 and 2007. The couple went on mini-cruises on the Mediterranean three times. They travelled to the Olympic Games in Athens, Turin and Vancouver. To the Formula 1 in Monaco, to Iceland, Finland, Scotland and St. Petersburg. And to the Monterey Historic Automobile Races in California. On average, the trips cost 5,000 euros per person, with peaks of 9,000 euros. Two of the trips in 2006 were organized by Princess Aimée, a member of the royal family, who worked for Pon at the time and went on the trip with them. That went well until the end of 2011, when an anonymous letter was delivered to Ministers Hillen (Defense) and Opstelten (Security and Justice). It described in detail Pon’s actions and the perks for the civil servants. Pon hired lawyer Hendrik Jan Biemond, a partner at the firm Allen & Overy in Amsterdam. Biemond worked for the Public Prosecution Service between 2002 and 2007. Pon also hired law firm Clifford Chance and the fraud branch of accounting firm KPMG to conduct an internal investigation. Biemond wanted to prevent Pon from having to appear in court and managed to arrange a settlement that was finalised on 20 October 2016.The responsible financial man at Pon was given another job by Wijnand Pon and has since managed Wijnand’s investment fund. Former Minister of Defence Hans Hillen (CDA) concealed details about a corruption case at his ministry at the time from the House of Representatives and the judiciary.
Ministry of the Interior
An employee of the Rent Assessment Committee committed fraud with repayments for almost a year and a half in 2023 and 2024. In total, the employee transferred 66,500 euros to his own bank accounts.
Civil servants from the Ministry of the Interior committed fraud worth tens of thousands of euros with business mobile phones that they used privately. A civil servant charged the ministry with a data bundle of approximately 211,000 euros and lent his business phone to family members who took it across the border. A hotspot was also set up, which the family used. The matter came to light during a larger investigation, which revealed that civil servants were committing similar fraud.
Since 2020, more than a hundred aldermen, mayors and councilors have been charged with possible integrity violations
The State Secretary has found dozens of examples of forged Dutch passports, created and issued by corrupt civil servants. There are several municipalities where civil servants work who ‘in exchange for money supply passports to order’. Corrupt civil servants in a number of municipalities have issued false passports for money. Furthermore, there are ‘structural problems’ in issuing passports, because civil servants do not follow the rules carefully enough, according to a letter from State Secretary Van Huffelen of the Ministry of the Interior. She writes that there are dozens of known cases where a ‘limited number of corrupt civil servants’ have entered false information or a forged photo in a passport.
Ministry of Justice
Under pressure from high-ranking officials at the Ministry of Justice, an independent, decisive research report on the regulation of cannabis cultivation was amended in 2014 to support the soft drugs policy of the Minister of Justice, instead of criticizing it as researchers had actually determined. WODC director Leeuw bowed to the political pressure and rewrote the actual conclusion of the WODC report, against the wishes of the researchers. A whistleblower who raised the issue in 2014 was ignored by the Secretary General, the highest official at the Ministry of Justice. In 2017, a confidential counselor was also notified. But the Ministry of Justice has not yet started a formal investigation. The independence of the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) has been seriously compromised as a result.
Civil servant Marwen S. said he wanted to help his cousin who was in financial trouble and stole 192 iPhones, nine iPads and five MacBooks from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate in The Hague. However, the cousin stated that he actually sold them on the orders of S., who had started the theft on his own initiative. The 42-year-old civil servant was responsible for collecting and issuing the devices. If there were new or updated iPhones for civil servants at the ministry, they were made ready at the issuing desk. At the end of the day, when S. and his colleagues had gone home, he took ten of them with him. ‘I couldn’t fit more in my bag,’ he stated in court on Wednesday afternoon. ‘I did that about every three weeks.’ Most of the thefts took place between March and May 2021. He only took the MacBooks in November 2021 and another bag of phones in January 2022. S. says he knows nothing about the iPads. The Zoetermeer resident received 250 euros per device. The cousin received 290 euros for it from a fence, who sold them to an intermediary for 315 euros, who in turn sold them for 340 euros to a small company that sold them on Bol.com, the public prosecutor described the path the devices followed before they ended up with unsuspecting people. The police were able to track down 139 of them using the unique numbers of the iPhones. Exactly the number that S. confessed to having stolen. The ministry did indeed miss the phones and called in a detective agency to solve the thefts. This quickly led to suspicion against S. and he was suspended in December 2021. Investigation eventually showed that 192 iPhones had disappeared. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there is no evidence that other employees may have stolen devices. Former Attorney General Van Nimwegen of the Public Prosecution Service concealed a love affair and promoted a public tender to go to his brother-in-law.
NVWA
For thirty years, the NVWA – and its predecessors – have been in the news for negative reasons. Every few months, a report is published showing that the service should have monitored slaughterhouses, animal transports or meat fraud better. This is followed by futile measures such as a reorganisation, extra government funding or an improvement plan. The meat from piglets with pneumonia or abscesses, sick beef from cattle and kilos of contaminated chicken fillet were sold to Dutch consumers under the supervision of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. The abuses were known to the government service at the highest level. Images show that slaughterhouses are ignoring salmonella legislation on a large scale nationwide and where a slaughterhouse dropped a chicken fillet from the conveyor belt every few minutes, then swept it up with the dirt on the floor and put it back on the conveyor belt with the rest of the meat that was going to the consumer. The images were shown to the then State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Sharon Dijksma, who dismissed them in the House of Representatives as ‘structural shortcomings’ in the supervision of small and medium-sized slaughterhouses.
Once Irish and British racehorses stop winning or become too expensive to care for, they are discarded without mercy. Discarded racehorses should not end up in the food chain, but this still happens. Research by the Irish TV programme RTÉ Investigates and House of Animals shows that the animals are transported to other European countries with a false identity and a ‘clean’ passport, to be slaughtered there. Dutch horse traders play an important role in this. In addition to Spain, Italy and Poland, a large number of horses also go to a Dutch slaughterhouse in Kerkdriel. This slaughterhouse was previously under fire because of the enormous numbers of animals that were slaughtered there without being stunned. Karen Soeters of House of Animals. In 2022, a European ‘food safety warning’ was issued for meat from the slaughterhouse in Kerkdriel, because it should not have ended up in the chain for human consumption. The investigation also shows a connection between this slaughterhouse and a horse trader Jan T. from Meijel. This trader is also named in the French trial, as someone who would organize the slaughter of horses with false passports. The horse trader from Meijel supplies many so-called (re-catted) German horses to the slaughterer from Kerkdriel. The NVWA has clearly dropped the ball. (see also article under product fraud)
Municipalities
On May 12, the police arrested another civil servant of the municipality of Amsterdam on suspicion of corruption and complicity in causing explosions ‘and other serious violent incidents’. The 46-year-old man is said to have looked up addresses in municipal systems for a long period of time and passed them on to criminals. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the civil servant had access to multiple systems, including the Personal Records Database, as part of his position. The man gave criminal contacts specific addresses for committing attacks, explosions or other violent incidents. Civil servants have illegally looked up data in the past, but the Public Prosecution Service emphasizes that the suspect in this case must have known that the information he passed on was used to commit serious crimes. That is why he is also suspected of complicity in these crimes. The suspect is in restricted custody, which means that he is only allowed to have contact with his lawyer. He will be brought before the examining magistrate next Thursday. The judge will decide whether the man will remain in custody for another fourteen days.
Three men were sentenced to prison terms in April 2025 for defrauding the municipality of The Hague of more than 1.7 million euros. The 53-year-old main suspect was a municipal civil servant and has since been dismissed. He was given a prison sentence of 3.5 years. The other two convicts, two men aged 60 and 59, were sentenced to 22 and 16 months in prison for fraud and money laundering. A fourth suspect, the wife of the former civil servant, was acquitted because it is not certain whether she was aware of the fraud. The municipality of The Hague was defrauded for six years, between 2013 and 2019. During that time, the former civil servant made several false invoices and ensured that the municipality paid them. The companies from which the invoices originated were mostly in the names of the two other men. The invoices were for repair and construction work in The Hague that was never carried out. The former civil servant signed the invoices and emailed colleagues that the work was finished and that the invoices had to be paid quickly. The two men who had the companies in their names always withdrew the money in cash or spread it over different accounts. The money ended up with the ex-civil servant and the two other convicts. According to the court, the ex-civil servant damaged the trust that society has in the integrity of civil servants. The now ex-civil servant told the court that he needed the money for his sex addiction, among other things. In 2020, he was already sentenced in a civil procedure to repay the missing money.
Municipalities are vulnerable to cronyism, fraud and other malpractices. In the past three years, at least 900 civil servants have been caught stealing, misconduct or leaking personal data. Since 2020, more than a hundred aldermen, mayors and council members have been discredited for possible integrity violations. This involved 16 mayors, 52 aldermen and 46 council members. They were discredited for, for example, deleting text messages, corruption, sexually transgressive behaviour, cronyism, dual roles, insults and close contacts with extreme groups.
The National Criminal Investigation Department arrested an employee of the municipality of Meierijstad on April 8, 2024. The 33-year-old man is suspected of providing license plate information to third parties for payment. This would involve license plate information and information about registrations. How often this has happened exactly is the subject of investigation. A 33-year-old man from Tilburg was also arrested in the case on Monday. He is said to have been involved in the trade together with a civil servant and to have acted as a kind of intermediary for buyers.
A former female parking enforcement officer from Helmond will receive a prison sentence of 14 months, of which 4 months are conditional, with a probationary period of 3 years, if the Public Prosecution Service has its way. The 27-year-old woman is suspected of breaching official secrecy and computer hacking, because she looked up license plate data in computer systems and passed it on to third parties. The Public Prosecution Service is convinced that the suspect acted from a criminal motive.
A municipal clerk of the municipality of Westland was dismissed at the end of 2016 because he allegedly spent 48,000 euros of municipal money privately. The clerk is also said to have violated his duty of confidentiality and to have treated employees and third parties inappropriately. He spent the money on knowledge network Lokaal 13, a hobby of his. He also spent some of it on the anti-wind energy lobby. He also favored two council members by passing on confidential information, including about the reappointment of the mayor. The clerk was already suspended in September because he threatened to make secret documents about an asbestos fire public. Employees of the Parking Management department of the Amsterdam City Supervision Service committed fraud in 2002 by trading in false parking permits. Another thirteen people outside the service were also arrested. The employees personally made parking permits to order and sold them on to various buyers for an as yet unknown amount. The managers of the four were also dismissed. It was the umpteenth time that City Supervision was confronted with fraud by parking department staff.
In Rotterdam, at least two civil servants committed a multi-million fraud around the rental of the former pop venue Waterfront. From the moment the building was rented in mid-2010, no rent was paid to the municipality in all those years. A number of civil servants facilitated this and deliberately kept it out of control. The board will prepare personnel measures in the coming months against civil servants who cooperated in this. A scaffolder, together with the judiciary, ensnared two corrupt civil servants from Heerlen. The scaffolder was asked to submit a forged invoice to the municipality and to share the profit with them. Later, he was also asked to artificially increase a quote.
A Moroccan top official of the Amsterdam mayor Van der Laan was suspended in early July 2017 and then dismissed on suspicion of cronyism and fraud with declarations. The woman had been working for the Public Order and Safety (OOV) service since August 2006, and worked as a program manager Radicalization and Polarization and was responsible for the development and realization of the coordination and had a directing role for the approach to radicalization and was responsible for the development and implementation of the integrated preventive program. In her position, she regularly gave orders to Imam Elforkani of the Blue Mosque, who is also the director-owner of Vizea Adviseurs. The Blue Mosque is managed by the controversial Muslim Brotherhood. On December 25, 2013, the interim government of Egypt also labeled the Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Saadia was the first point of contact for the mayor and the Management Team and managed a team of professionals. S. was also responsible for steering policy development and policy planning. She had an on-call function for complicated cases and social unrest. For this purpose, she was in contact with family members of Syria fighters who had left, mosque boards and other key figures who had knowledge of radicalising young people. She started in 2009 at the Municipality of Amsterdam in the position of Senior Management Advisor to the Public Order Directorate. The woman who herself studied criminology and enjoyed support from Fatima E. is said to have hired an ex of hers, among other things. Bilal L., convicted as a member of the Hofstad Group for preparing a terrorist attack, promoted jihad as a youth worker. L. worked for years on behalf of S. and approved the actions of Hizb ut-Tahrir. This organisation, which is banned in Germany, promoted the introduction of Sharia law and an Islamic state in Europe. His sister and brother left for the Middle East after IS had declared the caliphate there. S. and vlogger Saïd J. had a mutual circle of friends and visited birthdays together. They went on holiday to Turkey and Dubai twice with others.’ Saadia texted a friend that ‘her whole life revolved around Saïd’s well-being’. While Saïd carried out lucrative assignments for the municipality on her behalf. According to the court, Ait-Taleb was guilty of dereliction of duty and (the appearance of) a conflict of interest. Saïd is said to have submitted invoices for a ‘grey campaign’ for an amount of almost 175,000 euros. The vlogs in question from this campaign were ultimately never posted online because the now deceased mayor Van der Laan had an argument with his officials at the end of 2016 about the role that religion played in the vlogs. At the preliminary hearing on 19 July 2018, the woman appeared to have gone abroad
In the past four years, the municipality of Amsterdam has had 32 cases of fraud and corruption involving civil servants. Nineteen times, dereliction of duty was established and nine civil servants were dismissed. In ten cases, a lighter sentence was imposed, five investigations focused on external employees, with whom the contracts were terminated. In four cases, a report was filed with the police. Two investigations into employees who awarded one or more contracts to friendly parties are still ongoing. In 2013, an employee committed fraud via his own company and invoiced 250,000 euros for work that had not been carried out. The municipality decided not to file a report and the civil servant left. In 2014, an intern from the East district was also dismissed for 160,000 euros in invoice fraud. The front men for this fraud were arrested and a report was filed. Total damage: 28,650 euros. There are also known cases of forgery of diplomas, influencing of tenders, fraud with time registrations or parental leave. The Public Prosecution Service is going to prosecute an Amsterdam police chief for embezzlement. He was already dismissed from his position last November because of the ‘football ticket affair’. The Safety, Integrity and Complaints unit (VIK) is investigating possible bribery and alleged fiddling with tickets for football matches and concerts. Five police chiefs are said to have attended concerts and matches at the expense of the police. A police officer from Weert passed on confidential information from the police system to criminals and is being prosecuted for corruption, computer hacking, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization. Four major investigations are currently underway into corruption in the police, customs, FIOD and Royal Marechaussee and the role of organized crime in this.
A former civil servant of the municipality of Helmond was arrested in mid-March 2017 for forgery and embezzlement. His wife, municipal secretary in the Limburg municipality of Leudal, was also arrested for laundering the community money embezzled in 2016. The civil servant was summarily dismissed in 2016 after it emerged that he had embezzled at least 20,000 euros. The police searched the couple’s home in Echt and their castle in Roosteren, which they ran as a restaurant.
Chany R., the former fleet manager of the West Amsterdam district, and his wife Rubia Omayra R. drew up false invoices that were entered into the municipality’s payment system by Chany R. and paid out to his wife, who had a sole proprietorship. False quotes and invoices were also submitted to the leasing company Leaseplan. Stolen municipal goods were found during house searches. The municipality is also entitled to the costs that had to be incurred for the seizure (12,000 euros) and the lawyer’s salary costs (16,250 euros). A car was also seized. They must repay the municipality of Amsterdam more than three million euros. Although the criminal investigation is still ongoing, the private judge has granted the municipality’s claim against its former employee R. and his wife in advance. R. was dismissed by the municipality in 2015.
Waternet
An employee of Waternet Amsterdam siphoned off 1.5 million euros and used it for online gambling. Waternet only discovered this after ING Bank reported it. The employee had been employed for twenty years and was only caught at the end of 2017 after he had already transferred money from Waternet to his own account for six months. After the employee suddenly paid off his entire mortgage and all his other debts in one go, it turned out that this had been preceded by five transfers of 300,000 euros from Waternet. The employee had falsified invoices from various contractors and provided them with his own bank account number. In December, Waternet seized his houseboat. Shortly before the fraud, the employee had asked in vain for an advance on his salary in connection with impending wage garnishments.
Tax Authorities
The District Court of The Hague convicted a 37-year-old civil servant of the Tax and Customs Administration of bribery at the end of September 2024. For a year and a half, he provided dozens of (personal) details from the Tax and Customs Administration’s systems to third parties. He laundered the money he earned from this. The man is sentenced to 36 months in prison. He is also prohibited from holding a position as a civil servant for 5 years. The suspect worked as a bailiff at the Tax and Customs Administration. In that capacity, he had access to various systems with his account. The suspect used this to look up license plates and citizen service numbers. He provided this information to two other people. In return, he received money that he said he spent on groceries. This is supported by chat conversations between him and his wife that were found on his phone. These show that the suspect went shopping very regularly and always paid in cash. One of the license plates that the suspect looked up was of a car that was involved in a rip deal of a batch of cocaine. It has also emerged that shortly after he looked up two license plates and associated personal data, the person in whose name those license plates were registered was liquidated near his home. The court finds that the suspect is guilty of passive official bribery, computer hacking and money laundering. By acting in this way, the suspect has grossly betrayed the trust placed in him as a civil servant and abused his position for personal gain.
On 8 January 2024, the FIOD arrested a 21-year-old temporary worker at the tax authorities. His home in Best was searched and computers and telephones were seized. The fraud came to light after a bank reported it to the Tax Authorities. The bank reported that the Tax Authorities had transferred an amount of more than 84,000 euros in the name of an 18-year-old boy from Alkmaar for an application for compensation under the Temporary Scheme for Block Heating Compensation (TTB). This subsidy scheme is implemented by the Tax Authorities. Because large expenses were made via web shops immediately after receiving this money and a lot of cash was withdrawn, the bank decided to block the account and inform the Tax Authorities. The cash withdrawn subsidy funds were used to purchase iPhones, Airpods and a Rolex worth 39,000 euros. In October and November 2023, five men were arrested on suspicion of money laundering, among other things. In addition to luxury goods, several telephones and bank cards were also seized, including the bank card of the 18-year-old man. It is suspected that the bank and ID details of this young man were used for a false TTB application. The 21-year-old temporary worker is said to have processed the application in question and wrongly approved it. The temporary worker is said to have worked with the five men arrested earlier.
A 53-year-old employee of the tax authorities, who had to check SMEs for fraud, was charged with official corruption, computer hacking, forgery, breach of confidentiality and money laundering. The National Criminal Investigation Department tracked down the man in July 2022 after encrypted messages from the chat service SKY-ECC were intercepted. The employee was said to trade license plate information from the Tax Authorities’ systems for payment at 10,000 euros per request. After his arrest, 920,000 euros were found behind a skirting board in the kitchen of the civil servant’s home. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison, of which 1 year was suspended, but he got off with a community service order of 180 hours.
In 2013, the Tax and Customs Administration cheated on the tender for the data analysis department. The responsible official awarded the tender to Accenture. Accenture was also allowed to carry out other assignments for the Tax and Customs Administration. The responsible director allowed it to happen, as did the Vendor Management and Purchasing departments. The then Tax Director Hans B. had the additional function of chairman of the Accenture Innovation Awards and also went out to dinner with the Director of Operations just before the tenders were submitted. All the main responsible parties have since left the Tax and Customs Administration, after Zembla had drawn attention to the affair and parliamentary questions were asked. There were also clear signals that the data security was leaking and that the Tax and Customs Administration had been aware of this for some time, but had done nothing to better secure the data. Accenture should have warned about these leaks.
An Amsterdam tax official who may have been in contact with the group around top criminal Ridouan Taghi is suspected of corruption, money laundering and violating his duty of confidentiality. There is no logbook showing who accessed which information. In 2021, Taghi was busy organizing a breakout from the Extra Secure Facility (EBI) in Vught. Investigation at the time showed that the Tax Authorities’ systems had been searched for information about four EBI employees. Presumably, they were to be held hostage to get Taghi released. Because there is no logbook, the Tax Authorities can no longer determine whether this was indeed searched for in the systems.
Twenty employees of the Tax and Customs Administration are suspected by the tax authorities of having tampered with their own tax returns. Sixteen civil servants have already been given disciplinary dismissal in 2017 and 2018 for filing incorrect returns for several years.
The District Court of The Hague convicted a 37-year-old civil servant of the Tax and Customs Administration of bribery at the end of September 2024. For a year and a half, he provided dozens of (personal) details from the Tax and Customs Administration’s systems to third parties. He laundered the money he earned from this. The man is sentenced to 36 months in prison. He is also prohibited from holding a position as a civil servant for 5 years. The suspect worked as a bailiff at the Tax and Customs Administration. In that capacity, he had access to various systems with his account. The suspect used this to look up license plates and citizen service numbers. He provided this information to two other people. In return, he received money that he said he spent on groceries. This is supported by chat conversations between him and his wife that were found on his phone. These show that the suspect went shopping very regularly and always paid in cash. One of the license plates that the suspect looked up was of a car that was involved in a rip deal of a batch of cocaine. It has also emerged that shortly after he looked up two license plates and associated personal data, the person in whose name those license plates were registered was liquidated near his home. The court finds that the suspect is guilty of passive official bribery, computer hacking and money laundering. By acting in this way, the suspect has grossly betrayed the trust placed in him as a civil servant and abused his position for personal gain. For a democratic society to function properly, it is important that citizens have confidence in the public administration and that their (personal) data is safe there. By his actions, the suspect has damaged the trust that citizens must be able to have in an honest government, including the Tax and Customs Administration.
A former Turkish employee (61) of the Tax and Customs Administration in Arnhem has been sentenced to four years in prison for stealing 19.5 million euros from the tax authorities. He cheated the system, which resulted in a negative assessment being sent to a brother-in-law. The tax authorities then automatically transferred the millions. The Tax and Customs Administration may never get the money back, which has been in a Turkish account for ten years. The legal case has been dragging on for years, because the man appealed an earlier sentence at the court of appeal in Arnhem-Leeuwarden. The money was embezzled between May 2014 and July 2014. The man, who lives in Duiven, worked for the Tax and Customs Administration at the time and had access to the IT systems. He had come up with an inventive way to embezzle money, but he needed help to do so, because if the millions were deposited into his own bank account, it would quickly be noticed. He needed a company and approached a now 65-year-old Rotterdam resident who had several companies. The plan was discussed in a café. The tax official ensured that a negative dividend tax assessment of 19.5 million euros was imposed on one of the companies of the man from the Maasstad. At the time, the tax authorities did not check extra amounts up to 20 million. So the Tax Authorities simply paid out. The two immediately siphoned off the money to an account of a brother-in-law of the Rotterdam resident in Turkey. They did this siphoning off, in order not to be noticed, with 41 smaller payments. The three wanted to divide the money between them. Furthermore, 110,000 euros was transferred to another company of the Rotterdam resident. The Dutch government has seized that money. The tax official, who has since been dismissed, stated during the trial that he embezzled the money because he was dissatisfied with the working conditions at the Tax Authorities. He had to work in a flexi-place in the office garden, which he did not like. He also had to refer clients to the Tax Authorities’ website from now on, a colleague he had worked with for years was retiring and the department where he worked would be leaving Arnhem. According to the man, all reasons to be dissatisfied. The court in Gelderland already imposed a four-year prison sentence in July 2018. That sentence was adopted by the court of appeal. Most of the money is still in the Turkish bank accounts, because the man did not receive the money during a trip to Turkey in 2014. According to the Turkish brother-in-law, the banks did not want to release the money, but it remains unclear from the ruling whether that is true or whether the brother-in-law wanted to keep the money himself. The Dutch State is involved in a lengthy civil procedure to recover the money that was seized in Turkey. It is still questionable whether this money will ever be returned to the Tax Authorities. With deduction of pre-trial detention, the tax employee must serve 40 months. His co-suspect from Rotterdam must serve two years in prison.That is less than the lower court had imposed, but according to the court of appeal it could not be proven that the two had worked together very closely. The Rotterdammer was therefore only given a prison sentence for laundering the amount and not for the embezzlement. He must also pay several fines totaling 45,000 euros. The Dutch court cannot impose a penalty on the Turkish brother-in-law.
For 2.5 years, the Tax and Customs Administration has done nothing with tips about possible fraud. There are over 25,000 untreated tips on the shelf. In some cases, it would concern millions of euros in tax evasion.
Social Insurance Bank
The Social Insurance Bank was confronted with waste of tax money, ICT failure, corruption, conflicts of interest, junkets, tender fraud, cronyism and a culture of fear among the staff. SVB managers Joop Groen and Ron Roozeboom also appeared to be paid by CapGemini via their own company. Staff who criticized CapGemini were threatened. During the tender, they were already clearly in favor of the ultimately chosen Oracle/CAP). While awarding points to the various quotations, they gave this supplier extra points in ‘hidden’ columns in Excel. In addition to this fraud during the tender, they let the project drag on for a long time, while everyone saw and knew that this would never work. Reports indicated that tests went well for almost 90%, while in reality not even 1 test scenario (out of many hundreds) got through the system. Together they also ran the ICT company Tranzzition, which did several projects for the government.
Penitentiary institutions
In a number of prisons, almost half of the cannabis tests are positive. The proven use of cannabis, but also cocaine, is also increasing. Last year, a total of more than 16,600 cannabis use cases were recorded, compared to 14,500 in 2014. There were also 1,600 positive tests for cocaine and 730 for opiates (such as heroin). In 2014, these numbers were 1,000 and almost 680 respectively. The use of ecstasy and amphetamine is recorded to a lesser extent: several dozen times per substance each year. More than a thousand positive cannabis tests per prison is not an exception. Prison guards at the Alphen aan den Rijn prison are dealing with understaffing, smuggling, violent incidents and internal corruption. Investigations are underway into three possibly corrupt employees.
Customs and security
State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Finance – Allowances and Customs) wants customs officers to be subject to stricter checks in the future. Applicants must be screened more strictly and customs officers who are already employed must be checked more often. In the past five years, more than thirty customs employees have been dismissed due to integrity violations.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is demanding an 8-year prison sentence for a 57-year-old customs officer from Capelle aan den IJssel. She is suspected of having provided information about containers to an alleged drug smuggler. Her 28-year-old son is also said to have been involved. A 7-year prison sentence has been demanded against him. The man to whom the information was given, a 49-year-old man from Rotterdam, was also on trial. If it is up to the OM, he will go to prison for 12 years. The 49-year-old man was aware of transports containing narcotics that would arrive at the port of Rotterdam. He approaches the son of the customs officer several times to request information from the customs systems about those transports. The son then asks his mother for that information. He also looks up information on his mother’s laptop himself. The son gives the information to the 49-year-old suspect, who pays him for it. The son ensures that part of the money ends up with his mother. The customs officer grossly abused her crucial position, the public prosecutor stated during the hearing. “She has seriously discredited the organization that plays an extremely important role in reducing the import of cocaine into this country. The son succumbed to the quick money and seriously abused his mother’s position as a customs officer.
The 49-year-old man who received the information has been guilty of preparing and promoting the import of cocaine into the Netherlands for a period of almost a year. According to the Public Prosecution Service, he can be held responsible for large-scale drug transports. In the sentencing demand, the public prosecutor takes into account the fact that he had a leading role in this criminal organization and that he bribed a civil servant.
The public prosecutor: “It is common knowledge that the port of Rotterdam has been plagued for years by large quantities of cocaine that usually enters the country via container transport. The import of cocaine and the trade in it has a particularly disruptive effect on society. Not only health and well-being are adversely affected by this trade, but also general safety and the financial system.”
A Rotterdam customs officer was arrested in February 2020 on suspicion of money laundering and corruption. The woman was kept under surveillance for months because she allegedly provided assistance to drug criminals and also maintained contacts with corrupt port employees. In this case surrounding the extensive drug and corruption investigation ‘Dobricic’, five suspects were already sentenced by the Rotterdam court in January. Suspect Moumen J. was sentenced to eight years, Rijad K. to seven years, tax official Willem P. to four years and Hafiz H. (four years) for their involvement. They were convicted of involvement in the import of a few hundred kilos of cocaine into the port of Rotterdam and the surrounding area and of attempted hostage-taking and extortion. The cocaine came from Brazil, Colombia and Panama. The tax official, Willem P., provided confidential information to third parties. The security company Securitas appeared to have been deeply infiltrated by criminals in the port of Rotterdam. Up to management level, employees were corrupt and security guards helped smuggle thousands of kilos of cocaine into the port. The arrest of two Securitas security guards in the port of Rotterdam.
In April 2015, Gerrit G. was arrested, followed by Gertie V. in March 2016. The two men were colleagues in the port of Rotterdam. Both allowed batches of drugs to pass through. Gerrit G. was sentenced to 14 years in prison in July 2017. Three other suspects were on trial in the ‘Doussie’ case. Dennis vd B. was sentenced to 10 years in prison, René F. to 4 years and André vd H. to 3 years. Dennis vd B. had also laundered large sums of money, threatened someone and had been in possession of firearms. The couple had brought several batches of hundreds of kilos of coke onto the market. Two other customs officers were sentenced to prison terms of seven and 3.5 years respectively in July 2017 because they had accepted bribes to get drugs into the country from South America via Schiphol. 34-year-old Angelique van Z. from Haarlem and Paul van de W. (50) from Purmerend made sure that they were scheduled to work together at DHL at agreed times. In October 2015, they allowed more than 8 kilos of cocaine, in 96 bottles of olive oil from Chile, to pass through the mailroom undisturbed. Van de W. formed a criminal organization with two others, Remon N. (46) from Purmerend and Johan C. (60) from Oostzaan. Van de W. involved his colleague Van Z. in the plot because she had influence on the scheduling. N. and C. were sentenced to seven and six years in prison by the court. The court punished them for preparing other cocaine transports. Two other men played a smaller role. One of them was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and the other to 240 hours of community service and a one-year suspended sentence. His accomplice, drug lord Marco E., was shot dead in a parking garage in a suburb of Mexico City in mid-February 2025. The 32-year-old E. was sentenced to seven years in prison in the Netherlands for drug smuggling. He was on the list of most wanted criminals in Europe. E. was involved in the smuggling of cocaine from South America to the Netherlands until he was convicted in 2020 and fled.
The King’s Commissioner had to resign after a motion of no confidence was threatened because he had nominated his sister-in-law for interior design advice during the refurbishment of Huize Tetrode. After an emergency debate, he decided to do the honourable thing and resign because he had violated the integrity code. He had previously denied that he had nominated his sister-in-law. He had also been reprimanded in 2013 for another case in which he had mediated for his brother-in-law in a conflict with the municipality of Coevorden. His wife had to learn via teletext from RTV Drenthe that he wanted to divorce her after she had thrown him out on the street a month ago after twenty years of marriage because he had emigrated for the second time after fourteen years and had kept this a secret for a long time.
CDA
The treasurer of the CDA youth organization was defrauded of 96,000 euros in July 2024 with a ‘boiler room fraud’. But the CDJA calls that ‘obviously no justification’ to steal money from the association. The treasurer was therefore asked to withdraw. In a few days’ time during the weekend of July 19 to 21, a number of suspicious transactions were made that were noticed the following Monday. The CDJA immediately filed a report of embezzlement and blocked the treasurer’s access to the bank accounts.
The former director of the Stichting Dienstverlening Serviceflats (SDS) Clemens B. has been convicted of forgery. Bosman, who was a member of parliament for the CDA for a short time in the 1980s, had his foundation pay an invoice for private work. SDS came under fire in 2014 after SDS was used to cheat residents of senior citizens’ flats out of money using all sorts of tricks. Real estate developers were also able to buy apartments in service flats below market price due to a conflict of interest. For example, SDS advised the residents about possible sales, while directors of the foundation were also involved as purchasing parties. After the publications, Bosman withdrew as a director of SDS. In 2015, Trouw won a lawsuit on appeal about the publications against one of the real estate investors involved, Andries de Boer, who had resigned as a councillor for the CDA in Noordwijk shortly after the publications. The Public Prosecution Service accused Bosman of continuing to commit fraud after 2014. It claimed to have found 17 other false invoices, but the judge ruled that it had not been proven that Bosman gave the order to draw up those invoices. The judge sentenced Bosman to pay a fine of 18,000 euros.
A CDA director and treasurer of a local CDA branch in Leende is accused of complicity in or complicity in large-scale production of synthetic drugs. In September 2012, a cannabis farm was also found in his building. The treasurer was not convicted at the time and the CDA board allowed him to stay. The 51-year-old director will remain in custody for 30 days. The police described the lab found on 23 February 2017 as one of the largest ever in the Netherlands where both speed and ecstasy were made. The police found thousands of litres of chemicals there. 100 kilos of speed and 150 kilos of ecstasy could be made per day, with a turnover of many millions. The board of the CDA Heeze Leende Sterksel immediately suspended the local party official.
CDA candidate for parliament, opinion maker, chairman of the National Action Committee for Students, initiator of the political youth movement G500 and publicist Sywert Van Lienden who co-wrote the CDA election manifesto sold, supposedly ‘for free’, face masks to the government, with the support and help of other CDA politicians. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport itself did not succeed in getting enough face masks in the Netherlands and Van Lienden decided to stock up on face masks for the Netherlands in China with the support of large companies via his foundation Relief Goods Alliance. The Relief Goods Alliance BV, founded by the three, delivered 40 million medical face masks for an amount of more than 100 million euros. Van Lienden abused his political network to get the deal. Via Member of Parliament Omtzigt and Bart Brink, the personal assistant of Minister De Jonge, consultations were held with Prime Minister Rutte and Hugo de Jonge after which the deal was concluded. De Jonge was therefore explicitly involved in the purchase, according to released documents. He always denied this publicly, but was allowed to stay after a cross-examination debate. According to Van Lienden, “after the summer, towards the fall” he told the integrity committee of the CDA that in addition to a non-profit foundation there was also a BV, but no one else knew about it. Via a BV in addition to the foundation, which he founded together with two friends Bern Damme and Camille van Gestel, 20 million euros in profit was booked and siphoned off. Van Lienden himself ultimately kept 9 million euros of this and said earlier on the television program Buitenhof that he wanted the money to have ‘a social destination’. He said he wanted to invest the millions and use the return to do something for, among other things, ‘cancer research in young people’. KWF Kankerbestrijding responded after the broadcast by saying that they had not been approached by Van Lienden, and that they were not interested in this either. Lawyer Peter Plasman and Youp van ’t Hek started a lawsuit against the three with the help of witnesses. The witnesses are former volunteers who feel misled, manipulated and lied to. Suppliers such as Coolblue and Randstad also filed a report because they had helped and/or delivered for free under false pretenses. Coolblue was also lied to about the final settlement in which half a million euros, as it later turned out, was wrongly waived. A lot of money was made from the sale of face masks to healthcare institutions and business customers. These customers were also convinced that they were doing business with the Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie, without a profit motive. Quotes were made with the logo of the foundation and with the slogan ‘Help for healthcare heroes’. The telephone number and e-mail address on invoices also referred to the foundation. Employees stated that hundreds and probably more than a thousand orders were invoiced to the BV.It is possible that several millions in additional turnover were earned, on top of the 100.8 million euros that the sale of face masks to the government generated. Incidentally, the 40 million face masks never ended up in healthcare, but were stored, because there is now a surplus of this type of protective equipment. Some were also previously rejected because they contained graphene, which could be hazardous to health. On February 28, 2022, the three founders were arrested after a report by Randstad. Another face mask supplier, NIHW from Haarlem, has started legal proceedings against the Dutch State because they had verbal agreements with the Ministry of Health in 2020 about the delivery of face masks, but these were canceled because of the deal with Sywert van Lienden. On April 7, the company sent a number of face masks to the ministry, which responded very positively to their quality. The FFP2 masks were said to protect so well that they even met the standards of an FFP3 mask. Van Lienden’s masks did not meet the requirements and were not even immediately available. A few days later, the ministry and NIHW made a verbal deal about the delivery of the face masks, which was also confirmed by email and WhatsApp. On April 15, the deal was suddenly canceled after Van Lienden managed to close his deal during the Easter weekend of April 11, 12 and 13. The investigation into Sywert van Lienden’s face mask deal has now cost the Dutch state more than 4.7 million. The independent investigation by Deloitte will not be completed before the summer of 2022, the research agency indicates that it needs ‘considerably’ more time. Sywert van Lienden and Bernd Damme were dismissed from the Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie by order of the court and they are also not allowed to become a director or commissioner of a foundation for five years. According to the court, Van Lienden and Damme did not adhere to their own articles of association, “by setting up a commercial competitor of their own foundation”. This concerns the face mask company Relief Goods Alliance of Van Lienden and his partners. According to the court, the distinction between this commercial company and the non-profit organization Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie was not clear, partly because the names are similar and the logo of the foundation was used in presentations. “That has at the very least caused confusion. In April 2022, both were already suspended as directors of the foundation, at the request of the Public Prosecution Service. According to the judiciary, the entrepreneurs used the organization’s network to obtain orders for their commercial company. The Public Prosecution Service previously seized 11.5 million from Camille van Gestel, Bernd Damme and Sywert van Lienden, who are no longer on the board of Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie, that they made from the face mask deal. In August 2022, various assets were seized,including financial assets, homes and cars were also seized in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Among other things, Van Lienden’s convertible was seized. In the meantime, 105 pages of documents were put online, including a presentation by Stichting Hulptroepen dated 15 April 2020, which already indicated that a commercial BV was being established for the face mask deal and in the presentation on 13 April there was already talk of a new BV. The Public Prosecution Service dropped the criminal investigation into the fraud cases surrounding Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie (SHA) in September 2022. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there was no social interest in further prosecuting the face mask foundation and the BV. These were merely ’the vehicle’ that the directors used. In addition, the new board indicated that it wanted to ‘clean house’ and dismissed Van Lienden, Damme and Van Gestel. Investigation later revealed that Minister De Jong and Prime Minister Rutte consulted with the foundation about the deal via WhatsApp, but these messages were deleted. Further investigation was frustrated by VWS and Hugo de Jonge. KPMG and EY discovered irregularities. VWS then called in Grant Thornton but was also obstructed, where profit margins were concerned. Deloitte started another investigation and came up with a report that was damaging to VWS. VWS started legal proceedings to reclaim the profit. The civil procedure to reclaim almost 30 million euros from Sywert van Lienden and his partners is still ongoing. New, secret audio recordings are said to show that the Ministry of VWS was deliberately misled. In the investigation, the Public Prosecution Service used correspondence between the suspects and their lawyers. Thousands of confidential documents were found in the data room of the Public Prosecution Service, while information from lawyers is legally protected by the right to refuse to testify. The suspects Siewert, Bernd Damme and Camille van Gestel are still being prosecuted for fraud, embezzlement, forgery and money laundering. In this case, the ministry seized the millions earned. In the meantime, on February 5, they were also ordered to repay 20 million euros to their own foundation, the Aid Troop Alliance.These were merely ’the vehicle’ used by the directors. Furthermore, the new board indicated that it wanted to ‘clean house’ and dismissed Van Lienden, Damme and Van Gestel. Investigation later showed that Minister De Jong and Prime Minister Rutte consulted with the foundation about the deal via WhatsApp, but these messages were deleted. Further investigation was frustrated by VWS and Hugo de Jonge. KPMG and EY discovered irregularities. VWS then called in Grant Thornton, but was also obstructed when it came to profit margins. Deloitte started another investigation and came up with a report that was damaging to VWS. VWS still started legal proceedings to reclaim the profit. The civil proceedings to reclaim almost 30 million euros from Sywert van Lienden and his partners are still ongoing. New, secret audio recordings are said to show that the Ministry of VWS was deliberately misled. In the investigation, the Public Prosecution Service used correspondence between the suspects and their lawyers. Thousands of confidential documents were found in the data room of the Public Prosecution Service, while information from lawyers is legally protected by the right to refuse to testify. The suspects Siewert, Bernd Damme and Camille van Gestel are still being prosecuted for fraud, embezzlement, forgery and money laundering. The ministry seized the millions they earned. In the meantime, on 5 February, they were also sentenced to pay back 20 million euros to their own foundation Hulptroepen Alliantie.These were merely ’the vehicle’ used by the directors. Furthermore, the new board indicated that it wanted to ‘clean house’ and dismissed Van Lienden, Damme and Van Gestel. Investigation later showed that Minister De Jong and Prime Minister Rutte consulted with the foundation about the deal via WhatsApp, but these messages were deleted. Further investigation was frustrated by VWS and Hugo de Jonge. KPMG and EY discovered irregularities. VWS then called in Grant Thornton, but was also obstructed when it came to profit margins. Deloitte started another investigation and came up with a report that was damaging to VWS. VWS still started legal proceedings to reclaim the profit. The civil proceedings to reclaim almost 30 million euros from Sywert van Lienden and his partners are still ongoing. New, secret audio recordings are said to show that the Ministry of VWS was deliberately misled. In the investigation, the Public Prosecution Service used correspondence between the suspects and their lawyers. Thousands of confidential documents were found in the data room of the Public Prosecution Service, while information from lawyers is legally protected by the right to refuse to testify. The suspects Siewert, Bernd Damme and Camille van Gestel are still being prosecuted for fraud, embezzlement, forgery and money laundering. The ministry seized the millions they earned. In the meantime, on 5 February, they were also sentenced to pay back 20 million euros to their own foundation Hulptroepen Alliantie.In the meantime, on February 5, they were also ordered to repay 20 million euros to their own foundation, the Aid Troop Alliance.In the meantime, on February 5, they were also ordered to repay 20 million euros to their own foundation, the Aid Troop Alliance.
Heart for The Hague/Group De Mos
In September 2018, a civil servant of the municipality of The Hague reported a rumour about Hart voor Den Haag councillor Nino Davituliani. She was said to be the mastermind behind an operation in which catering permits were illegally sold. Her place on the electoral list was also said to have been bought by party donor and catering entrepreneur Atilla Akyol. Davituliani is the partner of Akyol’s younger brother, Erdinç. Atilla Akyol ensures that the lines between the Opera event centre and the city council are short. The owner of the event centre meets Richard de Mos when he has just started his local party. The two become good friends and Akyol, in addition to donating 50,000 euros, also becomes the party’s list pusher for the 2018 municipal elections. The founder of NU Projectontwikkeling and also one of the largest landlords in The Hague, Dennis Buis, also donated a total of 50,000 euros from various private limited companies to De Mos’ party treasury. He also took De Mos and other real estate entrepreneurs on a boat trip twice, followed by a dinner. A total of 113,000 euros in donations is considered suspicious. Alderman and 1st deputy mayor Richard de Mos and Rachid Guernaoui, alderman for Finance, Integration and Districts, must appear in court for this, three and a half years after a house search at their homes, on suspicion of forming two criminal organizations, official corruption and violating official secrecy and arranging night permits for payment. Both aldermen are members of the political party Hart voor Den Haag/Groep de Mos. The three real estate and two catering entrepreneurs from The Hague are said to have obtained a preferential position in exchange for the total of 113,000 euros in donations to De Mos’ party. Nino Davituliani, Edwin Jansen, Michel Zaadhof, Atilla Akyol, Erdinç Akyol, Dennis Buis are said to have received confidential information about future real estate projects, were able to influence municipal policy and received two night exemptions for their catering establishment. For that money, the real estate entrepreneurs received a lot of confidential information about future real estate projects from aldermen De Mos and his colleague Rachid Gernaoui. For example, within minutes after the end of the conversation, the entrepreneurs were emailed a confidential report of the first round of discussions led by explorer Hans Wiegel. According to De Mos, it is very common to sound out a discussion during negotiations. An extensive explanation of the course of a council debate on the so-called ‘Housing Agenda’ was also forwarded. The criminal file contains many wiretapped conversations and intercepted text messages about the granting of five night exemptions for catering establishments. Mos is said to have done everything he could to ensure that a few exemptions ended up with Atilla Akyol, the owner of the Opera event centre.When civil servants propose to include as a condition for the exemption that there may be no houses within a radius of 200 meters of the catering establishment due to possible nuisance, De Mos has that condition removed from the regulation with some emphasis. The Justice Department also tapped a telephone conversation between De Mos and the owner of the event center, two and a half hours before the decision was announced to the world. First, De Mos talks about the initial opposition from then mayor Pauline Krikke (VVD), who was already in dire straits due to her role in the Scheveningen bonfires that got out of hand during New Year’s Eve. “And I have now said: if you continue to be annoying, I will no longer support you, you will no longer be mayor, so hurry up.” And about the permit: “I am allowed to issue five. Then it is whoever gets it first, first served. So you will receive the application in your app this afternoon. And then you must apply immediately and then I will have arranged a night permit for you for ten years,” De Mos said in the tapped telephone conversation. De Mos himself sees no harm in the phone call with Akyol. “Can I call him, after we fought for those night exemptions for years? When it is finally settled. I was very proud that we had fixed it, yes.” It became clear on October 1, 2019 that there was a corruption investigation. At that time, there were raids on De Mos and the other suspects. A day later, the board in which Hart voor Den Haag/Groep de Mos sat fell apart and a motion of no confidence was passed against aldermen De Mos and Guernaoui. They then resigned. De Mos is now again the chair of his party in the Hague city council. The substantive hearing of the case began at the end of January and will last three weeks. In April, the court ruled and acquitted De Mos and the co-suspects of all charges. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) appealed but dropped the suspicion of forming a criminal organization, because it put a stamp on the case that it did not deserve. Six days of hearings were set aside between 5 and 20 March 2024 for the substantive hearing of the appeal case. De Mos and his co-defendants deny all accusations and say they are victims of a political settling of scores. Suspended prison sentences, community service and fines were now also demanded against his co-defendants, politician Rachid Guernaoui and five entrepreneurs. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the entrepreneurs made substantial party donations in order to benefit themselves. The Public Prosecution Service demanded:First, De Mos talks about the initial opposition from then mayor Pauline Krikke (VVD), who was already in dire straits due to her role in the Scheveningen bonfires that got out of hand during New Year’s Eve. “And I have now said: if you continue to be annoying, I will no longer support you, you will no longer be mayor, so hurry up.” And about the permit: “I am allowed to issue five. Then it is first come, first served. So you will receive the application in your app this afternoon. And then you have to apply immediately and then I will have arranged a night permit for ten years for you,” says De Mos in the wiretapped telephone conversation. De Mos himself sees no harm in the telephone call with Akyol. “Can I call him, after we have fought for those night exemptions for years? When it is finally settled. I was very proud that we had fixed it, yes.” It became clear on October 1, 2019 that a corruption investigation was underway. At that time, raids were carried out on De Mos and the other suspects. A day later, the board in which Hart voor Den Haag/Groep de Mos sat fell apart and a motion of no confidence was passed against aldermen De Mos and Guernaoui. They subsequently resigned. De Mos is now once again the chair of his party in the Hague city council. The substantive hearing of the case began at the end of January and will last three weeks. In April, the court ruled and acquitted De Mos and his co-defendants of all charges. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) appealed but dropped the suspicion of forming a criminal organisation, because it put a stamp on the case that it did not deserve. Six days of hearings were set aside between 5 and 20 March 2024 for the substantive hearing of the appeal case. De Mos and his co-defendants deny all accusations and say they are victims of a political settling of scores. Suspended prison sentences, community service and fines were now also demanded against his co-defendants, politician Rachid Guernaoui and five entrepreneurs. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the entrepreneurs made large party donations to benefit themselves. The Public Prosecution Service demanded:First, De Mos talks about the initial opposition from then mayor Pauline Krikke (VVD), who was already in dire straits due to her role in the Scheveningen bonfires that got out of hand during New Year’s Eve. “And I have now said: if you continue to be annoying, I will no longer support you, you will no longer be mayor, so hurry up.” And about the permit: “I am allowed to issue five. Then it is first come, first served. So you will receive the application in your app this afternoon. And then you have to apply immediately and then I will have arranged a night permit for ten years for you,” says De Mos in the wiretapped telephone conversation. De Mos himself sees no harm in the telephone call with Akyol. “Can I call him, after we have fought for those night exemptions for years? When it is finally settled. I was very proud that we had fixed it, yes.” It became clear on October 1, 2019 that a corruption investigation was underway. At that time, raids were carried out on De Mos and the other suspects. A day later, the board in which Hart voor Den Haag/Groep de Mos sat fell apart and a motion of no confidence was passed against aldermen De Mos and Guernaoui. They subsequently resigned. De Mos is now once again the chair of his party in the Hague city council. The substantive hearing of the case began at the end of January and will last three weeks. In April, the court ruled and acquitted De Mos and his co-defendants of all charges. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) appealed but dropped the suspicion of forming a criminal organisation, because it put a stamp on the case that it did not deserve. Six days of hearings were set aside between 5 and 20 March 2024 for the substantive hearing of the appeal case. De Mos and his co-defendants deny all accusations and say they are victims of a political settling of scores. Suspended prison sentences, community service and fines were now also demanded against his co-defendants, politician Rachid Guernaoui and five entrepreneurs. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the entrepreneurs made large party donations to benefit themselves. The Public Prosecution Service demanded:after we fought for those night exemptions for years? When it was finally done. I was very proud that we had fixed it, yes.” That there was a corruption investigation became clear on October 1, 2019. At that time, raids were carried out on De Mos and the other suspects. A day later, the board in which Hart voor Den Haag/Groep de Mos sat fell apart and a motion of no confidence was passed against aldermen De Mos and Guernaoui. They subsequently resigned. De Mos is now once again the chair of his party in the Hague city council. The substantive hearing of the case began at the end of January and will last three weeks. In April, the court ruled and acquitted De Mos and his co-suspects of all charges. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) appealed but dropped the suspicion of forming a criminal organization, because it put a stamp on the case that it did not deserve. Six days of hearings were set aside between March 5 and 20, 2024 for the substantive hearing of the appeal case. De Mos and his co-suspects deny all accusations and say that they are victims of a political settling of scores. It was now decided Against his Suspended prison sentences, community service and fines were also demanded for co-defendants politician Rachid Guernaoui and five entrepreneurs. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the entrepreneurs made large party donations to benefit themselves. The Public Prosecution Service demanded for:after we fought for those night exemptions for years? When it was finally done. I was very proud that we had fixed it, yes.” That there was a corruption investigation became clear on October 1, 2019. At that time, raids were carried out on De Mos and the other suspects. A day later, the board in which Hart voor Den Haag/Groep de Mos sat fell apart and a motion of no confidence was passed against aldermen De Mos and Guernaoui. They subsequently resigned. De Mos is now once again the chair of his party in the Hague city council. The substantive hearing of the case began at the end of January and will last three weeks. In April, the court ruled and acquitted De Mos and his co-suspects of all charges. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) appealed but dropped the suspicion of forming a criminal organization, because it put a stamp on the case that it did not deserve. Six days of hearings were set aside between March 5 and 20, 2024 for the substantive hearing of the appeal case. De Mos and his co-suspects deny all accusations and say that they are victims of a political settling of scores. It was now decided Against his Suspended prison sentences, community service and fines were also demanded for co-defendants politician Rachid Guernaoui and five entrepreneurs. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the entrepreneurs made large party donations to benefit themselves. The Public Prosecution Service demanded for:
Former alderman Rachid Guernaoui: 4 months suspended prison sentence, 160 hours of community service, 7,000 euro fine, no administrative office for 3 years
Hospitality entrepreneur Atilla Akyol: 4 months suspended prison sentence, 160 hours of community service, fine of 10,000 euros
His brother Erdinç Akyol: 4 months suspended prison sentence, 160 hours of community service, fine and a suspended prison sentence of six months and a community service sentence of 240 hours demanded. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Mos should also pay a fine of 10,000 euros and be banned from office for four years. 7000 euros
Real estate entrepreneur Edwin Jansen: 6 months suspended prison sentence, 240 hours of community service, fine of 10,000 euros
Real estate entrepreneur Michel Zaadhof: 6 months suspended prison sentence, 240 hours of community service, fine of 10,000 euros
Real estate entrepreneur Dennis Buis: 6 months suspended prison sentence, 240 hours of community service of which 120 hours suspended, fine of 10,000 euros
After the previous acquittal, De Mos was now also definitively acquitted in the appeal on 21 June. However, the secrecy and confidentiality were violated by De Mos, the court ruled, but gave De Mos a fully conditional fine of 2000.00 with 2 years probation. In total, three times proven for violation of official secrecy; OCC, the night permits and De Zeeheld. However, De Mos may ‘simply’ become an alderman again in a subsequent council. He will not receive an administrative ban, as was demanded by the Public Prosecution Service.
PVV
In May 2024, the FIOD raided the home of PVV First Chamber member and former scout Gom van Strien in Arcen, Limburg, following a report by Utrecht University. Gom van Strien gained national fame last November when, shortly after the Second Chamber elections, he was appointed by PVV leader Wilders as a scout for a new cabinet. Before he had even started on that task, he immediately quit due to the allegations of fraud. Last year, the university filed a report against Van Strien for bribery and fraud. The fraud case is taking place at a subsidiary of Utrecht University and the UMC Utrecht hospital, Utrecht Holdings. That company filed a report in March of “irregularities involving three (former) employees”. Van Strien was director of Utrecht Holdings until 2009. That company is the Knowledge Transfer Office of Utrecht University and sets up companies to market discoveries made by the university. The proceeds of this should benefit the university and the hospital, but through a construction part of the money ended up with Van Strien and a friend of his. The Functional Parket says that the purpose of the searches is to gather evidence, such as documentation and data carriers. The raid is a next step in the preliminary investigation and there were sufficient indications for the FIOD and the Public Prosecution Service to proceed with this search.
PVV minister Beljaarts was, together with Niek Kwakkernaat, director of Koninklijke Horeca Nederland and has also been director for the past five years. Niek Kwakkernaat from Woerden was suspended in April 2023 after almost eight years due to the malpractices. When performance lagged behind, he was asked to actively monitor and discovered the fraud himself, after which he immediately reported it. He was the face of the hospitality sector during Corona. HKN Rekenwerk performed administrative work for hospitality entrepreneurs and sent approximately two million euros in fake invoices to non-existent customers. The curator’s report shows that HKN Rekenwerk’s turnover in 2021 amounted to more than 900,000 euros, with losses that were made up by parent company KHN. Ultimately, this cost KHN over 1 million euros, with an outstanding debt of 550,000 to the Tax Authorities for unpaid sales tax and payroll tax since 2020. The aggrieved parent company has, during the investigation, seized 848,000 euros from the responsible other former director of Rekenwerk and the Tax Authorities have filed a claim of over 550,000 euros. In addition, there are still claims from dissatisfied customers, the UWV and suppliers. Beljaarts was a “remote” director from June 2020 to 2023 and filed for bankruptcy of HKN Rekenwerk himself in May 2023. The real reason was concealed and a press release stated that the necessary investments, profitability, strategy, etc. had been examined and that these recent insights had made KHN Rekenwerk decide to cease activities and file for bankruptcy on May 15, 2023. According to Dirk Beljaarts, he himself is not responsible, but curator Erick Quaars has been investigating both statutory directors for a year now and whether they acted lawfully. Until the investigation is completed, the curator does not want to comment further on the case. According to the curator, KHN Rekenwerk failed to file tax returns for clients and to prepare annual accounts on time, while they had been paid for this. Hotelier Pepijn van Beusekom stated that he was disadvantaged by one hundred thousand euros. HKN Rekenwerk was supposed to submit its final decision for NOW corona support, but failed to do so, which means that he now has to repay an advance of 100 thousand euros on the NOW support, while he was actually entitled to it. Former KHN chairman Robèr Willemsen speaks of ‘fraud’. The current chairman of KHN, Marijke Vuik, says she finds it ’terrible that some of their members have suffered damage.
VVD
Rita Verdonk and Fred Teeven persuaded the IND to grant visas to hundreds of Indonesian nurses employed by recruitment agency Yomema and training provider Avans+. The two companies unsuccessfully litigated against the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) for over a year and hired Rita and Fred for payment. The IND then facilitated an illegal sham construction. The two former ministers are currently banned from lobbying for 2 years at the ministry for which they were previously responsible. A bill to extend that ban is now before the Council of State.
Rita Verdonk was Minister for Immigration and Integration from 2003 to 2006, on behalf of the VVD, and Fred Teeven was VVD State Secretary for Security and Justice (now Justice and Security again) from 2010 to 2015, the ministry of which the IND is a part. As ministers, both were politically responsible for the IND. Verdonk admitted that she was involved in the matter in 2021. and that she had had “a few” conversations with Yomema and then, at their request, had a few conversations with the IND for payment.
After previously denying that he had had conversations on behalf of Yomema, Fred Teeven said that he suddenly remembered that he had also sent two emails to then IND director Aly van Berckel. Teeven also calls it reprehensible that a whistleblower talked about this to the press.
In October 2019, Teeven, together with (former) Minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten, also made a mistake after a dubious settlement with a drug criminal. The Teeven deal involved a partly secret settlement from 2000–2001 between the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) and drug dealer Cees H. As part of this settlement, a previously seized amount of 4.7 million guilders was paid to the criminal. The settlement was later named after then public prosecutor Fred Teeven . The details of it were kept out of sight of the Tax Authorities and the FIOD. This secrecy led to a protracted political scandal from 2014 to 2017. Teeven, then State Secretary for Security and Justice, Minister Ivo Opstelten, Speaker of the House of Representatives Anouchka van Miltenburg and Opstelten’s successor Ard van der Steur resigned as a result of the “receipt affair”. Tax law professor Guido de Bont called Teeven’s deal “quite a major tax fraud”.Lawyers Gerard Spong and Marcel van Gessel also thought that there was a lot wrong with the ‘Teeven deal’.
In April 2013, Teeven had to answer for the Dolmatov case . He survived a motion of no confidence that was submitted by the SP, Party for the Animals and GroenLinks. This motion was supported by the CDA, D66 and the Christian Union, but the government parties VVD and the Labour Party supported Teeven.
Teeven was against Volkert van der Graaf , who murdered Pim Fortuyn in 2002, being conditionally released in 2014 after serving two-thirds of his 18-year sentence, the usual time at which someone is conditionally released in the Netherlands.
Teeven caused a serious accident on the A44 in 2015 by texting while driving. Apparently, this did not affect his VOG (certificate of good conduct). In December 2017, he became a bus driver for Connexxion in the Haarlem region for 3 days a week. On 1 December 2024, he even became chairman of the employers’ organisation Royal Dutch Transport.
More than 200 Indonesian nurses were brought to the Netherlands under false pretenses in 2021. They were initially promised a job, but that changed to a higher professional education nursing course and an internship. The contract they had signed ensured that they had to agree to this. This was because of a fine of about three Indonesian annual salaries. In practice, the internship turned out not to be at the promised higher professional education level, but at intermediate vocational education level. The employment agency Yomema applied for a so-called BIG registration for the Indonesians, but committed forgery by stating competencies that the Indonesians did not have. Healthcare institutions invested approximately 50,000 euros per Indonesian. The VVD, of which Verdonk and Teeven are part, maintains market forces in healthcare by, among other things, allowing employment agencies such as Yomema to earn a lot of money in the sector. One such Indonesian nurse costs a healthcare institution around 50,000 euros, a large part of which goes to Yomema and to training provider Avans+.
The SP has announced that it will ask parliamentary questions about the “lobbying” by former government officials. The questions are directed at outgoing State Secretary for Justice and Security Christophe van der Maat (VVD), who is responsible for the IND. Outgoing Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz (VVD) will also be asked whether this occurs more often. Outgoing Minister of the Interior Hugo de Jonge (CDA) will also be asked parliamentary questions. He is responsible for lobbying matters. The fact that the IND has allowed itself to be persuaded does not exactly promote confidence in the government. In a written response, the IND states that the discussions did not play a role in the decision-making process regarding the applications. The whistleblower, an external (hired) employee who was not involved in the application at the time, was dismissed. A former government official also went to talk to the legislation on online gambling in order to exert influence, with the result that the healthcare sector has to accommodate more gambling addicts.
The former treasurer of the VVD faction in Flevoland, Huib van V., has been given a prison sentence of six months, of which five are conditional, for embezzling money from the coffers of his party and that of a steamship association in Almere. He will also be sentenced to 180 hours of community service, the Midden-Nederland court ruled on Tuesday.
Former provincial executive Ton Hooijmaijers has repaid 330,828 to the State. The VVD member received that amount when he accepted a bribe as a member of the Provincial Executive. Hooijmaijers was a provincial executive of North Holland between 2005 and 2009, where he was also a member of the Provincial Council. He accepted favours from real estate companies, project developers and landowners. The money with which he was bribed was laundered via the account of MOVE Consultants BV, his wife’s company. Hooijmaijers was irrevocably convicted on 14 February after an appeal to the Supreme Court for official bribery, forgery and money laundering. He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison and has been in custody in Zaandam since April. All those who paid him were acquitted.
VVD chairman Henry Keizer, together with three business partners, took over the funeral company De Facultatieve. The funeral company, where Keizer was an advisor, was bought for 12.5 million euros while it was actually worth 31.5 million euros. Immediately after the takeover, the partners collected a profit distribution of 12 million euros. 500,000 euros was financed for 470,000 euros. Because Keizer is a 51 percent shareholder, he himself only contributed 15,300 euros of the remaining 30,000 euros. Keizer temporarily resigned after an investigation committee, following publicity pressure, investigated the matter. Keizer did not wait for the outcome and resigned after Pieter Lakeman of the Foundation for Business Information Research filed a complaint against Keizer because the takeover of the cremation and funeral company De Facultatieve was fraudulent. Keizer resigned definitively and immediately and is suspected by the Public Prosecution Service of fraud and forgery. Assets have now been seized for 20 million euros. The Public Prosecution Service had already seized his private home in May. A co-suspect, Jaap de B., who is also a co-director, had his assets seized for over 6 million euros. However, VVD leader and Prime Minister Mark Rutte continued to support Keizer and called him “a man of integrity”.
In 2015, the Philips Pension Fund claimed 6.4 million euros from the Roermond real estate developer Harry Muermans. Muermans stole from the pension fund during the Klimop affair, the largest real estate fraud case ever in the Netherlands. The Klimop affair became a major scandal that revolved around real estate developer Hans Klimop and his activities in the Dutch real estate sector. The story came to light in 2021, when investigative journalists started digging into suspicious practices surrounding various real estate projects in the region. Klimop was accused of bribing officials to obtain permits for his real estate projects. This included not only acquiring land, but also obtaining favorable conditions for construction projects. Reports of suspicious behavior and unusual financial transactions came to light. The authorities launched a large-scale investigation, questioning various people involved, including officials and other real estate developers. Documents and financial data were analyzed to map the extent of the corruption. The Klimop affair has had a significant impact on confidence in the real estate sector in the Netherlands. It has led to calls for stricter regulation and supervision of real estate transactions. Many municipalities have revised their procedures to combat corruption and increase transparency. In 2023, a lawsuit was filed against Klimop, in which he was accused of corruption and money laundering. During the trial, witness statements from former employees and officials were presented, which confirmed the allegations.Jos van Rey. Van Rey was initially sentenced to 240 hours of community service, while the Public Prosecution Service had demanded a two-year prison sentence. In 2011, Van Rey received gifts from Roermond project developer Piet van Pol, who was also convicted. Van Pol was on trial with Van Rey. In 2015, the Philips Pension Fund claimed 6.4 million euros from Roermond real estate developer Harry Muermans. Muermans stole from the pension fund during the Klimop affair, the largest real estate fraud case ever in the Netherlands. The Klimop affair became a major scandal that revolved around real estate developer Hans Klimop and his activities in the Dutch real estate sector. The story came to light in 2021, when investigative journalists started digging into suspicious practices surrounding various real estate projects in the region. Klimop was accused of bribing officials to obtain permits for his real estate projects. This included not only acquiring land, but also obtaining favorable conditions for construction projects. Reports of suspicious behavior and unusual financial transactions came to light. Authorities launched a large-scale investigation, interviewing various individuals involved, including government officials and other real estate developers. Documents and financial data were analyzed to map the extent of the corruption. The Klimop affair has had a significant impact on confidence in the real estate sector in the Netherlands. It has led to calls for stricter regulation and supervision of real estate transactions. Many municipalities have revised their procedures to combat corruption and increase transparency. In 2023, a lawsuit was filed against Klimop, in which he was accused of corruption and money laundering. During the trial, witness statements from former employees and officials were presented, corroborating the allegations. The Klimop affair continues to be a topical issue in the media and among policymakers. The case highlights the need for integrity in the real estate sector and has led to a broader discussion about the role of transparency and supervision in real estate developments. Further lawsuits and investigations are likely, and the consequences of this affair are likely to be felt in the sector for a long time to come. Willem Muermans and former alderman Jos van Rey both played a central role in the allegations of corruption and fraud. As a business partner of Hans Klimop, Muermans was involved in several real estate projects that were the subject of the investigation. He was accused of influencing civil servants and obtaining permits through improper payments. His involvement led to a larger investigation into the wider network of corruption in the real estate sector. Van Rey, who was still an alderman in Roermond,was accused of facilitating the practices of Klimop and Muermans. His position gave him access to important decision-making processes, which made the corruption allegations more serious. He was involved in a lawsuit that revolved around his alleged role in bribing civil servants. In 2023, a deal was reached between Muermans and the Public Prosecution Service (OM). Muermans agreed to cooperate with the authorities, providing information about the corruption practices within the real estate sector. This led to a reduction of his sentence, but it also made it clear that he was an important witness in the investigation into others, including Van Rey and Klimop themselves. Philips seized three of Muermans’ private homes to secure the claim. The seizure was on a home in Thorn and two apartments in Noordwijk aan Zee. Since the first wave of arrests in 2007 in connection with the real estate fraud surrounding Philips and Bouwfonds, Muermans has always escaped justice. However, his name was often mentioned during the court hearings. Muermans was for a long time the regular business partner of fellow townsman Piet van Pol, who is suspected by the Public Prosecution Service of bribing former Roermond alderman Jos van Rey. Van Rey was initially sentenced to 240 hours of community service, while the Public Prosecution Service had demanded a two-year prison sentence. In 2011, Van Rey received gifts from Roermond project developer Piet van Pol, who was also convicted. Van Pol was tried together with Van Rey. The court imposed a nine-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 40,000 euros. The judge found that trips to a villa owned by Van Pol in Saint-Tropez were of a friendly nature and could not be seen as bribery. Van Pol was regularly favored in the awarding of large construction projects in Roermond. Van Rey also violated the duty of confidentiality in the application procedure for the mayoralty of Roermond, when he passed on the questions and answers to candidate Ricardo Offermanns (VVD). In the summer of 2012, the Public Prosecution Service launched a secret investigation into Van Rey, during which his telephones were also tapped. Van Rey had to leave the VVD and founded his own political party and won the 2014 municipal elections by a landslide. A year later, he even won a seat in the Provincial States of Limburg. Jos van Rey was ultimately sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence on appeal. The court in The Hague found it proven that the Limburger was guilty of corruption, voter fraud, leaking confidential information and money laundering. The Public Prosecution Service has ordered him to repay almost 300,000 euros. His 76-year-old brother is also on trial for laundering millions of euros. For years, money was packed and transported in chicken rolls in his meat company.In June 2015, a shipment containing 2.8 million euros was intercepted in the Netherlands Antilles. Despite his conviction, Jos van Rey was appointed alderman of the municipality of Roermond, for his Liberal People’s Party Roermond (LVR). The 79-year-old Van Rey will step down as alderman for housing and climate & sustainability on November 7, 2024 and will continue as a councilor for his party. In addition to corruption, he was also convicted of money laundering, involvement in voter fraud and leaking confidential information during the application procedure for a new mayor in Roermond. The LVR is a splinter group of the VVD. Van Rey founded it in 2013 when the VVD pressured him to withdraw his candidacy for the 2014 elections due to suspicions of corruption. In April 2015, the VVD expelled Van Rey from the party. Maurits Vijsma, the son of fraudster Nico Vijsma, is involved in a conflict with his cousinJan van Vlijmen , who was sentenced to seven years in prison in this Klimop fraud case. On June 19, Maurits visited Jan in Heemstede with the intention of recording a financial commitment on camera. During this tense conversation, he accused Jan of not having done anything for the family, despite the damage his father had suffered as a result of Jan’s actions. Maurits feels wronged and wonders whether a “secret deal” has been made between Jan and the government. He claims to be entitled to compensation for his father’s losses. The Public Prosecution Service has approached the allegations of a deal with some reservations, while Jan denies that there is any agreement with the government, but does confirm agreements with Philips and Rabobank. The battle between the cousins is further complicated by conflicts with other parties involved, such as Evert Kroon and tax specialist Patric Roctus. This leads to accusations of extortion and threats from both sides. Maurits states that he is pursuing legal justice, while at the same time he also wants to be financially compensated. The situation is therefore very tense and complex, with various parties having interests in the outcome of this matter. The lack of transparency surrounding the agreements between Jan van Vlijmen, Philips and Rabobank is remarkable. In a cooperative structure, members often have the right to information about important decisions and financial transactions, especially if these affect their interests. When such agreements are not made public, suspicions arise again. This lack of accountability can raise questions about the governance and ethics of the decisions that have been made, especially in a context where significant amounts and potential harm to the parties involved are at stake. Jos van Rey resigned as alderman of the municipality of Roermond. The 79-year-old Van Rey, now alderman for housing and climate & sustainability, continued as a council member for his party. According to Van Rey, the bureaucracy and regulations have completely ‘gone too far’ and the work of an alderman has become a lot more complex. The LVR is a splinter group of the VVD. Van Rey founded it in 2013 when the VVD pressured him to withdraw his candidacy for the 2014 elections due to suspicions of corruption.
Eindhoven VVD municipal councillor Fatimzahra C. has been found guilty of laundering drug money. She and her ex-partner were convicted – Nabil N. was sentenced to 6 years in prison. According to the court, he was the one who earned the money with cocaine. Fatimzahra entered the municipal council in Eindhoven for the VVD in 2018. In 2022, she was still number four on the party’s list, but in 2023, after a confrontation with VVD faction leader Lex Janssen, she left the faction and continued alone. “The VVD is a party of freedom, but I no longer tasted that freedom,” C. told the Eindhovens Dagblad at the time. During the trial, it became clear that C. met her then-boyfriend Nabil N. in 2019. He was already in prison for a drug offence at the time, but Fatimzahra says she thought he was in prison for “something minor”. In reality, Nabil N. was convicted of importing blocks of cocaine via the port of Rotterdam, which he continued to do when he was released. At some point, the two started living together and, according to the court, she helped him launder the drug money. “She played an active role: on the orders of her partner, she counted and hid money and prepared it to give to others. According to the judiciary and the court, N. and C. spent an abnormal amount of money between 2020 and 2024. More than was appropriate for their joint income. They bought cars and jewelry and spent a lot of money on renovations and vacations. The two have since separated and have both been sentenced to prison. Incidentally, Fatimzahra is allowed to keep her seat on the Eindhoven city council despite the conviction. After serving 3 months, she should in principle be able to continue her work as a councilor. It is not known whether she plans to do so.
D’66
Outgoing Minister of Finance Sigrid Kaag (D’66) turned out not to be registered as the ultimate beneficial owner of the foundation she herself established. Before she became minister, she placed her business and financial interests in a foundation. This is mandatory, so that as long as she is minister, she has no say in it. It is mandatory for all companies and foundations to honestly state who the ultimate beneficial owner is, the UBO (ultimate beneficial owner), so that banks and supervisors can find out who the owner is, in order to prevent tax evasion and money laundering. Kaag turned out not to be registered as the UBO of her own foundation but had appointed three directors as ultimate beneficial owners in her place.
D66 luminary Alexander Pechtold is accused of rape by a former D66 municipal councillor. The woman, who shared her story anonymously, filed a complaint against Pechtold, but nothing was done with the complaint. The alleged victim also claims that Pechtold lured several women into his bed with the promise of helping them advance in politics. And that the party leader, together with two other party members, kept a ‘banga list’, with names and figures for their sexual performances. Weekly magazine Story writes that “a second former D66 member” confirms the existence of such a ‘banga list’ in the party leadership. Pechtold is also said to have failed to report an apartment worth 135,000 euros that he received in the gift register of the House of Representatives. A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service has confirmed the 200 complaints against Pechtold and does not want to say anything further about the case. The Public Prosecution Service has also not taken up this matter and does not want to decide on possible criminal prosecution until later. Pechtold flew together with fellow party member Kees Verhoeven for free in a private jet to Ukraine, which was chartered by his friend and business partner (Greenchoice) Frans Lavooij. The rental of such a plane, for a period of three days, quickly runs into tens of thousands of euros.
CBR
The Public Prosecution Service demanded a two-year prison sentence for a 24-year-old driving instructor for large-scale fraud with the theory exam of the CBR. He allegedly used spy glasses together with a 25-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man to record the exam questions. A community service order of 240 hours and suspended prison sentences of three and six months were demanded for the two co-suspects. The woman who was caught had confessed to having received the glasses with a camera from the driving instructor. The driving instructor advertised with ‘100% chance of passing’ and ’the very latest CBR questions’. When the police searched the driving school, they confiscated spy glasses and a computer with the stolen exams. The driving instructor is also suspected of laundering 95,000 euros and possession of weapons. He recruited money couriers to each bring 9,500 euros to Lebanon. Nine of these couriers were arrested at Schiphol. The driving instructor was eventually arrested in Paris, just before he was about to fly to Beirut.
The CBR has withdrawn the so-called declaration of driving proficiency of a resident of Rotterdam, because it is plausible that a former examiner of the CBR issued the declaration incorrectly. In 2014, the CBR discovered that an examiner at the CBR collaborated with six driving school owners, whereby candidates incorrectly passed their driving test. Candidates paid the driving school owners and the examiner received €500 per candidate. The examiner and three driving school owners were prosecuted and convicted for this. The driving examiner of the CBR and the three former driving school owners were convicted on appeal five years later for forgery and corruption. In February 2019, the driving examiner was given a prison sentence of thirteen months, of which eight were conditional, is not allowed to perform his duties for five years and must repay part of the investigation costs of the CBR. The three driving school owners were given community service orders of 180 to 210 hours.
A driving examiner from the CBR and three former driving school owners were convicted on appeal for forgery and corruption through bribery. According to the court of appeal in The Hague, the driving school owners paid the examiner a lot to help their students pass their driving test. This happened for more than 3.5 years, between 2011 and 2014. The driving examiner received the highest sentence, because he was also punished for fraud. He was given a prison sentence of thirteen months, eight of which were conditional. He is also not allowed to perform his duties for five years and must repay part of the CBR’s investigation costs. The court calls the facts shocking and serious. The three driving school owners were sentenced to 180 to 210 hours of community service for bribing a civil servant.
In September 2021, a driving examiner from the CBR in Amsterdam was arrested on suspicion of corruption. He allegedly paid candidates to pass their practical exams. The CBR immediately terminated its collaboration with the examiner and the police launched an investigation1.
In October 2021, a driving school owner from Rotterdam was sentenced to one year in prison, of which six months suspended, for bribing a driving examiner from the CBR. He is said to have paid more than 100,000 euros to the examiner between 2016 and 2018, who in return allowed his students to pass the practical exam. The examiner was previously sentenced to two years in prison.
In November 2021, a former employee of the CBR in Rijswijk was charged with leaking sensitive information about driving tests. He allegedly passed on the names, addresses and telephone numbers of candidates who had failed the theory test to fraudulent driving schools between 2017 and 2019. They then approached the candidates with offers for expensive crash courses or exam guarantees.
BDO
Vitesse Arnhem, officially Stichting Betaald Voetbal Vitesse-Arnhem and commonly known as Vitesse, is a Dutch professional football club from Arnhem. The club was founded on 14 May 1892. Accountant BDO was fined 1.3 million euros by the Financial Supervision Office (BFT) for failing to report unusual transactions worth 6.2 million euros. The auditor of football club Vitesse and a holding company of former owner Valeri Ojf mistakenly failed to assess three separate deposits in 2020 as originating from “unclear sources” because they were unlikely or insufficiently documented by the client. The transactions should have been reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit-Netherlands (FIU). The supervisory authority’s measure concerns the audit of the 2019/2020 annual accounts, in which BDO was involved. Russian businessman Valeri Ojf was previously linked to unclear money flows from Russia. At the time, Ojf had received a loan of millions from the controversial oligarch Roman Abramovich, a well-known name in the football world as the former owner of Chelsea. BDO found the amount of the fine “disproportionately high” and appealed. BFT director Yolanda de Groot confirmed that the fine of 1.3 million euros is the highest ever imposed on an accounting firm, but that it was calculated on the basis of the seriousness of the violation, the duration of the culpability and BDO’s annual turnover, which amounted to 132.3 million euros in 2022. Vitesse itself has a debt of 20 million euros. More than 14 million euros of this is outstanding with the American investor Parry, owner of the Common Group . Vitesse is still appealing. Employees of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate are also currently investigating the possible violation of the sanctions rules against Russians and Russian companies by Vitesse. Valeri Oyf is still the owner of Vitesse, even though he has wanted to sell the club for two years. Although Oyf is not on the international sanctions list, he is said to have done business with Roman Abramovich in the past.
A former BDO accountant has been banned from the profession for 20 years by the UK regulator for forging electronic signatures and filing false annual accounts. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which oversees the UK accountancy profession, said accountant Amanda Nightingale “persistently acted dishonestly” over five years in a series of audits in her role as a senior manager of a BDO office in Gatwick, UK. The accountant is alleged to have filed false annual accounts for five years. The FRC has made formal complaints against BDO and two former partners as part of a wider investigation into how the accountant in question was able to engage in such “extremely serious” conduct for so long. Nightingale signed audit reports without the knowledge of the BDO partners, knowingly taking the risk of seriously undermining confidence in the accountant and her firm, the FRC said. The accountant has therefore been excluded from performing accounting work for twenty years by the regulator and has been removed as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
Deloitte
Accountancy firm Deloitte reported an internal whistleblower who drew attention to possible irregularities surrounding assessments by the Education Inspectorate. Deloitte allegedly made “serious mistakes” during inspections in education. The whistleblower reported deviations from the internal procedures for requesting archived files and the preparations for inspections, which were carried out by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in 2022 and 2023. Accountants audit the finances of educational institutions on the basis of control protocols, which form the link between legislation and regulations and the work to be carried out. The Education Inspectorate randomly checks whether the quality of these audits is in order. In 2023, the inspectorate reported 67 of such reviews , which related to the 2022 financial year. At Deloitte, the investigation concerns five files, which are also mentioned in the transparency report. The public report of OC&W shows that the five reviews at Deloitte related to one inspection in primary education and four in secondary vocational education, all five of which were assessed as “adequate” by the inspectorate. According to a spokeswoman, the Deloitte investigation concerns which steps may not have been followed. During the period to which the report relates, Deloitte was the auditor of Erasmus University, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and Nyenrode University, among others.
KPMG
KPMG was fined 23 million euros by the American regulator for accountants. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) determined that KPMG employees committed fraud in mandatory internal knowledge tests. It is the largest fine ever imposed by the regulator in the US. Hundreds of employees committed fraud in a biennial knowledge test. The fraud by former minister Roger van Boxtel was particularly painful, as he subsequently left as a commissioner at the accountancy and consultancy multinational. Top executive Marc Hogeboom also resigned because of the scandal. KPMG committed fraud in the partly mandatory knowledge tests for at least five years. These tests are necessary to maintain professional knowledge and skills and were created, among other things, to improve the reputation of accountants after several major scandals. According to the American regulator, KPMG had a culture in which large-scale exam fraud could occur and continued for a long time. As a result, the core of the accountancy profession, which is adding trust, was damaged. Exam fraud was also discovered at EY.
PricewaterhouseCoopers
The British PwC organization has been fined 15 million pounds for failing to report suspicions of fraud at client LCF to the financial regulator FCA. PwC audited investment firm London Capital & Finance (LCF) in 2016. Investment group LCF was at the center of one of the biggest financial scandals in the retail sector in recent years, the Financial Times reports . LCF previously raised around 237 million pounds from investors, because it promised returns of up to eight percent via so-called mini-bonds. But it turned out to be a large-scale ‘Ponzi scheme’, in which investors’ money was also spent on diamonds, horses, hunting rifles and membership of a British nightclub. The company eventually collapsed in 2019. The audit of the annual accounts revealed many irregularities, which fueled suspicions of fraud at the firm. But PwC did not report this to the British financial regulator Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) at the time, although it is required to do so. According to a report from the FCA, PwC assessed LCF’s audit as “very complex” at the time, which meant that the audit took considerably longer than expected. The firm also had to deal with a director who was aggressive towards the accountant and provided incorrect and incomplete audit information. Nevertheless, PwC ultimately judged that LCF’s figures for 2016 were in order. Nevertheless, the accountant should have reported the earlier doubts to the FCA, the regulator states. There were enough ‘red flags’ for the accountant to respond to, the watchdog believes. It is the first time that the FCA has fined an accountancy firm. London Capital & Finance collapsed in 2019 after being guilty of misleading thousands of investors in marketing communications. Ultimately, some eleven thousand customers were left with losses totalling £237 million. The FCA itself was criticised in the aftermath of the scandal for not taking strong enough action. According to PwC, the FCA has acknowledged that the accountant’s mistakes were not made intentionally. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office is now investigating possible criminal activity by LCF.
Macintyre Hudson LLP
In addition to the multi-million fine for PwC , the FCA also issued a reprimand to Macintyre Hudson LLP, a British firm that is part of Baker Tilly International. According to the FCA, the firm failed to prepare reports for various clients in the period 2015-2019. In this case, too, the accountant failed to inform the supervisor of violations found at the audited firms. The FCA emphasizes the added value of accountants in preparing reliable information, but believes that a reprimand is sufficient in this case.
A relatively unknown Dutch SME tax advisor Frank Butselaar became a tax consultant for artists such as Tiësto and Afrojack and ended up in an American jail awaiting his trial.
The man is accused of committing tax evasion for his famous clients. He was arrested in Italy and was extradited for the trial that hangs over him in the US.
Types of fraud
Tender fraud
The two whistleblowers reported fraud at energy company Vattenfall and initiated disciplinary proceedings against four accountants from the Institute of Internal Auditors who investigated the whistleblowers’ revelations. The two whistleblowers claim that Vattenfall deliberately leaked information to the German company Siemens in 2013. This gave Vattenfall an advantage in the tender for the construction of a gas turbine in Germany worth hundreds of millions of euros.
Excise fraud
The large profits that criminals make from excise fraud are used to build up criminal assets. This can be used to finance other criminal activities. The trade in illegal tobacco products is a growth market. Combating excise fraud is therefore also a priority for Customs in the coming years. Customs carries out checks domestically, for example at shops. Freight checks are carried out at airports and in ports. And for the first time, checks are also being carried out on flights originating from within the European Union for smuggling of tobacco products. Within the Combiteam Smoke, Customs works together with the FIOD and the Public Prosecution Service to dismantle illegal factories and to combat the smuggling of tobacco products from other parts of the world to the Netherlands and the EU.
Adoption fraud
Eight Sri Lankan adoptees are appealing the verdict in which the Dutch state is not held liable for adoption fraud. The court in The Hague ruled in October 2024 that the state is not to blame. The eight adoptees believe that the government failed to report errors in their files. They were adopted from Sri Lanka in the 1980s and 1990s and held the Dutch state liable for the consequences of fraud in their adoption by the Flash foundation. The state granted residence permits and visas in the 1980s, while there were already reports between 1979 and 1984 in which Flash was associated with the kidnapping or embezzlement of children, the selling of sick babies and fraud. There were also errors in the files that the state should have checked when issuing visas to adopted children, before they came to the Netherlands. Despite the fact that there was demonstrable fraud with the passports and adoption papers of the eight Sri Lankans, the court ruled last October that these errors were not so serious that the state should be held accountable. The Hague court acknowledges that the situation of the adopted people is ‘dire’, but states that the state’s actions must be tested against the ‘legal standards and circumstances of the time’. The Dutch government is not to blame for this. According to the court, the errors were apparently not serious enough that the government should have doubted whether the adoptions were lawful. The adoptees are appealing because they believe that the government should indeed have signalled signals about Flash and the errors in their files and should have intervened. Instead, the state ‘looked the other way’. It was known at the time that this adoption organisation was not good and that there were numerous errors and contradictions in the documents.
BPM fraud
On November 19, 2024, the FIOD arrested a car dealer and conducted searches in an investigation into tax fraud. The 40-year-old man from the municipality of Westerkwartier is suspected of deliberately submitting incorrect bpm (taxes for passenger cars and motorcycles) declarations and of actually directing these prohibited acts. His home and a business premises in the municipality of Achtkarspelen were searched and physical and digital administration, data carriers, real estate, bank accounts and several cars were seized. The criminal investigation started after an inspection by the Tax Authorities. The suspect added price lists to the BPM declarations, which are used to determine the current value of a car. The price lists are used to calculate the bpm amount to be determined as stated in the declarations. The suspicion is that the suspect submitted the declarations based on incorrect information. This made it seem as if the cars had a lower value. The suspect also probably adjusted the price lists. Based on the incorrect information and adjusted exchange rates, the suspect probably paid too little bpm to the Tax Authorities. The loss for the State is estimated at at least 230,000 euros. Further investigation must reveal the exact loss. The investigation is led by the Functional Parket.
VAT carousel fraud
The FIOD has made 3 arrests in Bergen op Zoom for VAT carousel fraud and evasion of consumption tax on non-alcoholic beverages. Physical and digital data carriers, over 40,000 euros in cash, 2 Jaguars and 6 expensive watches have been seized. Customs is investigating the origin of 40 pallets of soft drinks. Equipment for a cannabis farm has been handed over to the police. Searches were conducted in two homes and three business premises in Bergen op Zoom and in a business premises in Halderberge. At the same time, searches were also conducted in Belgium in a home and a business premises of the suspected supplier of the drinks. With this fraud, the Dutch treasury lost over 1 million euros in the period 2015 and 2016.
The national jewelry chain Schaap en Citroen was also suspected of fraud by filing incorrect VAT returns, forgery and not reporting unusual transactions or reporting them too late. Schaap en Citroen has eleven branches in eight cities and sells Rolex, Hublot and Cartier watches, which sometimes cost tens of thousands of euros each.
Benetton Group SpA is an Italian clothing manufacturer founded in 1965 in Ponzano Veneto by brothers Luciano, Gilberto and Carlo Benetton and their sister Giuliana. The company was defrauded of 1.2 million euros in 2017 by the well-known master con artist Ari Olivier. His girlfriend and municipal councilor Anneke van der Veer from Nieuw vennep (Municipality of Haarlemmermeer) turned out to have 118,500 euros of the money in her account at her company that buys and sells jewelry, boats, cars and real estate via the internet, brings customers and suppliers into contact and performs work and provides services in the field of management. Anneke is director of Veer Holding BV, Veercs BV, Veercs Handelsonderneming I BV and Veercs Hollands Welvaren I BV By falsifying invoices, the annual rent for the office in Paris was transferred to the wrong account in the name of the small company EBLP from Vught. The now bankrupt EBLP channeled the 1.2 million euros to China. Piels, owner of EBLP, indicates that the cause of his bankruptcy was an order from Benetton that the company missed out on. He indicates that in November 2014 an employee of his was approached by Anneke van der Veer to place an order in the textile sector. It was an order from Benetton with a production value of €1,200,000. The amount of the order was credited to the account of EBLP Group BV on 6 April 2015. The suppliers in China had to be paid from this amount, according to Piels. At that time, EBLP Group BV was called “SNC”. On 9 April 2015 he transferred €234,700, on 9 April €245,800, on 13 April €249,800 and on 14 April €249,100 to various bank accounts in China based on undated invoices. An amount of €118,500 was transferred to the account of Veercs BV/Holland Welvaren. According to Anneke van der Veer, EBLP bought a ‘normal’ securities portfolio from her BV. Previously, the council member and chair of the local party Onafhankelijk Liberaal was also involved in a fraud of more than 70,000 euros from a French company, which was also deposited into her company account. The now 77-year-old Ari Olivier also denies it and stated that he had to find companies in which business people could invest, for a commission. Ari Olivier was acquitted in Luxembourg in July 2016 for the fraud case with forged invoices. The Luxembourg beverage distributor Soissons (Ronald) Heintz had been defrauded of 273,000 euros several hundred thousand. Almost three hundred thousand disappeared through forgeries of, among other things, invoices from Coca Cola. Olivier spent several months in pre-trial detention. The gang cunningly plays companies off against each other in order to extract data. Using misleading phone calls and professionally forged emails, the criminals convinced companies that multinationals like Coca-Cola had changed their bank account numbers. Unnoticed, the companies transferred large sums of money to the gang.That money was then quickly siphoned off via bank accounts in China. The fraud gang has ties to Israel, but has also operated in the Netherlands. Well-known Dutch (former) criminals were involved in finding bank accounts of Dutch companies that were used to make the fraud money disappear. Ari Olivier and an associate say they were involved in the fraud case by Itzhak M., who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison in 2008 on appeal for extorting businessman Erik de Vlieger. ,,M. mirrored that it was about legal matters,” Olivier’s defense states. To find BVs, Olivier called in his business partner and former bank director Henk Frijlink. He traveled to Israel in September 2014 to visit the investment company. Olivier and Frijlink say they provided approximately twenty companies in 2014 and 2015. These companies appear not to have been used to invest in, but as ‘money mules’ to channel the fraudulent money to China. The owners of these companies handed over their bank cards, random reader and PIN codes. Olivier: “When the money was deposited, a certain Danny was ready to transfer amounts to Chinese bank accounts, from the Apollofirst hotel in Amsterdam-Zuid.” One of the companies that was used as a money mule is VGP Holding in Nieuw-Vennep. The company is located a few streets away from Olivier and belongs to Ruud van Groenigen. At the end of 2014, the entrepreneur was looking for an investor for his plans to import air and water filters from China. When several banks refused to respond, he ended up with fellow townsman Ari Olivier via Anneke van der Veer. Olivier then used Van Groenigen’s company VGP Holding for a transaction for the Israeli group. On 31 March 2015, an amount of 196,034 euros was credited, originating from the French company Lapeyre. Two months later, another large amount arrived on another bank account. It was the 273,023 euros, originating from the Luxembourg distribution company Boissons Heintz. Van Groenigen said he was not aware of any wrongdoing and filed a complaint against Olivier, in which he said he had been fooled by the police. It was the start of a serious argument between the various participants. Ari Olivier in turn filed a complaint against Van Groenigen. He would have had nothing to do with that second transaction from Boissons Heintz to VGP Holding, because he had already withdrawn from the project. In addition to the office that Frijlink claims to have visited in Tel Aviv, it appears that Israeli telephone numbers were used. According to Roland Heintz, more Luxembourg distribution companies were approached by the gang. “Coca-Cola was approached a week after his case for another company. Whether they wanted to supply the documents again. This time they didn’t fall for it.” Coca-Cola issued a warning to all its business partners in June 2015.Anneke van der Veer was recently elected chair of the two-person Independent Liberal faction. Her fellow faction member is a former inspector of the FIOD, the very agency that is currently investigating the fraud case. Anneke van der Veer previously left the Forza! faction together with Kees van der Linden and faction assistant Dave Bakker-du Plessis after accusations of fraud. The three continued as Independent Liberal, with Van der Veer being elected chair of the faction. Itzhak M., who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison on appeal in 2008 for extorting Erik de Vlieger, denies any involvement in any fraud. Ari Olivier died at the age of 82 on February 10, 2022 after a long illness. He often also targeted rich widows and wealthy women, whom he completely charmed and left destitute. But he also did not spare bank directors, captains of industry and experienced businessmen. He sold 60 million worth of non-existent pipelines and sold non-existent ships. In 2016, he was extradited to Luxembourg, suspected of involvement in the embezzlement of 273,000 euros, but was acquitted. In the early nineties, the American customs recruited him as an infiltrator. Under the code name SA14NL, he infiltrated a money launderer in Aruba, who had been at the top of the Customs wanted list for ten years. In 1997, he got his own television show ‘Heer Olivier’s world’ on Veronica, in which he smoked Montecristo cigars, wore expensive watches and had a Bentley or Jaguar under his ass. The show stopped after three episodes, after Olivier was arrested in Germany with counterfeit dollars. Olivier was in prison several times. Olivier’s fame has waned in recent years. Ten gold bars in the safe of his home in Nieuw Vennep turned out to be real gold only on the outside. In the last years of his life, he painted impressionistic works. He and his wife were victims of a home invasion four years ago. Ari Olivier had been suffering from cancer for a long time.who he completely charmed and left penniless. But he also did not spare bank directors, captains of industry and experienced businessmen. He sold 60 million worth of non-existent pipelines and sold non-existent ships. In 2016 he was extradited to Luxembourg, suspected of involvement in the embezzlement of 273,000 euros, but was acquitted. In the early nineties, the American customs recruited him as an infiltrator. Under the code name SA14NL he infiltrated a money launderer in Aruba, who had been at the top of the Customs wanted list for ten years. In 1997 he got his own television show ‘Heer Olivier wereld’ on Veronica, in which he smoked Montecristo cigars, wore expensive watches and had a Bentley or Jaguar under his ass. The show stopped after three episodes, after Olivier was arrested in Germany with counterfeit dollars. Olivier was in prison several times. Olivier’s fame has declined in recent years. Ten gold bars in the safe of his home in Nieuw Vennep turned out to be real gold only on the outside. In the last years of his life he painted impressionistic work. Four years ago he and his wife were victims of a home invasion. Ari Olivier had been suffering from cancer for a long time.who he completely charmed and left penniless. But he also did not spare bank directors, captains of industry and experienced businessmen. He sold 60 million worth of non-existent pipelines and sold non-existent ships. In 2016 he was extradited to Luxembourg, suspected of involvement in the embezzlement of 273,000 euros, but was acquitted. In the early nineties, the American customs recruited him as an infiltrator. Under the code name SA14NL he infiltrated a money launderer in Aruba, who had been at the top of the Customs wanted list for ten years. In 1997 he got his own television show ‘Heer Olivier wereld’ on Veronica, in which he smoked Montecristo cigars, wore expensive watches and had a Bentley or Jaguar under his ass. The show stopped after three episodes, after Olivier was arrested in Germany with counterfeit dollars. Olivier was in prison several times. Olivier’s fame has declined in recent years. Ten gold bars in the safe of his home in Nieuw Vennep turned out to be real gold only on the outside. In the last years of his life he painted impressionistic work. Four years ago he and his wife were victims of a home invasion. Ari Olivier had been suffering from cancer for a long time.
A money mule makes his bank card or bank account available, which is used by fraudsters and other criminals to siphon off criminally obtained money and usually receives a small fee for this. However, the money mule is liable for the missing money. In addition, the money mule’s bank account is blocked and the money mule can hardly open a new bank account. Because you are also centrally registered as a money mule, this has major consequences for any contact with a bank in the future. A lively trade in bank accounts has developed on the Telegram app. From 150 euros you can buy anonymous access to a Dutch bank.
Bank and mortgage fraud
Cosmin and Ryan were once lovers and together they had the real estate company Amsterdam Real Estate Ltd. They managed forty homes and helped with the purchase and sale of houses. They themselves lived together in a social housing unit. The Romanian Cosmin has disappeared and Ryan is said to live in Belgium. They were absent from the hearing of the multi-member chamber in Amsterdam, where they are the main suspects in a mortgage fraud case with a file of 11,000 pages. Ryan’s sister was given a “permanent contract” at their company and received pay slips with which a mortgage was applied for a house in Almere. They did the same trick for two brothers from Amsterdam. One of them worked at KLM Catering, but did not have a good contract and the other did not have a permanent job. An employment contract was simulated for both of them with which they also received a mortgage. At the end of 2018, two Romanian women, one of whom was Cosmin’s mother, bought a farmhouse for which Cosmin was the notary’s authorized representative. The other woman was a friend of the family. Employer’s statements were also forged for them. The girlfriend was appointed ‘commercial director’ of the real estate company, with which they obtained a mortgage for more than nine hundred thousand euros. When a local police officer visited their home in July 2019, it turned out that twelve Slovak migrant workers were living in the farmhouse without a permit. The two are now suspected of forgery, fraud and money laundering. The Public Prosecution Service demanded community service for the two brothers, as well as for Ryan’s sister. The sentence for Cosmin’s mother is six weeks in prison. The sentence for the mother’s girlfriend is a conditional community service order of 80 hours. She is a front man. And the biggest victim. Because the farmhouse was sold with a residual debt of more than two hundred thousand euros. Cosmin now has no income, is overwrought and cannot even pay his GP. The verdict will be in two months. Ryan and Cosmin will both receive six months. Cosmin’s mother will receive six weeks in prison. The other suspects will receive community service. Except for the girlfriend who was used as a front man. She has suffered very negative consequences from the criminal case,’ the court ruled. ‘Sentencing now serves no purpose.’
In Amsterdam, massive mortgage fraud was committed involving approximately 800 homes that were mainly used as a storage facility for drugs, as a hiding place for criminals, or to house migrant workers.
The police discovered the case in 2023 when they investigated hidden spaces in homes, cars and furniture where weapons, drugs and money were hidden. That investigation revealed a suspect who had once been convicted of cocaine trafficking. The man had worked his way up to become a real estate agent and was part of a large network of service providers, mortgage advisors and administrative offices. He was able to order a mortgage from certain real estate agents for a cash amount between 7,000 and 14,000 euros. That real estate agent works with fraudulent service providers and administrative offices that set up forgeries such as exaggerated or fictitious annual accounts and work statements so that the lender ultimately sees papers that apparently are fine. Ten people have been arrested, twelve others are suspects. The Public Prosecution Service and the financial investigation department have raised the alarm with the municipality of Amsterdam and all players in this entire chain. The investigative services are calling on mortgage providers in particular to check the package they see more closely. A 2014 trial showed that 40 percent of mortgage applications were forged. That was already a sign for the Dutch Banking Association that something had to be done about this.
ING bought off prosecution for four money laundering cases with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service for 775 million euros. 100 million of this will go to victims. Since the crisis, Dutch banks and insurers have received fines of more than 2.15 billion. 1.9 billion euros were imposed in the United States. Dutch financial institutions also paid around 140 million euros in fines in the United Kingdom. Rabobank has spent the most in fines over the past ten years and paid a total of 822 million euros for its involvement in the Libor scandal. Major banks have misused interest rate swaps, derivatives, Libor, gold and currency rates and are involved in all kinds of dubious activities. European banks book around 25 billion in profits in tax havens and more than thirty Swiss banks were involved in laundering bribes from Petrobras in Brazil. The Belgian Optima bank lost its license due to mismanagement, bad governance and aggressive marketing and shady real estate investments and went bankrupt in mid-June 2016. Société Générale (SG) settled with the US justice department for 50 million dollars and must finance this in part with an IPO of its car leasing branch ALD. The five largest American banks and twenty European banks have already paid a total of more than 228 billion euros in fines and damages since the credit crisis, and another 50 to 60 billion euros will probably be added. Rabobank, ING, ABN AMRO and Volksbank have 171 cannabis shops as collateral for 1.1 billion euros in mortgage loans to landlords of cannabis shops. A third of the property owners of the 570 cannabis shops pay their bank financing with rent from the sale of soft drugs.
ABN AMRO suspended nine employees after they had copied the signatures of customers without their knowledge in order to be able to close their mortgage files. The bank’s quotes to the customers in the relevant files deviated from previously provided advice by the advisors or were incomplete. The forged signatures were intended to pretend that improved advice was given and discussed. The bank has informed the supervisors DNB and AFM and all mortgage files from 2013 onwards are being examined.
The Public Prosecution Service has imposed a penalty order on a 41-year-old man from Losser. The man was one of the partners of a mortgage advice office in Losser. The penalty order was imposed in connection with the repeated (joint) commission of fraud and forgery in applying for financing from banks for clients in the period 2014 – 2022. The suspect must perform 180 hours of community service and pay a fine of 180,000 euros. In addition, the suspect will waive an amount of almost 120,000 euros in seized assets from the office, as if this amount had been declared forfeit. The latter means that this money will be forfeited to the State.
About thirty employees were involved in the Libor and Euribor fraud. Traders and bank employees kept the rates artificially high. The Dutch Central Bank concluded that the Libor fraud was a serious violation of the rules regarding controlled and ethical business operations. DNB demanded that additional disciplinary measures be taken against traders and (senior) managers. The Argentine Consumidores Financieros (CF) is claiming some 2 to 5 billion dollars because of the manipulation of the Libor interest rate and the damage that Argentine investors suffered with investments in an Argentine government bond from 2002 that was linked to the Libor rate. In addition to the Libor settlement, Rabobank received claims from 37 civil cases from injured parties including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FHLMC). In the United States, Rabobank is involved in at least 40 lawsuits in which at least a hundred plaintiffs have joined forces. The deposit guarantee fund, the FDIC, is now also claiming the losses.
Nine of the fifteen suspected Groningen former SNS bankers from the SNS Property Finance file “Mount Nepal” appeared in court. The court delivered its verdict on Friday 20 May 2016 and declared the charges proven and the suspects guilty of money laundering, bribery and forgery. They were convicted of leading a criminal organisation. The Public Prosecution Service had demanded 48 months plus a fine of 110,000 euros from the banker and his private companies Consus Services, Corylus Consultancy and Salvadanaio Holding, but he was eventually given one year unconditional and six months unconditional. The Central Netherlands Court has convicted a registered accountant who was hired by SNS Property Finance for bribery, using false invoices and laundering bribes.
The CEO of Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest bank, left amid a major Russian money laundering scandal in Estonia. A company owned by a cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin conducted billions of dollars’ worth of suspicious transactions through the Estonian branch of Danske Bank from 2007 to 2015. Danske Bank was already aware of the case in 2013, but an investigation was not launched until 2017. The 54-year-old CEO Borgen joined Danske Bank in 1997 and was appointed CEO in 2013. He will remain in office until a new CEO is found.
Bank helpdesk fraud
According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), a 21-year-old man from Veghel has committed bank helpdesk fraud fourteen times throughout the country. The average age of his victims was 81.5 years and the oldest victim was 91 years old at the time of the fraud. Many thousands of euros of money were stolen from often elderly victims. The OM is demanding a 24-month prison sentence against the man. On March 2, 2024, he was arrested in his home and hard drugs and soft drugs were also found there.
On Wednesday, June 12, 2024, the police arrested a 22-year-old man from Capelle aan den IJssel, a 23-year-old man from Rotterdam and a 28-year-old man with an unknown place of residence or domicile. Several bank cards were found in their car that were stolen. The police arrested a total of eight people in the investigation into helpdesk fraud. Victims were extorted money because the perpetrators pretended to be bank employees. More than 150 reports have been filed in the case. According to the police, the total damage amounts to 1.6 million euros. The suspects are four women and four men between the ages of 20 and 24. They come from Almere, Amsterdam and Nigtevecht. Only a 23-year-old man from Almere is still in custody.
On March 25, 2024, the police arrested seven more men on suspicion of large-scale bank helpdesk fraud. They are said to have defrauded people of more than 125,000 euros in East Brabant alone. Jewelry was also stolen. The suspects are between 17 and 24 years old. They come from Vlissingen, Dordrecht, Rotterdam, Gouda and Tilburg. The police do not rule out more arrests.
Corporate fraud
The judiciary believes that René Benko, the former owner of, among others, the Bijenkorf, used a foundation named after his daughter Laura to embezzle property. The police searched several of his addresses in Vienna, Vorarlberg and Tyrol. They seized new evidence, assets and data files. Benko is said to have used money from a foreign investment company for a real estate project in Munich, partly for other purposes. Another factor is that, together with another suspect, he wrongly claimed corona support for a chalet in Lech, which Benko and his partners operated as a hotel. In addition, the real estate entrepreneur is said to have lied to financiers about the financial health of Signa. At the end of 2023, investors lost large sums of money and are now demanding at least 2.4 billion euros back. He is said to have set up an opaque corporate structure that meant that financiers, investors and governments had no insight into who exactly controlled Signa, nor where the money was. Formally, Benko did not manage Signa, but through a detour – via foundations – he is said to have done so de facto. Benko was personally bankrupt, but in recent years he has been in the news several times because of his luxurious lifestyle. The arrest on Thursday took place after the police had been tapping him for months and had viewed his messages. Due to the risk of recurrence, the judge had to decide on a request to provisionally detain the entrepreneur.
Former financial director Ben la Grange (50) of furniture company Steinhoff must serve 10 years in prison for fraud with the company’s accounts, according to a judge in Pretoria, South Africa. Half of the sentence is conditional if he testifies against the other executives. Former legal director Stéhan Grobler is also on trial. Former CEO Markus Jooste was the main suspect in the accounting fraud, but he ended his life in March 2024. The South African furniture empire Steinhoff was once the world’s second largest seller of furniture, but collapsed in 2017 after a billion-dollar fraud was discovered. From 2014 to mid-2017, Steinhoff artificially inflated its own results by more than six billion euros in fabricated or unlawful transactions. Deloitte was the auditor at the time and discovered the fraud through a whistleblower. An investigation by PwC later showed that former Steinhoff directors themselves were responsible for the fiddling of the figures. In 2023, a German court already sentenced former Steinhoff CFO in Europe, Dirk Schreiber, to a year in prison for accounting and credit fraud.
A financial employee of the Aalsmeer flower auction FloraHolland has embezzled 4.3 million euros in less than a year. According to the flower auction, the investigation shows that the room for manoeuvre at ABN AMRO that came with the specific position was abused. This required specialist knowledge of the financial system. No other employees were involved in the fraud. The FIOD raided Royal FloraHolland in Naaldwijk. The action was the result of a request from a foreign European Investigation Order (EOB). 140 trucks of the company were also previously searched. On Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 November 2023, raids were conducted at the three locations of Royal FloraHolland, including those in Naaldwijk/Honselersdijk Aalsmeer and Rijnsburg. In addition to cigarette and drug smuggling, the suspicion also concerns violations of the Working Hours Act. The police tackle this form of crime with Transport Facilitated Organized Crime checks (TFOC). The checks were carried out by the police in The Hague, Amsterdam and the National Unit, the Tax and Customs Administration, Customs and the Dutch Labour Inspectorate. They worked together with supervisors from the municipalities of Westland, Katwijk, Aalsmeer and Uithoorn, Royal FloraHolland, RIEC The Hague and RIEC Amsterdam-Amstelland. More than ten reports were drawn up for violations of the Working Hours Act and/or the Road Transport of Goods Act. Further investigation will follow at a number of companies – nine were visited – because there are doubts about the working conditions and there may be poor employment practices. A stolen trailer was found and a shipment of Polish cigarettes was seized. In addition to many drugs, many narcotics are also exported to other countries. These are mainly drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and hemp. But weapons, cigarettes and fireworks are also smuggled via flower transports. On March 29, 2024, the Combiteam Smoke discovered and destroyed a batch of more than 27 million illegal cigarettes in the port of Rotterdam.
Eriks, a subsidiary of multinational SHV, paid bribes to Econosto Mideast in Dubai with the knowledge of a controlling PwC accountant. The accountant was also identified as the main culprit in an accounting fraud by Ahold directors in 2007. The man was, after all, a accountant at the Rijksaccountantsdienst (1971), a partner at Price Waterhouse Cooper for 23 years, a manager at Ernst and Young for seven years, an interim director at the board of CDA (Gooise Meren) and currently a member of the Supervisory Board at the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). He has now resigned permanently. The accountant had already temporarily resigned from his position.
For years, Pon (Volkswagen) staff defrauded 75 million euros worth of Caterpillar parts via intermediaries outside the accounting department. Pon is one of the world’s largest dealers of Caterpillar engines. Pon itself reported the extensive fraud, the proceeds of which were distributed among staff and intermediaries. A part-time Pon counter employee even drove to work in a Ferrari. Tons of cash were withdrawn and deposits were made into bank accounts that were used to finance prepaid credit cards. Donations in kind were made of cars, scooters, kitchens, bathrooms, airline tickets, mattresses, gardening work and Dakar rally trips in South America. The fraud was widespread among staff and managers, directors and a financial director knew about it. It had to remain secret and be concealed with creative accounting. Caterpilllar knew nothing about it. The company itself recently settled with the justice department for 12 million for a major bribery case involving police and defense personnel for the purchase of company cars. Peugeot and Renault are also accused of the same facts. In 2015, two police officers and four Defense officials were prosecuted for accepting bribes. The rest of the case was hushed up. Minister Kamp also received discounts and gifts from Pon but was not prosecuted for this because he had not asked for the gifts. The Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) had been aware of corruption suspicions against the official who managed part of the service’s fleet for years.
Tax fraud
The Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) recently raided a horse breeding farm in the Gelderland village of Almen, aimed at an ongoing investigation into tax fraud and forgery. The action was aimed at Rens V. (51), the partner of stable owner Claudia Huijzer, daughter of singer Lee Towers (Leen Huijzer). During the raid, administrative folders, telephones, computers and two trucks were seized. Both the couple’s home and the adjacent stable were searched. According to the FIOD, the investigation revolves around financial transactions by V. via his own private limited company, Laurentius Holding. Since 2021, there is said to be no longer a viable business model, while large sums of money have been transferred from his private limited company to other companies. These expenses were subsequently justified with invoices for ‘management fees’. However, the Tax Authorities doubt the authenticity of these documents and suspect that there is a case of false invoicing and incorrect tax returns.
Egyptian Ashraf M. managed dishwashing companies that paid millions too little in taxes. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 6 months of which were conditional, by the Amsterdam court in February 2025. M. had dozens of Syrians working in hotels and restaurants, including large chains. They worked illegally. As a result, the state lost out on around 3.6 million euros.
A month ago, at the hearing before the multiple chamber in Amsterdam, M. denied everything. He only said that he arranged the dishwashers. ‘I am the boss of the cleaners. Not of the company.’ The companies were not registered in his name. He also did not do any administration there. But the witnesses who were heard in the investigation call M. the ‘big boss’.
The companies came to the attention of the Cleaning Intervention Team, a collaboration between the Labour Inspectorate, the Tax and Customs Administration and the police. This team investigated sixteen companies that supplied dishwashers to hotels and restaurants. ‘Many violations were found’, the team’s final report stated. ‘There was a front man who quickly acquired several companies in his name, and one or more Egyptians who probably pulled some of the strings in the background. The investigation showed that ‘substantially too little or no turnover and personnel were reported or accounted for’. There was also ‘large cash withdrawals as a fixed pattern’. The owners of the dishwashing companies were mainly cleaners who themselves had little knowledge of running a company. The administration was incomplete. A number of companies were sold on within a year, or they stopped. These findings can be applied almost one-on-one to Afwasteam, Afwascrew, Beste Team. These are the companies in which M. was involved. Small businesses that disappeared within a year. There was no administration. Money was transferred to sole proprietorships, of people who subsequently turned out to be untraceable. That money was withdrawn in cash almost immediately. A list of 79 names, with IDs, of people who remained unknown, was found in M.’s office. The idea was that they were illegal workers, who sometimes received €8 per hour. Less than the minimum wage. Although they sometimes did not get paid. €8,000 was found at M.’s home. Another €23,000 in his office. ‘That was in your desk’, said the public prosecutor. M. denied this: ‘Nobody has a permanent workplace. We rotate.’ One of the witnesses stated that Ashraf had ten bank cards with him, all with yellow post-it notes on them. The small businesses for which M. worked also supplied dishwashers to large chains. Swissotel, Crown Plaza, Heinekenhoek. ‘So this does not happen on the sidelines. Because the dishwashing companies work so cheaply, normal companies are being outcompeted’, the public prosecutor said. ‘You could also see it as a subsidy for the hotel industry. M. made his role in the malpractices ‘very small’, the public prosecutor thought. ‘He points to the people around him. Only he himself is the nerve centre of the company. Not his brother. He speaks poor Dutch and is often in Egypt.’ M.’s lawyer pleaded for full acquittal at the hearing. M. has never been a director, or a de facto manager. ‘He cannot be blamed.’ M. himself said that he had not become rich from the fifteen years he worked in cleaning. ‘I rent a house, I have stuff from Ikea and I don’t have an expensive car.’ A prison sentence, the public prosecutor demanded 30 months, he called ‘unfair’. ‘And merciless. This will destroy my family.
Tax advisor Frank Butselaar (65) appeared in court in the US on February 13 and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. This means that after deduction of pre-trial detention, he will have to serve about six months in an American prison. He was arrested in July 2023 at his Italian holiday home by local agents at the request of the American justice department. The ’tax specialist to the stars’ has been in prison for almost a year and a half after organizing large-scale tax fraud. He is said to have concealed tens of millions in income for his famous clients, Linda de Mol, Jort Keller, DJs Afrojack and Tiësto and several international models such as model Yfke Sturm, from the tax authorities. He did this by setting up constructions in tax havens such as Guernsey and Cyprus. Halfway through his trial, he pleaded guilty to one of the six charges: his involvement in drawing up an incorrect tax return for Afrojack for the year 2013. In return, the US Department of Justice dropped the rest of the charges and reduced his maximum prison sentence from twenty to three years. The prosecutors call the tax advisor a ‘sophisticated fraudster’. According to the prosecutors, Butselaar has deprived the US tax authorities of millions in income. They argue that the judge should not only look at the fact for which Butselaar pleaded guilty: Afrojack’s incorrect tax return. She should also take into account the constructions he set up for Tiësto and the models. That is why Butselaar must pay 19.25 million dollars in lost tax revenue, they argue. He has been in detention since his arrest in March 2023. First in prison and house arrest in Italy, then in America. Several cases are also pending against him in the Netherlands, both criminal and civil. The Public Prosecution Service suspects him of tax fraud in Afrojack’s tax returns. Tijs Verwest (dj Tiësto), held him and his then employer Greenberg Traurig liable for the 17 million dollars that he paid to the American tax authorities in a settlement concerning his tax returns. Butselaar must pay the American tax authorities 15.5 million dollars. This was determined by the judge in the New York city of White Plains. Due to fraud with the tax return of dj Tiësto, the US is said to have lost 25 million dollars in tax revenue. Because Tiësto has already repaid 9.5 million dollars, according to the prosecutors, 15.5 million dollars in debt remains that Butselaar must pay. According to Butselaar’s lawyers, the tax specialist from Naarden does not have enough money to pay the debt, but the prosecutors expect that he ‘will earn something again’. The judge did say that he hopes that Butselaar will not work as a tax specialist again. Butselaar has been in prison for 22 months, first in Italy and now in the United States. Due to good behavior, he seems to be released in four months.There are also still legal proceedings pending in the NetherlandsButselaar , initiated by DJ Afrojack among others.
In 2016, the European Commission ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros plus interest in back taxes to the Irish tax authorities because the tax agreements made between Ireland and Apple were not valid. Due to agreements between the Irish government and Apple, the company effectively paid 1 percent tax on European profits in 2003 and 0.005 percent in 2014. The agreements date back to 1991. After the intervention by the European Commission, Apple and Ireland came up with a new secret construction. Apple is said to have sold hundreds of billions of euros worth of intellectual property to an Irish subsidiary, which could claim the acquisition as a cost to reduce future profits. No tax would have to be paid on the sale in Jersey. Apple moved an Irish holding company to Jersey, where a tax rate of zero percent applies to foreign companies. Energy company EDF also had to pay 1.4 billion euros in arrears in 2015 and Starbucks had to pay back 30 million euros to the Dutch tax authorities. Nike and Uber also avoid taxes through constructions with offshore companies, but they also do this via the Netherlands by making agreements with the tax authorities. This “legalized” fraud has been going on for years to keep companies on board. Nike has placed more than 10 billion euros in offshore tax havens via the Netherlands and CVs.
The FIOD raided employment agency Bikkel Groep in Hoogeveen and various homes and businesses in Groningen and Drenthe. At the same time, four suspects were also arrested in Latvia. There are six suspects in total, including CEO Gerrit Kolhoff. Two homes, a jeep, a BMW, a Land Rover and 31 bank accounts in the Netherlands and Latvia were seized. For approximately four hundred Latvian temporary workers, who work in the Netherlands in agriculture and horticulture, in demolition and asbestos removal, one million euros in payroll tax was evaded by classifying the wage payments to the temporary workers as internship allowances. The suspects are said to have used this to purchase large-scale real estate in Latvia.
Italian financial police seized €121 million worth of goods from Amazon’s Milan facility in July 2024. The company is accused of tax evasion and worker exploitation and is suspected of illegally transferring logistics services to subcontractors in order to reduce labor costs and pay less tax. in connection with allegations of tax evasion and worker exploitation. The company is alleged to have used a system in which large companies illegally transfer logistics services to subcontractors (cooperatives and limited liability companies) in order to reduce labor costs and pay less tax. The Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting similar investigations into other logistics companies, including UPS and DHL.
In an action by UWV, the IND, SZW, OM, municipalities and the Tax and Customs Administration, violations of premium and tax payment evasion, benefit fraud, illegal employment, exploitation, intimidation, forgery, piecework and fictitious employment contracts were found in more than eight out of ten inspections of 60 cleaning companies and 145 hirers in the past four years. A total of 4 million euros in fines were imposed and in three cases the situation was so serious that criminal proceedings were initiated. Another twenty companies may face a substantial additional assessment following an investigation by the Tax and Customs Administration.
Investment fraud
Danny Klomp of Palm Invest was arrested in Flevoland and had been in prison since July 2, 2024, but was released after reaching a repayment agreement. He was arrested again because he had not paid the 250,000 euros in damages to his previous victims of Palm Invest. Klomp was released after 73 days (around September 11, 2024) after reaching a payment agreement. His lawyer indicated at the time that Klomp was prepared to pay €6,000, an amount he had borrowed, because he himself had no income or assets. The Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB) had initially demanded a much higher amount.
On June 26, 2025, the court in Zwolle sentenced 56-year-old Remco V. to two years in prison, one year of which was conditional, for defrauding friends and acquaintances. This is in accordance with the agreement that V. and his lawyer made with the Public Prosecution Service. In exchange for the two-year prison sentence, V. would accept the facts. He also has to pay the victims hundreds of thousands in damages.
In 2015, Remco V. was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for large-scale fraud in the case surrounding investment company Palm Invest. More than four hundred investors invested 31 million euros in this investment company. That money was supposed to be invested in real estate in Dubai, but was largely spent on houses, boats and cars for the suspects. He was also sentenced to 54 months in prison in another fraud case. While he was in prison, he started defrauding friends and acquaintances. V. set up fake websites and associated e-mail addresses to make his story credible. He needed money to translate legal documents, among other things, in order to get to ‘his money blocked in Spain’. Evidence of that money came from fake e-mail addresses from the Spanish bank, a notary and his former lawyer.
John W. (50), the former director of Easy Life, who was convicted of investment fraud , was convicted of bankruptcy fraud. He went bankrupt in 2008 after it came to light that he had defrauded participants in his investment fund of tens of millions of euros. Nevertheless, after his personal bankruptcy, he maintained a luxurious life by hiding money from the trustee. For this, he must now serve four years in prison, the court in Den Bosch decided on May 15, 2025. John W. should have handed over the money he earned during his bankruptcy to the trustee. But he did not do so with more than 1 million euros that he had earned between 2015 and 2019 from, among other things, renting out exclusive cars and crypto trading. He also deliberately did not file an income tax return for three years. W. spent the money he earned on luxury goods, such as expensive cars, watches and exclusive trips. W. also bribed an employee of an electronics company. This allowed him to second staff there via a company in the name of his ex-girlfriend. The employee then ensured that the staff could declare more hours than had been worked. He also arranged for contracts to be concluded with certain suppliers, who then had to pay a commission to W. W.’s ex-girlfriend and the bribed employee were given a maximum community service order of 240 hours and a suspended prison sentence of eight months for their involvement. The judge also ruled that W. may not run a company for five years. In addition, the verdict, including his full name, must be published as soon as it is irrevocable because “the suspect’s business partners must be warned about the suspect”, according to the judge. Easy Life duped a total of five hundred investors who invested 42 million euros years ago. W. was convicted of embezzling the investors’ money and participating in a criminal organisation. He had already served a prison sentence of 3.5 years for this.
The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) warns consumers about Mr. Frank Wim Brugman . Brugman is operating illegally as an asset manager and does not have an AFM license, which means he is in violation of the law. Brugman has entered into agreements with Dutch consumers in which it is stipulated that he will trade in shares on their behalf. To this end, clients deposit funds into his private accounts. Some of these funds have been transferred to Mr. Brugman’s investment accounts at various brokers, where the funds have been used to invest in high-risk products, such as turbos and warrants. In total, Mr. Brugman has received contributions from more than 70 different investors who have jointly invested more than €800,000 through Mr. Brugman. Mr. Brugman does not have the required AFM license to operate as an asset manager. Mr. Brugman cannot rely on an exception or exemption either. Operating as an asset manager without a license is very damaging. In addition, Mr Brugman invested the funds mainly in risky products that are generally not suitable for the average consumer. Mr Brugman made large losses on the aforementioned investments. However, Mr Brugman tells his clients that he has made significant returns and has the means to repay clients. The AFM investigation shows that requests for repayment are not being met. The AFM warns consumers not to do business with Mr Brugman. The AFM also warns existing clients not to respond to requests from Mr Brugman to deposit additional funds.
A joint investigation by several European law enforcement authorities, supported by Europol and Eurojust, has resulted in the arrest of 9 suspects following the infamous “JuicyFields” investment fraud case . During a day of action on April 11, 2024, more than 400 law enforcement officers in 11 countries executed 9 arrest warrants and carried out 38 house searches. During the investigation and action day, €4,700,000 in bank accounts, €1,515,000 in cryptocurrencies, €106,000 in cash and €2,600,000 in real estate were seized or frozen. Police also seized several luxury vehicles, works of art, cash and various luxury items, as well as large numbers of electronic devices and documents. The widespread police reports across Europe prompted Europol to launch a coordinated approach to investigations involving multiple EU and non-EU countries. This law enforcement focus on JuicyFields and related investment platforms was followed by the establishment of a joint investigation team at Eurojust. The team was led by the German and Spanish police, the French Gendarmerie and supported by Europol, the UK National Crime Agency and other law enforcement officials from numerous Member States (including the Netherlands)
26-year-old Max Roozenboom managed to swindle around 26 million euros from 80 investors. He used this to buy a historic building from Marcel Boekhoorn’s daughter Denise and borrowed millions from Lex van Hessen. On April 11, 2023, R. and his girlfriend Emma H. (29) were arrested by the FIOD in the house at De Lairessestraat 37 in Amsterdam-Zuid. The building has a surface area of 517m² and a plot area of 271m² and has 13 rooms, 7 of which are bedrooms, and has a WOZ value of 4,089,000 euros (2020). FIOD seized two Porsches and a Land Rover Defender worth 700,000 euros, jewelry and art worth 1.5 million and the house for an amount of 10.1 million euros. In addition, R. and his girlfriend made luxurious trips with private jets. Max is suspected of offering investment services without a license, forgery and money laundering. The investment fraudster had been moving effortlessly in the wealthiest circles for some time. In December 2021, he and his girlfriend Emma bought the house on De Lairessetraat for over 7.5 million euros from Denise Boekhoorn and her husband Giedo van der Garde, real estate developer and former F1 driver. Van der Garde had only known R. for a short time and occasionally spoke to Max and his girlfriend at his father-in-law’s, because they lived in the Pontsteiger just like him. They then indicated that they were interested in the house. They had bought the house themselves in 2016 for over 3 million euros and thought they could make a nice profit that way. R. and his girlfriend had also previously lived in an expensive penthouse in the Pontsteiger on the IJ, which was owned by the American Daniel Grieder, the former CEO of Tommy Hilfiger. Marcel Boekhoorn also owns one of the other penthouses there. Shortly after the purchase, they received a loan of 6 million from Lex van Hessen and another 2 million euros at the end of 2022. The banks eventually raised the alarm and reported the Ponzi fraud to the AFM. The AFM then filed a report with the FIOD, who started a criminal investigation. Max R. managed to attract more than eighty investors in four years from his penthouse in the Pontsteiger in Amsterdam. He promised returns of up to 25% per year with investments in shares, commodities and options. R. presented himself as an econometrician and ex-BinckBank trader with 35 million under his management. Clients had to invest a minimum of 100,000 euros, with commissions ranging from 12.5% to 25% on ‘every euro earned’. The investors could negotiate a discount by referring new clients or by investing more money themselves. With the Ponzi fraud, Roozenboom managed to embezzle 26 million, which was spent on a very extravagant lifestyle with trips on a rented yacht and luxury cars. R. has been in custody since his arrest. His girlfriend was released. A dozen witnesses were questioned by the Fiod, including three men who were said to be his partners in contracts and received commission. They are a 26-year-old man from Diemen, a 33-year-old man from Amsterdam and a 37-year-old ex-car dealer from Breda. These witnesses were friends with R. for years, but now claim to be victims. The trio recently organised two meetings attended by approximately eighty victims. On 20 April 2023, under the leadership of Rabi Safi, founder of investment platform De Belegger, the “Gedupeerden Max Roozeboom” foundation was set up at Hobbemakade 29H in Amsterdam to collectively represent their interests and possibly get money back. The foundation’s lawyer is Marten Folkeringa. During a meeting at the Fletcher Hotel in Etten-Leur it was announced that Rabobank blocked payments to and from R., due to suspicions of forgery. Rabobank sent warning letters to R. and other banks also reported the matter to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets.At the end of 2023, investors who wanted their deposits back were suddenly turned away with excuses and apologies. Roozenboom spoke of a ‘perfect storm’ of problems, according to him there was a ‘queue’ for payments, which also had to be processed ‘manually’. Investors were instructed to tell banks and supervisors that these would be private loans and indicated that further delays in payments were related to an ongoing audit. Two investors recently started legal proceedings against R. to get 1 million euros back. The investors were approached by one of R.’s partners, the 37-year-old man from Breda. The three partners enticed investors with texts such as ’this is really going to yield mega nice returns’, and that they were going to ‘go all out’ together. The partners also promised to ensure that investors would get their money back if R. were to become seriously ill or die. Marcel Boekhoorn says that he himself did not respond to investment proposals from R. ‘He seemed like a decent guy, he could have been the son of a notary.’ BinckBank (now Saxo) reports that R. only worked part-time in customer service as a student for seven months. ING, Rabobank and Bunq had their reservations early on and took measures, but it took years before action was taken. ING ended the relationship in 2019 by closing his bank account. Rabobank refused to open an account for him that same year. Online bank Bunq also ended the relationship more than a year later. Roozenboom had committed fraud with a family member’s credit card a few years ago, for more than 100,000 euros. This was reason for the banks involved to deny him access. One of the banks is said to have advised the family member to report the crime. R. had to keep looking for another bank and eventually ended up at the Lithuanian online bank Revolut. At that time, he was already registered as a fraud suspect in the so-called External Referral Register (EVR), where banks register the name and date of birth of people who have been guilty of serious incidents, such as fraud or forgery. Rabobank and ING already reported suspicious transactions by R. to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the National Police in 2019. Bunq also reported it later. It turns out that action was taken on the reports too late. In the meantime, Max R. continued to collect money from customers. R. invested part of the money with, among others, the Israeli online investment platform Plus500. R. also spent a large part of the invested money on private matters. He bought hundreds of thousands of euros worth of jewelry at Gassan Diamonds and booked extravagant vacations. He had a private chef come to his home and regularly ate at the luxurious Japanese restaurant Izakaya in Amsterdam. He also bought valuable works of art by Joseph Klibansky. In the period prior to R’s arrest, R.in De Lairessestraat security guards were taken. Several serious threats were said to have been made.
Roozenboom has been in custody since his arrest. His girlfriend was released. About ten witnesses were questioned by the Fiod, including three men who were said to be his partners in contracts and received commission. They are a 26-year-old man from Diemen, a 33-year-old man from Amsterdam and a 37-year-old ex-car dealer from Breda. These witnesses were friends with R. for years, but now claim to be victims. The trio recently organised two meetings attended by approximately eighty victims. On 20 April 2023, under the leadership of Rabi Safi, founder of investment platform De Belegger, the “Gedupeerden Max Roozeboom” foundation was set up at Hobbemakade 29H in Amsterdam to collectively represent their interests and possibly get money back. The foundation’s lawyer is Marten Folkeringa. During a meeting at the Fletcher Hotel in Etten-Leur, it was announced that Rabobank was blocking payments to and from R. due to suspicions of forgery. Rabobank sent R. warning letters and other banks also reported the matter to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets.
At the end of 2023, investors who wanted their deposits back were suddenly turned away with excuses and excuses. R. spoke of a ‘perfect storm’ of problems; according to him, there was a ‘queue’ for payments that also had to be processed ‘manually’. Investors were instructed to tell banks and supervisors that these would concern private loans and indicated that further delays in payments were related to an ongoing audit. Two investors recently started legal proceedings against R. to get 1 million euros back. The investors were approached by one of R.’s partners, the 37-year-old man from Breda. The three partners enticed investors with texts such as ’this is really going to yield mega nice returns’, and that they were ‘going to go all out’ together. The partners also promised to ensure that investors would get their money back if R. were to become seriously ill or die. Marcel Boekhoorn says that he himself did not respond to R.’s investment proposals. ‘He seemed like a nice guy, he could have been the son of a notary.’ BinckBank (now Saxo) reports that R. worked part-time in customer service for only seven months as a student. ING, Rabobank and Bunq had their doubts early on and took measures, but it took years before action was taken. ING ended the relationship in 2019 by closing his bank account. Rabobank refused to open an account for him that same year. Online bank Bunq also ended the relationship more than a year later. Roozenboom had committed fraud with a family member’s credit card a few years ago, for more than €100,000. This was reason for the banks involved to deny him access. One of the banks is said to have advised the family member to report the crime. R. had to keep looking for another bank and eventually ended up at the Lithuanian online bank Revolut. At that time, he was already registered as a fraud suspect in the so-called External Referral Register (EVR), where banks register the name and date of birth of people who have been guilty of serious incidents, such as fraud or forgery. Rabobank and ING reported suspicious transactions by R. to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the National Police in 2019. Bunq also reported it later. It turns out that action was taken too late on the reports. In the meantime, Max R. continued to collect money from customers. R. invested part of the money with, among others, the Israeli online investment platform Plus500. R. also spent a large part of the invested money on private matters. He bought hundreds of thousands of euros worth of jewelry at Gassan Diamonds and booked extravagant vacations. He had a private chef come to his home and regularly ate at the luxurious Japanese restaurant Izakaya in Amsterdam. He also bought valuable works of art by Joseph Klibansky. In the period prior to R’s arrest, R.in De Lairessestraat security guards were taken. Several ‘serious threats’ were said to have been made. According to Max Roozenboom’s lawyer, girlfriend Emma had no knowledge of the facts of which Roozenboom is suspected. Emma did display their life extensively on Instagram, but has since deleted the many photos. Max R.’s pre-trial detention was extended by 90 days, but R. is now free again. According to R.’s lawyer, R. was released because the Public Prosecution Service no longer opposed this, because R. cooperated well with the investigation and was fully open. Bitvavo CEO Mark Nuvelstijn is demanding 16.5 million euros from Roozenboom. He is the largest creditor. But ING has also reported to the trustee with a claim of more than 40,000 euros. Lex van Hessen, who lent R. and his girlfriend 8 million, withdrew the eviction request filed with the interim relief judge after consultation with the trustee. The house will be sold privately. R.’s luxury goods are being sold or auctioned. R.’s pre-trial detention has been extended by 90 days. According to curator mr JR Everhardus of AKD at Orlyplein 10, 1043 DP Amsterdam, it was the increasing pressure and threats from creditors that led Max to file for his own personal bankruptcy (16/5/2023). From now on, all the annoying phone calls from creditors and angry investors will be received by the curator. Max R. grew up in Diemen. His mother works as a sales assistant at Schiphol. On April 30, 2021, at the age of 24, he founded his own private limited company. Roozeboom Beheer BV is active in the Holdings (non-financial) sector. The company is located at De Lairessestraat 37 in Amsterdam and registered with the Chamber of Commerce under number 82690561. He told the Chamber of Commerce that he provides advice, services and financing to companies, partnerships and other legal entities. More than 2 years in prison for ‘miracle investor’ On September 9, 2024, the court in Zwolle sentenced 27-year-old ‘miracle investor’ Max R. to 26 months in prison, 10 of which were suspended, for defrauding a total of 164 people of a total amount of approximately 25 million euros. Roozenboom. will not appeal and neither will the Public Prosecution Service.and his girlfriend borrowed 8 million withdrew the eviction request filed with the interim relief judge after consultation with the trustee. The house will be sold privately. R.’s luxury goods will be sold or auctioned. R.’s pre-trial detention was extended by 90 days. According to trustee mr JR Everhardus of AKD at Orlyplein 10, 1043 DP Amsterdam, it was the increasing pressure and threats from creditors that led Max to file for his own personal bankruptcy (16/5/2023). From now on, all the annoying phone calls from creditors and angry investors will be received by the trustee. Max R. grew up in Diemen. His mother works as a sales assistant at Schiphol. On April 30, 2021, at the age of 24, he founded his own BV. Roozeboom Beheer BV is active in the Holdings (non-financial) sector. The company is located at De Lairessestraat 37 in Amsterdam and registered with the Chamber of Commerce under number 82690561. He told the Chamber of Commerce that he provided advice, services and financing to companies, partnerships and other legal entities. More than 2 years in prison for ‘miracle investor’ On September 9, 2024, the court in Zwolle sentenced 27-year-old ‘miracle investor’ Max R. to 26 months in prison, 10 of which were suspended, for defrauding a total of 164 people of a total amount of approximately 25 million euros. Roozenboom will not appeal and neither will the Public Prosecution Service.and his girlfriend borrowed 8 million withdrew the eviction request filed with the interim relief judge after consultation with the trustee. The house will be sold privately. R.’s luxury goods will be sold or auctioned. R.’s pre-trial detention was extended by 90 days. According to trustee mr JR Everhardus of AKD at Orlyplein 10, 1043 DP Amsterdam, it was the increasing pressure and threats from creditors that led Max to file for his own personal bankruptcy (16/5/2023). From now on, all the annoying phone calls from creditors and angry investors will be received by the trustee. Max R. grew up in Diemen. His mother works as a sales assistant at Schiphol. On April 30, 2021, at the age of 24, he founded his own BV. Roozeboom Beheer BV is active in the Holdings (non-financial) sector. The company is located at De Lairessestraat 37 in Amsterdam and registered with the Chamber of Commerce under number 82690561. He told the Chamber of Commerce that he provided advice, services and financing to companies, partnerships and other legal entities. More than 2 years in prison for ‘miracle investor’ On September 9, 2024, the court in Zwolle sentenced 27-year-old ‘miracle investor’ Max R. to 26 months in prison, 10 of which were suspended, for defrauding a total of 164 people of a total amount of approximately 25 million euros. Roozenboom will not appeal and neither will the Public Prosecution Service.
According to Max Roozenboom’s lawyer, girlfriend Emma had no knowledge of the facts Roozenboom is suspected of. Emma did display their life extensively on Instagram, but has since deleted the many photos. Max R.’s pre-trial detention was extended by 90 days, but R. is now free again. According to R.’s lawyer, R. was released because the Public Prosecution Service no longer opposed this, because Roozenboom cooperated well with the investigation and was fully open. Bitvavo CEO Mark Nuvelstijn is demanding 16.5 million euros from R. He is the largest creditor. But ING has also reported to the trustee with a claim of more than 40,000 euros. Lex van Hessen, who lent R. and his girlfriend 8 million, withdrew the eviction request filed with the interim relief judge after consultation with the trustee. The house will be sold privately. R.’s luxury goods will be sold or auctioned. R.’s pre-trial detention was extended by 90 days. According to curator mr JR Everhardus of AKD at Orlyplein 10, 1043 DP Amsterdam, it was the increasing pressure and threats from creditors that led Max to file for his own personal bankruptcy (16/5/2023). From now on, all the annoying phone calls from creditors and angry investors will be received by the curator. Max R. grew up in Diemen. His mother works as a sales assistant at Schiphol. On April 30, 2021, at the age of 24, he founded his own BV. Roozeboom Beheer BV is active in the Holdings (non-financial) sector. The company is located at De Lairessestraat 37 in Amsterdam and registered with the Chamber of Commerce under number 82690561. He told the Chamber of Commerce that he provides advice, services and financing to companies, partnerships and other legal entities. More than 2 years in prison for ‘miracle investor’ The court in Zwolle has sentenced 27-year-old Max Roozenboom to 26 months in prison, 10 of which are suspended, for defrauding a total of 164 people of a total amount of approximately 25 million euros. Roozenboom did not appeal and neither did the Public Prosecution Service.
The FIOD has arrested two men for fraud, money laundering and embezzlement. They are suspected of fraud involving the raising of money for so-called investments in gold mines in countries including Australia, Canada, Suriname and West Africa. The men are believed to have received 2 million euros via the companies Anglo Dutch Mining (ADM) and Royal Gold Mining (RGM) by means of share certificates for the financing of mining concessions. Two homes, a business premises and a storage box in Amsterdam, Amstelveen and Schagen were searched and twenty bank accounts, three cars, a 500 gram gold bar, expensive watches and six paintings were seized.
Centurion had three directors, had investments made in non-existent luxury holiday homes in Costa Rica. The Arnhem company was located in a valuable monumental office building and employed 30 people. In 2014 it went bankrupt. The two other former directors Cocaine addict Patrick de R., former director and founder of Centurion, has been back in jail since June 2018. Charles van E. will appear in court again in 2019. The affected investors have also held accountancy firm VWG Nijhof liable. According to the disciplinary judge, the firm, which was closely involved with the real estate fund for six years, did not act with integrity, expertise, care and professionalism. The liability procedure is still ongoing.
The bankruptcy of holding company Hollandsche Wind from Enschede of former PvdA council member Wim van der N., which went bankrupt in March 2017, turned out to be part of a series of other fraudulent companies and individuals. Hollandsche Wind had investors invest money in non-existent wind farms, whereby approximately 8.7 million euros disappeared to accomplices who had previously been convicted of fraud and pyramid constructions with investments. Criminal cases for fraud are now ongoing and an investigation by the FIOD into those involved. Stefan S. was previously also involved in the above-mentioned fraud with Centurion. From a villa in Oosterbeek, investors were enthused about purchasing real estate and building wind turbines. The FIOD raided Zutphen, Steenderen, Terschuur and Hengelo. Ferdinand S. was sentenced on appeal on 11 July 2018 to four years in prison and repayment of 26 million euros. Accomplice Ronald de G. is said to have channelled money from Noordenwind to Tradewinds that is in the names of his two children. That company was supposed to invest Noordenwind’s money in real estate. Ronald de G. has also been in prison since the end of March. The two main suspects, S. and B., have been in custody for a long time and the criminal case against the two is expected to take place early next year. According to curator Loef, they were in fact the directors of Hollandsche Wind.
Rutger J. is suspected of millions of fraud with non-existent shares together with Crispijn de K. (28) in their Janse Capital . Both were arrested. The Fiod suspects the two Dutchmen of large-scale investment fraud. Their pre-trial detention was suspended in February 2024 until the next hearing, which will take place in three months. The investors are said to have been jointly defrauded of 4 million euros.
The Utrecht-based asset manager Finles was ordered by the supervisory authority Netherlands Financial Markets (AFM) to close three Finles investment funds in July 2017. According to AFM, there were doubts about the correct valuation of the funds. The Public Prosecution Service also suspects the management of tax fraud to the tune of €45 million. The tax investigation service FIOD raided the Finles office and seized laptops and administration. Finles is a fund manager that was founded in 2006 and that manages 14 tradable investment funds, including those focused on hedge funds and emerging markets. Most of these funds have recently performed dramatically. At the same time as the raid in Utrecht, Teston Finance Investment, which paid out approximately €300 million in dividends to Finles in 2013 and 2014, was searched in Luxembourg. According to the Public Prosecution Service, no dividend tax was paid on this profit, because the companies involved had set up a complicated construction (‘a fiscal hall of mirrors’) with a fictitious loan of €2 billion to commit tax fraud. Finles in turn paid out the untaxed profit to a British company. According to owner Van Kuijk, the FIOD investigation revolves around the ‘Finles Global Opportunity Fund’, which has a conflict with the Tax Authorities about this fund, with only one American shareholder. According to the accountant involved (Crowe Horwath Foederer), there are now tax assessments of more than €77 million, which is why people fear for the continued existence of the fund. The fund manager, together with tax advisor Deloitte, is opposing the assessments and recently announced that he would start legal proceedings against the tax authorities. The Finles commissioners, led by former minister Ben Bot, resigned. Bot himself denies that he knew anything about tax constructions that are now being labelled as fraudulent halls of mirrors by the Public Prosecution Service. According to the AFM, procedures at the company do not meet the legal requirements and the accountant does not receive sufficient information to perform his auditing task. Investment bankers have not been allowed to do business with Finles for some time. House bank ING did.
The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) warns that organisations are becoming increasingly sophisticated and aggressive in their efforts to attract investors. Last year, the number of Boiler Rooms doubled to 22. Victims are approached from these Boiler Rooms to invest in often worthless shares. Victims are then later called by other fraudsters who want to help them get back the lost money in exchange for a large down payment, which of course does not work. Easy Life duped a total of five hundred investors who invested 42 million euros years ago. W. was convicted of embezzling investors’ money and participating in a criminal organisation. He had already served a prison sentence of 3.5 years for this.
The trading of options on Unilever shares was full of insider trading. The bid by Kraft Heinz for Unilever caused Unilever shares to shoot up by more than 13%. The Brazilian investment company 3G Capital, the owner of Kraft Heinz, made a lot of money from the bid by the two brothers who run 3G. Behind Kraft Heinz is 3G Capital, a very successful Brazilian private equity firm with a ruthless reputation. 3G owes its name to the three founders who started the investment bank Guarantia (‘G’) in the 1970s. With 3G they created the world’s largest brewer. Earlier, their Brazilian brewing group acquired the Belgian Interbrew (Jupiler) and also the American Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) and Kraft Foods were incorporated. In 2013, the three also had to pay $5 million after the takeover of Heinz was also surrounded by conspicuous stock market transactions. Warren Buffett (86) of Berkshire Hathaway is also involved in all transactions.
Asset manager Golden Sun Resorts promised to invest investors’ money in golf resorts in Turkey with a return of 12.8 percent if at least 50,000 euros was invested. However, the investment of 65 million euros in total was pocketed by the directors. One of them was arrested at the end of February 2017 at the airport in Bangkok where he hid and was eventually tracked down by the special police team ‘Fast NL’. He is said to have been in Thailand since August 2007.
Quality Investments executives are on trial. Because they misplaced around two hundred million euros from investors. In 2011, the executives were already sentenced to six months in prison on suspicion of fraud, after which the Public Prosecution Service launched a major international investigation. The money from QI clients was invested in second-hand life insurance policies for terminally ill Americans. In exchange for a portion of the payout value, QI took over the policy from the patients. But most Americans turned out not to be ill at all and simply continued to breathe, and the Costa Rican reinsurer that was supposed to pay out to QI in the event of unexpected survival turned out to be fraudulent. In the meantime, millions from investors disappeared into luxury cars, helicopters, planes, mansions and three expensive yachts. Only a few million euros were recovered, but according to the victims, a large part is still in hidden foreign accounts via offices in the Seychelles and Dubai. Main suspect Frank L. (55), previously a military police security guard for the royal family, was previously a salesman at the equally fraudulent investment funds Caribbean Comfort and MBC. Co-suspect Dennis M. (53) is also on trial. His company Watershed in Dubai, which had its own board of directors and was founded by the Hague College of Lawyers, is being investigated.
Archegon, A family fund that collapsed like a house of cards at the end of March 2021. In addition to his own 10 billion, Bill Hwang also invested 90 billion from banks such as Credit Suisse and the Japanese Nomura. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also went under due to the wrong investments. Archegos was not a hedge fund, but a family fund that traded with a so-called ’total return swap’ in which the bank concludes a contract derived from a specific share. If the share price rises, the bank pays that increase to the investor. If the share price falls, the investor must pay the bank. In any case, the investor pays the bank costs when concluding the contract. In order to hedge the risk of rising prices, the bank often buys the share itself. Profit and loss as a result of the price increase are thus offset against each other. The compensation that the investor pays in any case is then shown at the bottom line as return for the bank. The investor often also borrows money from the bank with which he concludes additional contracts. In this way, the investor multiplies the profit when the price rises. And Hwang did this very successfully for years. Hwang did business with six different banks. He probably concluded the same contracts with borrowed money at each bank, without the banks knowing about each other. Hwang could no longer pay after the price of a company he speculated on had fallen. After all, the debts he had incurred did not fall accordingly. Bank after bank called him to ask if he wanted to deposit additional money to cover the rapidly increasing losses. When it became clear that this was not going to work, the American banks mentioned were the first to decide to sell shares in the company en masse. This set off a chain reaction. Hwang had previously been caught for insider trading. The former top management was recently arrested and charged. Founder Bill Hwang and CFO Patrick Halligan are accused of market manipulation and fraud. When the banks demanded additional deposits for the losses it suffered on the stock exchange, they manipulated the prices of the shares it owned and lied to banks and securities firms. The hedge fund used borrowed money and equity derivatives, such as swaps. The hedge fund had $160 billion in outstanding positions. When the shares suddenly fell in price in early 2021, Archegos had to deposit money (margin requirement). Sung Kook ‘Bill’ Hwang is serving an 18-year prison sentence for the massive fraud, which cost banks more than $9 billion. Hwang was found guilty of lying to major investment banks such as Credit Suisse, while investing large amounts of money in various companies at great risk. The 18 years is less than the 21 years that prosecutors wanted, but is still unusually high for white-collar fraud. The judge compared Hwang to the fallen FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried
ING fell victim to a multi-million dollar fraud by the American investment company 777 Partners, best known in Europe for a failed attempt to purchase the British football club Everton. In 2022, 777 Partners is also said to have defrauded the Dutch bank of 28 million euros. ING had provided a loan of 50 million. Only 22 million dollars of the collateral turned out to be correct.’ Capital 777 also appeared to have given that money as collateral to other parties, or it did not even exist at all. The company used the loans from companies as financial cover for loans from other creditors. ING is not the only party that has been duped by 777 Capital. The company invested in football clubs, including the English Everton and the Brazilian Vasco da Gama. But the company also does business with other parties, such as the British investment company Leadenhall Capital Partners. In this case, it comes off a lot worse than ING, with a loan of 600 million dollars to 777 Capital. Only to discover that the offered collateral of some 350 million euros was also promised to other creditors. For ING, 28 million dollars is a large sum. But with a total of 80 billion dollars that the bank has outstanding in the US and South America, the damage is still manageable.
Best Choice, Airfeet BV (Tiel), Airfeet BV and Xerof BV have been dissolved. The first two companies were sole proprietorships and a holding company of Corina de Jong- van der Kooi (38) from Tiel that offered tax services, she also invested in real estate, crypto and traded in sports horses. Together with her husband and co-director Gerrald de Jong, they sponsored the men’s team of volleyball club Dovol from Dodewaard via their Best Choice Administration office in Herveld. In August 2023, the FIOD raided their homes on the Rijsakkerweg in Tiel and on the Lingedijk in Wadenoijen, Oosterhout and arrested the three and placed the three in restrictive detention for 6 weeks in the PI Utrecht. Horses, crypto accounts, various residential properties on Rijsakkerweg and Wadenoijen, a villa in Tiel, and properties owned by their real estate agency, which she had together with business partner and horse trader Rob van Rijthoven, were immediately seized for 52.3 million euros. In addition, all bank accounts, luxury goods, gold and jewelry were seized. According to the Public Prosecution Service, this only yielded 1 million euros. Corina de Jong and Rob van Rijthoven founded Xerof in 2022 and since October 2022 also had Rijthoven & van der Kooi Vastgoed in Andelst. Their company promised fast money with an even faster chat to equestrian companies, entrepreneurs, business coaches and professional horse traders and promised a return of 10 to 12 percent per month on investments that could be achieved by trading in exchange rate differences between the dollar and gold. On an annual basis, that could increase the return on investors’ investments by 200 percent.” Corina de Jong was doing this without a permit for about two years and even received a watch as a prize for “Best Trader in the world”. However, the investigation team discovered that a significant portion of the investment funds was probably not spent on the promised investments, but was used for private expenditure, such as homes, luxury cars, expensive (sports) horses and cryptocurrencies. According to the FIOD, false invoices were most likely drawn up in this fraud and the suspects used a network of companies. Part of the invested funds were paid out to existing investors ( Ponzi fraud ). The private limited company Xerof BV was located at Wanraaij 4 in Andelst. Existing and potential investors of Best Choice, Airfeet BV and Xerof BV were warned by the Public Prosecution Service not to get involved. Victims can report to: FIOD.meldpunt.fraude@belastingdienst.nl. Corina is said to have 86 and 56 million euros in accounts on the IMGFX and Mugan Markets platforms, where it was also possible to invest in cryptocurrencies, but according to the Public Prosecution Service, that money has long since evaporated and there were futile attempts by Corina to empty the accounts. It is not possible to determine who Mugan Markets belongs to, but it is located on an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and mainly trades in derivatives such as Contracts for Difference (CFD). This trading is prohibited for private individuals. The broker is also suspected of fraudulent practices. The relevant accounts at Mugan are said to even have a negative balance of 134.7 million euros and 1 account contained 4.7 million euros. The Public Prosecution Service states that at the time of the arrest, there had already been a negative balance of 102 million euros on the accounts for 200 days. 750 clients tried in vain through summary proceedings at the court in The Hague to lift Corina’s restrictions so that she could continue trading and release her accounts. Corina had an account with ABN AMRO through her Airfeet BV. The bank’s checks appear to have been insufficient. Corina clients who were prepared to deposit 50 to 100,000 euros and leave it for a month could earn an extra 1%. Clients could also deposit euros into the account to then invest in cryptocurrencies. The Hebburn criminal case with state attorney Pels Rijcken has been going on for almost half a year. Following the large number of reports, Corina de Jong was arrested again on November 15, 2023. It turned out that around 142 million had been invested by 1,400 investors. Part of the investments made, approximately 19.5 million euros, has disappeared into anonymous and/or inaccessible crypto wallets. Corina kept around 15 valuable horses in the stable next to her villa in Tiel. Two of the horses, named Airfeet and Ideal, were said to have cost 300,000 euros. She traveled to Finland in a business jet from the Belgian Flying Service to view the horses. On November 16, 2023, Corina was arrested again on suspicion of defrauding a previous employer of 650,000 euros. Horse dealer Joop van Uytert was tempted to invest half a million. He could expect a return of 20 percent every six months. The dealer successfully claimed his money back through the court. Corina de Jong stated during the hearing in Almelo that the money is in a crypto wallet that she cannot access. The login codes are in a safe that the FIOD has seized. The Public Prosecution Service already stated last year that part of the investment, approximately 19.5 million euros, disappeared into anonymous crypto wallets. Last year, a group of investors demanded that Corina be allowed to trade again, so that she could access the digital wallet and retrieve the money. Corina’s lawyer says that ’they are working very hard behind the scenes’ to get the money out of the wallet. The horse trader does not believe it. His lawyer speaks of ‘a fantasy story’. ‘We hear something about a wallet, but there is nothing of it. So it does not have to exist.’ The cryptos were traded on an exchange. Corina de Jong only wants to say that it concerns a regulated party with a license in the Netherlands. The FIOD found that a significant part of the investment money was probably not spent on the promised investments, but was used for private expenses, such as homes, luxury cars, expensive (sports) horses and cryptocurrencies. False invoices were most likely used in this fraud and the suspects used a network of companies.
Biodiesel fraud
Biodiesel Kampen, the company of entrepreneur Cees B. who was convicted last week, has been declared bankrupt by the court in Zwolle. B. was sentenced to prison, among other things for money laundering and fraud with biodiesel. The bankruptcy of Biodiesel Kampen and sister company UCO Kampen BV, which collects fats, is not the result of a conviction of the owner, but of a new and larger fraud investigation by the Public Prosecution Service. The company got into financial trouble, among other things, because owner Cees B. and another person involved have been in pre-trial detention for a long time because of that case. The companies have been in serious financial trouble since B. was arrested at the end of April and the certification for the sale of biodiesel was withdrawn. B. is facing multiple criminal cases for, among other things, money laundering and fraud with so-called biotickets in the period 2012-2015. In this case, he falsely claimed to have put millions of euros worth of biodiesel into circulation, while in reality his company had not even produced the sustainable fuel yet. B. has confessed to the accusations. Biodiesel Kampen, made biodiesel from different types of oil. The company with about 45 employees is for sale.
Accounting fraud
The accountant of the Hakvoort shipyard in Monnickendam committed fraud of 1.9 million euros at his employer, a builder of luxury yachts. The fraud was only discovered after the accountant left in 2022 after 40 years of service. He used the money to have his own farmhouse and his family’s homes renovated. Hakvoort managed to recover part of the money from the construction company that carried out the renovations via the courts. Hakvoort has a hundred employees and an annual turnover of around 30 to 40 million euros.
Six months later, his successor discovered that 68 dubious payments had been made to a construction company in the previous six years. In total, this amounted to almost 1.9 million euros. That is an average of 28,000 euros per payment, and an average of 317,000 euros per year. The accountant had asked the contractor, a one-man company, to send the invoices for the private renovations to the shipyard. His daughter and son-in-law had made the construction contractor believe that their (father-in-law) would soon retire, and that his employer was paying him in this way for the takeover of his shares in the company. The accountant simply booked the invoices in the administration under ongoing projects of the shipyard. The accountant later signed an acknowledgement of debt in which four other debts incurred were mentioned. Although the court acknowledges that the years of trouble-free payments gave the impression that the shipyard had agreed to the payment arrangement that had been concluded by the accountant, the construction company should have investigated the arrangement further, according to the judges. The court finds that there were sufficient indications to doubt the arrangement. For example, the contractor was not allowed to send the invoices directly to the shipyard, but to submit them to the accountant or his son-in-law. The descriptions on invoices also had to be vague. Because the contractor failed to do this, the payments were made ‘without obligation’ and 600,000 euros of this must be repaid. In the meantime, the accountant had sold his renovated farmhouse and other properties. With the proceeds, the fraudster was able to repay almost 1.3 million euros. The court rejected the demand that the contractor also pay more than 125,000 euros in costs for the investigation into the fraud. However, he must pay more than 21,000 euros in seizure and legal costs of the shipyard.
Forestry fraud
Corruption in the forestry sector is worth nearly €28 billion a year worldwide, according to Interpol. Many of the forested areas, such as tropical rainforests, are a ready source of money through logging. Due to weak governance and poor regulation, corruption in the forestry sector is rampant. A new report shows that between 2009 and 2014, corruption occurred in thirteen countries and an average of 250 corruption cases per country each year, involving a total of nearly €28 billion. There is a lot of money to be made with certain types of wood. Criminal networks use corruption and bribery to facilitate illegal timber trade and also use the same routes for drug and arms trafficking. Bribery is the most common form, followed by fraud, abuse of power, extortion, cronyism and nepotism. According to Interpol, the most involved officials of forestry agencies, as well as officials of other government agencies and timber processing companies and police officers.
Casino fraud
The 46-year-old Wirjanand S., a former employee of the technical department of gambling company Hommerson, admitted to the judge that he embezzled money from the Hague branch and manipulated the roulette wheel, causing the ball to land on the right number. Wirjanand worked at the technical department of the Hague branch of Hommerson and manipulated the company’s roulette wheel from May 2022 to March 2023. During the previous corona period, when Hommerson was closed, he had figured out how to do this. He had gambling problems and played at other casinos and urgently needed money. At first, S. manipulated Hommerson’s roulette wheel on his own. However, at one point the Hague branch manager, 57-year-old Mohamed D., noticed what the technical man was up to. He tried to stop him, but was then allegedly pressured by S. Wirjanand knew ‘private things’ about his boss and threatened to make them public. To prevent this, the branch manager helped him with the fraud. ‘I had sleepless nights about it’, the former manager of Hommerson declared to the judge and claimed at the hearing that he had not earned anything from the fraud. All the money went to suspect Wirjanand S. The technical man himself confirmed this. ‘He did not gain anything from it’, he said about his former manager. Hommerson came to the hearing with a claim for damages of 127,000 euros. That is how much was allegedly siphoned off from the gambling company’s coffers by manipulating the roulette. The public prosecutor demanded the same sentence for both men: eight months in prison, half of which was conditional. According to the prosecutor, both men had an equal share in the fraud. She did not believe the story that the branch manager was put under pressure. ‘It is incomprehensible that both suspects cheated their employer like this while they had been working there for decades.’ Wirjanand S. had been employed by Hommerson for 20 years and Mohamed D. for 32 years. S. and D. dispute that 127,000 euros disappeared from Hommerson’s branch in The Hague. According to their lawyers, no proper investigation was conducted into the extent of the fraud. The police relied too much on the investigation by the detective agency that Hommerson hired and did too little research themselves. According to the lawyers, it has not been determined how much was stolen from the gambling company. Hommerson’s claim should therefore be rejected. The court will rule on the case in two weeks. The fact that roulettes are (or can be) manipulated was not discussed further.
Corona fraud
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has arrested 22 suspects in a major Corona fraud case. Under the leadership of the Italian branch of EPPO, people have been arrested in Italy, Austria, Romania and Slovakia. They are said to have unlawfully stolen 600 million euros in corona aid. The EPPO has frozen 600 million euros in assets, including watches and cars, including Porsches. The suspects are said to have claimed at least subsidies for digitalization and innovation of small and medium-sized companies. They are said to have used fake balance sheets in the subsidy applications to prove that they represented profit-making companies. In reality, the companies did not exist.
The Social Affairs and Employment Inspectorate (Inspectie SZW) suspects that companies have committed fraud very often with the financial NOW (Corona) emergency support from the government. The service received approximately 900 reports of possible fraud. Of these reports, 40 are being investigated, and if the inspectorate finds sufficient evidence, prosecution will be initiated. This includes reporting higher wages than are paid and reporting lower turnover than was actually achieved. Thousands of companies have failed to demonstrate the so-called loss of turnover within the set period and must repay the support. 5,800 of them must repay 160 million euros.
In early March 2023, 3 men were arrested for fraud with corona subsidy. In this case, it concerned the COZO Corona Jobs in Healthcare subsidy. The COZO was intended to be able to hire temporary support staff to relieve healthcare staff during peak periods. In February, four men and a woman were arrested in this same case. The suspects are said to have wrongly applied for at least 2.5 million euros in subsidy from July to December 2021. The subsidy was spent on gold and luxury goods. The suspects are charged with forgery, misuse of subsidy funds and money laundering. During searches, in addition to administration, laptops, tablets and telephones, jewelry, watches, gold, cash, firearms, knives and possible narcotics were also seized. The subsidy scheme was suspended in February 2022 after several signals of fraud.
The FIOD arrested 19 people in various locations in the Netherlands from 11 to 20 March 2024 in connection with fraud with corona subsidies. They are suspected of submitting false applications for Fixed Cost Allowance (TVL). It is suspected that more than 1.25 million euros in subsidies were paid out incorrectly. The criminal investigation started after a report from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) of a suspicion of incorrect digital TVL applications. False documents were probably deliberately submitted with the suspects’ applications. The 19 suspects, all entrepreneurs, had probably not submitted the TVL declaration themselves. They were approached by advisors, so-called facilitators who had drawn up the actual TVL applications with attachments. A much higher turnover was stated for the entrepreneurs than was actually achieved. The FIOD had already started a criminal investigation against these facilitators. The investigation is led by the Functional Public Prosecution Service.
The United Kingdom has paid out 1.6 billion euros to banks because of possible fraud with corona loans by SMEs. These are loans for which the government fully guaranteed. During the corona pandemic, the United Kingdom set up a support program to give small and medium-sized entrepreneurs the opportunity to borrow money so that they would not go bankrupt. The government guaranteed 100 percent in the event that an entrepreneur could not repay the loan. With some of the loans, recipients of the money probably did not repay because they committed fraud, for which the government is now paying. Last year, this was 640 million pounds, but that amount is now much higher. Banks have so far received a total of 8.5 billion pounds from the government because corona loans were not repaid. Banks provided around 77 billion pounds through the support program.
Crypto fraud
A 23-year-old law student in Hengelo had a group of at least three hundred individuals invest many millions of euros in cryptocurrency . The Turkish student has disappeared without a trace and has most likely fled to Turkey. The investors were duped for at least five thousand euros, with peaks of tens of thousands of euros per person. More than a hundred victims have reported to law firm Damsté Advocaten en Notarissen so far and 4.5 to perhaps 10 million euros have disappeared without a trace. The student sent an email to his almost three hundred clients in which he informed them that, to his great regret, the entire invested capital, including his own money, had been lost. The investors come from the student’s social network, including family members, members of his football club HSC’21 in Haaksbergen, fellow students, but also strangers. The student had built up a reputation as a ‘crypto genius’ and had such a good story that he was also able to gain the trust of outsiders. Attracted by stories of handsome profits. The victims also included lawyers, doctors and businessmen, some of whom were active in the financial sector. The student had had his own crypto bank for years and was involved in short trading, where returns are mainly made from falling prices. Investors had to invest a minimum of five thousand euros. They then received a monthly email with an overview of the profit, which could amount to as much as fifty percent. They could then choose: either to have themselves paid out or to continue speculating with their profit. The student himself calculated half of the profit percentage each time. Some investors did indeed receive large sums of money into their bank accounts, on which they often spontaneously told their own family and friends about their successes. New customers signed up automatically. It was less well known that the profits were paid from the deposits of new investors. Lawyer Arjon Tieman, to whom the first victims reported, states that many investors lost more than the minimum deposit of five thousand euros and saw amounts of 35,000 to 50,000 euros pass them by. It is remarkable that the investment money was ‘simply’ transferred via the bank and that the bank in question did little to show duty of care. The student has disappeared and his house gives an abandoned impression. He has also disappeared from Facebook and Instagram. Last week he was supposed to go to training camp in Turkey with the first selection of football club HSC’21, but he cancelled at the last minute.
The 29-year-old Russian Alexey P. was arrested by the FIOD in the summer of 2022 on suspicion of complicity in money laundering via the tool he developed, Tornado Cash. The Russian lived in Amsterdam and was behind Tornado Cash software that could mix different crypto money flows in order to strengthen the user’s privacy. Already during the arrest it became known that it probably involved the laundering of 1.2 billion between July 9, 2019 and August 10, 2022. According to the Public Prosecution Service, possible locations were the Netherlands, America, Russia and Dubai. The Russian appeared in court on March 26. Tornado Cash was launched in 2019. When P. was arrested, $7 billion was already said to have been laundered. Two other developers, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, are also facing a trial in the US in September. Storm pleads not guilty and Semenov has so far managed to stay out of the hands of the American justice system. Alexey P. also pleads not guilty and is only a software developer. The Public Prosecution Service demands more than five years in prison.
In New York, the trial of 31-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried began on October 3, 2023, after he was arrested on December 12, 2022 in his $30 million mansion in the Bahamas on suspicion of the largest fraud in American history. In November 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy, after which the cesspool opened. FTX, which was one of the big boys both inside and outside the crypto world, was destroyed by fraud. When FTX declared bankruptcy, it turned out that $10 billion had been transferred to Alameda, of which $1 billion disappeared to the Cayman Islands. From an estimated value of $40 billion, FTX went to a deficit of $9 billion. Sam Bankman-Fried personally ordered the deception of customers of his crypto trading platform, Caroline Ellison testified in court. She herself already admitted to large-scale fraud last year, Alameda, the investment fund of Bankman-Fried, used according to her around 10 billion dollars from FTX customers. In 2017 he founded crypto trading house Alameda and in 2019 he brought FTX to the stock exchange supported by Katy Perry, Bill Clinton, Tom Brady, Tony Blair and even Blackrock and Softbank. At the beginning of 2022, the company was worth 31 billion euros. On November 2, 2022, Coindesk published how FTX filled holes in the balance sheet of crypto trading house Alameda. Alameda lent a lot of money to other weak crypto companies. To conceal this, FTX’s own cryptocurrency, FTT, was put on the balance sheet for a lot of value. The price of FTX dropped enormously after the publication. Binance withdrew confidence and customers withdrew their crypto from FTX. The value of crypto coins fell by 230 billion dollars worldwide. A week later, FTX customers could no longer access their accounts. The big crypto companies no longer wanted to do business with FTX. This was a problem for Solana in particular, because FTX owns 685 million dollars of Solana. He was found guilty on all counts of seven charges, two for fraud and five for conspiracy. During the trial, he was accused of stealing 8 billion dollars (more than 7.5 billion euros) from his customers. This makes the case one of the largest financial frauds ever. During the trial, several friends and colleagues testified that Bankman-Fried had personally ordered the deception of his customers. The maximum sentence for fraud and conspiracy is 110 years. In the hearing on March 28, 2024, 40 to 50 years in prison was demanded, but he got away with 25 years.
The Public Prosecution Service in Turkey has launched an investigation into the CEO of trading platform Thodex. Owner Faruk Fatih Özer is said to have fled the country with 1.7 billion euros in cryptocurrency from the platform’s users. 62 people have been arrested in Turkey who are said to be involved in the scam, but Özer himself is still missing. According to the police, he is said to have flown to the Albanian capital Tirana earlier this week. The platform had almost 400,000 active users. Thousands of them have already reported fraud in Turkey after they were suddenly unable to access their accounts a few days ago. They were also unable to withdraw money, which soon led them to suspect that they had been scammed. The Turkish Financial Investigation Service MASAK then blocked the company’s accounts and launched an investigation together with the police and the Public Prosecution Service. The Thodex headquarters have now been searched in the hope of more information. Thodex has stated in a statement that the ‘negative reports’ in the media are incorrect. According to Thodex, there were funds and banks that wanted to invest in the company. In order to make this happen, all transactions from users had to be stopped. That would take four to five days. In addition, according to the company, owner Özer would soon return to Turkey. The statement states that he will cooperate with all ongoing investigations. However, users themselves do not believe this, many of them say on social media.
Businessman Firoz Patel was convicted in federal court in Washington DC on February 6, 2025, of obstructing an official process, bringing to an end the final chapter of a lengthy criminal case. The Montreal entrepreneur will spend another three and a half years in a U.S. prison for hiding tens of millions of dollars worth of bitcoin in an undeclared account after previously being convicted of a cryptocurrency-related crime. In 2012, Patel founded Payza, a company that prosecutors say had few due diligence protocols and was a magnet for criminal proceeds from pyramid schemes, illegal steroid sales and multi-level marketing fraud around the world. Prosecutors say Payza, through its robust network of shell companies and criminal associates, became a preferred method for criminals to launder illicit proceeds and transfer money to other criminal associates. Patel was first convicted in 2020 on a conspiracy charge related to laundering money through Payza. Patel stated that his only assets were $30,000 in a retirement savings account. Authorities said they were kept in the dark about Patel’s stash of 450 bitcoin, which is now worth more than $40 million. In the months before he reported to prison in 2021, Patel secretly accumulated bitcoins in a Binance virtual currency wallet, but the company shut down the account after raising red flags. Patel then moved the funds to a U.K.-based account at Blockchain.com. Prosecutors said he opened the account in his father’s name. After being denied access to those funds, Patel filed a legal claim against Blockchain.com in a U.K. court in June 2021 using his real name, “giving up the appearance that the funds belonged to someone else,” prosecutors said. In October of that year, as part of the Pandora Papers investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Toronto Star revealed that Patel, then in prison, had set up an offshore company while he was under criminal investigation years earlier. Three months later, U.S. federal investigators worked with British authorities to seize Patel’s bitcoins.
In a single hack attack, North Korean hackers managed to steal 400,000 Ethereum with a total market value of no less than 1.5 billion dollars. This makes it the largest crypto hack ever. The hack hit the major international crypto exchange Bybit. With specific wallet software, the hackers were able to influence the routine actions of employees. During this process, Bybit employees saw a valid transaction that had to be signed, they thought. Under the hood, there appeared to be tampering. Bybit seems to survive this attack. Ben Zhou, CEO of the crypto exchange, said in a statement that the company can cover the loss of 1.5 billion. Customers have therefore not lost their money, there are enough tokens in other wallets to compensate them. ‘Bybit is solvent, even if this loss is not recovered due to the hack’, Zhou stated. In the meantime, everyone was still able to withdraw everything. This was also done en masse, 350,000 withdrawals were made in the first ten hours after the attack.
Dating fraud
The Tros program Opgelicht also made a program about the notorious fraudster Johan S. in 2004. During his conditional release in 2019, S also made several mistakes by simultaneously entering into relationships with two women in Groningen and Friesland via the dating app Badoo in order to get money. For example, he ordered goods and even signed a purchase contract with one of them for a house worth 675,000 euros. He left both women penniless and in debt. In 2020, he was subsequently sentenced to 2 years in prison, but was not actually imprisoned. The catering company of Johan S. (53) and partner Belinda van P. (50) went bankrupt on June 29, 2023 and the two owners, who were also declared personally bankrupt, must appear in court for fraud and bottle-pulling. The two had disappeared without a trace, but were found by Alberto Stegeman and his program Under Cover in the Netherlands in a house on the Jacob van Lennepstraat in Hengelo after receiving tips. Curator Jetse Eringa had filed a request for detention due to non-cooperation and withholding of the administration. 12 creditors have come forward for a total debt of 36,000 euros for the time being. Belinda has a total debt of 85,000 euros. The tax authorities currently have a claim of 10,000 euros. The bankruptcy was filed by an injured employment agency. Johan S. is in custody in mid-January. In the meantime, he had set up a new catering company called The Twins on the Jacob Catsstraat in Hengelo and also worked as a handyman under the name Bart. Johan S.’s x was also declared bankrupt with her company JBRI on the Oude Boekleloseweg in Hengelo, which previously belonged to both of them. Johan S. has previously been convicted several times for dating fraud. According to her own curator Kim Fraterman, Belinda van P. has 44,870 euros in private debt and 40,153 in business debt. Johan S. has been pursued by debtors for 25 years and has already been sentenced to one year in prison for fraud cases in the Achterhoek, but has not yet served it. Dating fraudsters caused around 7.6 million euros in damage in 2023.
French Anne (53) was convinced that she was in a relationship with Brad Pitt. She was scammed for no less than 830,000 euros. This was shown in a report in Sept à huit on the French channel TF1. She left her husband, a millionaire, and spent her money from their divorce on the ‘much-needed operations’ of her new flame, Brad. On a skiing holiday with her husband and their daughter in 2023, Anne, an interior designer, decided to go on social media for the first time in her life. This way she could share her holiday photos. At that point, a certain Brad Pitt enters her life. Or rather: the mother of the actor approached Anne via Instagram. ‘Jane Etta Pitt’ said that her famous son needed a woman like her. The French woman had doubts about the relationship with her husband for two years, because she felt neglected and eventually left him for the ‘movie star’. The fake Brad Pitt completely wrapped Anne around his finger. It quickly went from polite messages to loving language, a marriage proposal and the first gift: luxury jewelry and bags. But to get the package through customs, Anne had to pay more than 5000 euros, which she did with the money she received from her divorce from her ex-partner. “I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well put together. The way he spoke, the poems, I received love messages in abundance. “Everything a woman could wish for, I got from that man,” Anne admits. Anne initially had her doubts, but the photos that the fake Brad Pitt sent and a – very bad – AI-generated video reassured her. It all happened very quickly. The fake Brad Pitt urgently needed treatment for kidney cancer. His accounts were supposedly frozen because of the divorce proceedings with Angelina Jolie.
It was only when Anne saw the real Brad Pitt, in the company of his real girlfriend Inès de Ramon, that she began to realize that it was all not true. Then too, the scammers sent her a fake news clip, generated by AI, in which a journalist claims that the relationship between Brad and Inès is fake and that Brad is actually in a relationship with Anne. A very unrealistic video, but Anne still believed it. It was only when she saw Brad and Inès photographed again that she accepted reality. Anne filed a complaint, lost many of her friends, had a fight with her daughter and, after several suicide attempts, was admitted to a clinic specializing in serious illnesses. depression. Fake Brad Pitts scamming women has happened before. In 2024, Spanish police arrested five people who scammed women as Brad Pitt. In 2022, a Spanish woman also lost 170,000 euros to a fake Brad Pitt.
Dividend fraud
The Tax Authorities are demanding 241 million euros in six lawsuits from stock exchange trading companies because they have been guilty of illegal forms of dividend stripping. Investor and ex-Fortis banker Frank Vogel (54) from Aerdenhout was taken into custody in June 2023 because of controversial constructions to reclaim dividend tax from the Tax Authorities. Vogel is said to be the inventor of the so-called dividend stripping. The Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) searched the office and home of the man and his tax advisor. These dividend stripping practices are said to have cost the Dutch treasury a total of 26 billion euros. Vogel is said to have used partners in Canada and Dubai. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the Dutch tax authorities were defrauded of 4 million euros by Vogel. With this trick, companies pay out part of their profit as dividends to their shareholders. Tax actually has to be paid on this, but by shifting the share packages around the date of the dividend payment between owners who cannot claim back tax and parties who can, a tax advantage was achieved. There are two other similar criminal investigations ongoing in the Netherlands.
ABN Amro was involved in fraudulent dividend arbitrage (CumEx trading) until February 2016, while the government, as owner of the bank, was aware of this all that time. The CumEx Files describes how the multiple reclaiming of dividend tax was done. The fraudulent CumEx trading caused great damage to the tax authorities of various countries. In the Netherlands too, the damage caused by the so-called ‘dividend stripping’ would run into the millions. A British banker was previously convicted for using the cum/ex method. He has to repay Denmark 1.7 billion dollars plus 5 percent interest. The Public Prosecution Service calls dividend stripping a “serious form of white-collar crime”. However, the Supreme Court ruled against the tax authorities. The fines for dividend stripping are now uncertain.
According to the journalists, banks and brokers stole at least 55.2 billion euros between 2001 and 2016 through international partnerships. The German authorities are also investigating the suspicious CumEx transactions of ABN AMRO from before 2012, in which shares were sold around the dividend date and both buyer and seller claimed back dividend tax. These transactions are said to have been carried out by ABN AMRO and several subsidiaries. These subsidiaries were sold to management in May 2010. ABN AMRO says it has since ceased its activities and that it itself contacted the German public prosecutors in Frankfurt and Cologne in 2016 and 2017. The bank is taking into account any legal costs that may still arise from the case, but says it has already met its obligations to the German tax authorities. Nevertheless, the German authorities raided the ABN AMRO office in Frankfurt again on 27 February 2020. The German police raided the office on Frankfurt’s Mainzer Landstrasse. The Public Prosecution Service calls dividend stripping a “serious form of white-collar crime”. The Netherlands may have missed out on 27 billion euros in dividend tax. European governments are said to have been defrauded or duped by bankers, traders and hedge funds for a total of 150 billion euros. An investigation into ABN Amro’s involvement is still ongoing in Germany.
Earlier, a British banker was convicted for using the cum/ex method. He has to repay Denmark 1.7 billion dollars plus 5 percent interest. The arrest of the Dutchman is part of a larger, international, collaboration. Someone has also been arrested in Finland. The two are said to have defrauded governments of 17 million euros. They are also suspected of fraud in Germany.
Diploma fraud
A 62-year-old Frisian examiner has falsified the awarding of some thirteen hundred safety certificates for people in construction and industry. The man was arrested by the investigation service of the Dutch Labour Inspectorate and suspended. He is said to have filled in answers for the candidates himself or to have dictated them. The exams in question were taken between early 2019 and early 2021. The VCA certificates in question are intended for employees who have to handle hazardous substances and who have to work with large machines and at heights. The certificates that were issued have been declared invalid, but companies are not notified of this.
Emission fraud
Cheating software has been discovered in some BMW diesel SUVs in 33,000 X3 models manufactured before 2014. The transport regulator, Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), has discovered that the emission values of harmful gases in some BMW diesel cars can be manipulated. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 vehicles are affected throughout Europe.
The Dutch State filed a complaint against car company Stellantis, because of cheating with the emissions of the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Suzuki Vitara. The emission values appear to be lower on paper than in practice. More than seven hundred Jeeps and Suzukis have already been recalled for a mandatory software update. During the cheating, systems that return exhaust gases to the engine and thus limit nitrogen emissions were disabled. The argument was that this would protect the engines. The soot particles in the recycled air could lead to blockages. Last December, the European Court of Justice ruled that this practice is illegal. The ruling applies to all car manufacturers. Other car models may no longer be allowed on the road after the Court’s ruling. The Dutch group owns the car brands: Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep and Peugeot. Following earlier suspicions regarding the use of unauthorized emission strategies, a complaint has been filed with the Public Prosecution Service. The extent to which the follow-up steps to the Court ruling correspond to previous steps taken in the context of diesel fraud will depend on the European Union’s response to the Court ruling.
In addition to former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, fourteen other members of the board and a board member of a supplier were also brought to court for fraud, tax evasion, deception and indirectly providing false certificates. The scandal surrounding Volkswagen’s cheating software has been going on since 2014. Winterkorn resigned at the end of September 2015, a week after the scandal broke. Eighty-nine hearings were scheduled at the court until September 2025. The German authorities initially decided not to prosecute. The case against the 76-year-old Winterkorn was then repeatedly postponed due to his poor health. Volkswagen diesel cars performed better during emission tests thanks to the software and were therefore reported as cleaner than they actually were. The diesel scandal has already cost VW more than 32 billion euros in fines, modifications to cars and legal costs. The German court ruled that the accusations of public prosecutors were valid enough for a criminal trial. According to prosecutors, the 73-year-old Winterkorn knew about the emissions fraud long before the revelations. They accuse him of serious fraud and unfair competition. Diesel cars with type EA 189 engines from the brands Volkswagen, Audi, ŠKODA and Seat were presented as sustainable and environmentally friendly, while the test results were unreliable due to the built-in cheat software. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) already imposed the maximum fine of 450,000 euros on Volkswagen for this in November 2017 for misleading and investors in turn are also demanding around 9.2 billion because the company has lost almost 40% of its value. The CEO Rupert Stadler of Volkswagen subsidiary Audi was also charged on May 30, 2020. Stadler was accused of involvement by several engineers. Several Audi offices were raided for the third time in May. The company has set aside more than 27 billion euros for fines, settlements and other costs. Audi is ordered by the German Ministry of Transport to recall 127,000 vehicles because of fraudulent software. To avoid a prison sentence, Stadler pleaded guilty and admitted that he was negligent and allowed the sale of cars with cheat software. He is the first board member to make a confession in court. In court, he had his lawyer read a statement in which he said that he did not know that fraud was taking place, “but considered it possible and in that sense had accepted” that cars with cheat software were being sold. Stadler also admitted negligence and carelessness. The court had previously indicated to Stadler that he could expect a suspended sentence if he admitted his part in the diesel scandal and paid more than 1 million euros. Stadler was already charged in 2018; until now, he had always denied the charges.In addition to Stadler, three other ex-Audi employees are on trial in Munich: two engineers and the former head of engine development. They previously admitted that they had given the order to install the cheating software. In Belgium, an agreement has been reached between the Volkswagen Group and claims organisation Testaankoop on the diesel scandal. Some 320,000 Belgians can claim compensation offive percent of the purchase price . In the Netherlands, there are still several lawsuits pending from other claim organizations.
Former CEO Oliver Schmidt was also sentenced to seven years in prison by an American judge and confessed to conspiracy and fraud between 2012 and 2015. The German group bought off prosecution by the American justice department for an amount of 4.3 billion euros. A fine of 1 billion euros must be paid to the German authorities. Audi must pay a fine of 800 million euros for fiddling with the software for V6 and V8 diesel engines. Prime Minister Stephan Weil is said to have toned down the criticism in speeches at the request of Volkswagen management, who were allowed to see the speech in advance. VW is said to have requested that the passages from the speech that dealt with the liability of the managers be deleted. Weil is a commissioner at Volkswagen, as is the Minister of Economic Affairs Olaf Lies. The state of Lower Saxony also has a 20% stake in the car manufacturer. Volkswagen has set up a fund of 10.3 billion euros to buy back cars from affected consumers. All costs for repairing the cheating affair are allowed to be deducted from the tax by the car manufacturers. German authorities raided Audi in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulmin on March 24, 2017 because of the diesel scandal at parent company Volkswagen. And in September, the CEO of the Volkswagen Group, Herbert Diess, chairman of the board Hans Dieter Pötsch and former CEO Martin Winterkorn were all charged by the German public prosecutor for misleading investors about the consequences of the diesel scandal. Volkswagen itself also demanded damages from Martin Winterkorn and former CEO Rupert Stadler, after which some 288 million euros were paid to settle the claims. The agreement mainly consists of a payment of 270 million euros from the directors’ liability insurance. Rupert Stadler must also contribute. The deal still has to be approved at the annual shareholders’ meeting on July 22. As part of the deal, Winterkorn and Stadler will pay 11.2 million and 4.1 million euros respectively. Former Audi board member Stefan Knirsch agreed to a settlement of 1 million euros. Former Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz is contributing 1.5 million euros. VW subsidiary Audi must recall 24,000 A7 and A8 vehicles built between 2009 and 2013 due to the manipulation of emissions tests, according to the German Ministry of Transport. These emit approximately double the permitted amount of nitrogen oxide when the steering wheel is turned more than 15 degrees. According to the KBA, the software for Porsche was also illegally modified for the Panamera and the 911 between 2008 and 2013. According to Porsche, it is cooperating with the investigation and there are no indications that there is anything wrong with the current engine range. Incidentally, the German car manufacturers are allowed to deduct all costs for repairing the cheating affair from their taxes.There is also an arrest warrant for Martin Winterkorn in the United States. CEO Herbert Diess and chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch will each pay 4.5 million euros to avoid prosecution for misleading shareholders. Authorities also accuse Fiat Chrysler of having installed cheat software in approximately 104,000 diesel cars. Fiat Chrysler is said to have installed the cheat software in sports SUVs from Jeep and RAM since 2014. The American Justice Department is prepared to settle on condition that they recall approximately 104,000 diesel cars to the garage. A German court has ordered Martin Winterkorn to stand trial again for his role in the diesel scandal. According to the indictment, which was already filed in 2019, Winterkorn is suspected of market manipulation.
Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, sold more than a million cheating diesels between 2008 and 2016. A special investigative committee suspects that top European politicians were aware of the emissions scandal as early as 2012, but were obstructed by those involved in the search for evidence. The Dieselgate committee, consisting of 45 MEPs, spent a year investigating in vain the ‘cheating software’ of car manufacturers and the role of politicians who refused to release important documents and internal emails. European car manufacturers used Bosch’s cheating software for years. There are now more than 30 million cars on the road in Europe that emit up to 20 times more exhaust gases than is legally permitted. Daimler has been fined 870 million euros for this and will not appeal. On behalf of the German Ministry of Transport, Daimler recalled 774,000 diesel cars in Europe because of suspicious test data. This includes the Mercedes Vito and the Mercedes C-Class. About a third of the cars in question are driving around in Germany. The European Commission suspects that car manufacturers are artificially increasing the CO2 emissions of their cars again, in order to be able to meet the new emission requirements more easily. In the United States, a settlement of one and a half billion dollars was reached with the Department of Justice and the environmental watchdog EPA. In addition, another 700 million dollars will have to be set aside for a mass claim by affected consumers in the US and hundreds of millions more to meet the requirements of the settlements.
Opel has also installed cheat software in cars in the Insignia, Zafira and Cascade from the model years 2012, 2014 and 2017. Some 95,000 diesel cars were deliberately equipped with this software. The German justice department raided Opel companies in Russelsheim and Kaiserslautern for this purpose in mid-October 2018.
Renault, like all other manufacturers, denies having committed fraud, despite investigators having determined that Renault misled car buyers and that the company’s top executives were aware of it. Renault has repeatedly stressed that it complies with all French and European regulations and that its cars are not equipped with software to cheat tests. The French news agency AFP reported that Renault’s management, including its CEO, may have been responsible for fraudulent practices for more than 25 years, as would emerge from a criminal investigation that was opened by the French authorities in January. Fiat Chrysler cheated with the 500X, Doblo and Renegade and after 2014 also with the Jeep and RAM. The company was charged in May 2017. PSA Peugeot Ciroen came under investigation in April 2017, as did General Motors. GM’s models produced between 2011 and 2016 are under investigation. Research by the RDW shows that the diesel engines of the Suzuki Vitara and Jeep Grand Cherokee also emit more than indicated. It also appears that employees in five factories at Nissan falsified inspection reports regarding emissions and fuel efficiency. The reports were adjusted during random checks. The company itself filed a report before they were charged. The inspections were also carried out without the required permits, which has already led to a recall of 1.2 million cars. Nissan also installed a manipulation device in the Qashqai SUV and was fined 300,000 euros for this. 800 cars had to be recalled in this case as well. Bosch itself also had to settle in the US for 327.5 million dollars to avoid further prosecution.
Bankruptcy fraud
Roger Lips was sentenced to eight months in prison by the court in Zwolle on March 21, 2022 for withholding information in a bankruptcy with a debt of more than 320 million euros. The Public Prosecution Service has charged them after a complaint from the trustees. They accuse the couple of withholding information in the bankruptcy. Wife Petra van Sluisveld was sentenced to two months in prison. Roger Lips did not respond to calls to appear before the trustees after he was briefly held hostage in the bankruptcy investigation in 2013. During a suspension, the 56-year-old real estate entrepreneur from Uden disappeared to Dubai. A total of 143 companies affiliated with him went bankrupt in which banks had invested a total of 750 million euros. According to the Public Prosecution Service, tens of millions of euros disappeared from the estate, which is the subject of a separate criminal case. Lips took the server from the head office with him on his flight to Dubai, where he had been staying with his wife since 2014 for fear of being held hostage in the bankruptcy investigation. Lips defended himself by arguing that if he had provided all the information, he might have cooperated in his own conviction in the upcoming fraud case. The judges in Zwolle believe that he was obliged to cooperate, but add that this information may not be used in the upcoming fraud case. It is of great importance that the trustees are able to settle such a large bankruptcy properly, the court states. In view of this, more cooperation could have been expected. His 55-year-old wife Petra van Sluisveld was a director of at least one of Lips’ companies. The duo had been sentenced to sixteen months in prison. With shopping centre The Wall along the A2 motorway near Utrecht, Lips became the largest creditor of SNS Property Finance. He borrowed a total of around three quarters of a billion euros, and his real estate empire reached a value of 2 billion euros. But when the financial crisis broke out in 2008, the value of Lips’ collateral quickly decreased. SNS and construction billionaire Dik Wessels took over The Wall, which freed Lips from his largest debt. Falling rental income and impatient banks heralded the end: in 2013 Lips went bankrupt privately, then commercially. According to him, the Ministry of Finance also had a hand in his downfall. Lips is resisting the “demolition” of what he considers healthy BVs. He is waging this battle against curators Jan Stadig, Flip Schreurs and Ruud Dekker and the bankruptcy judges who allegedly did not supervise them sufficiently. In the meantime, more than 400 hearings in legal and disciplinary cases have taken place, according to the curators. Lips estimates that there have been around 130 procedures. Lips linked BVs to each other, through claims on each other (pledges), and with private foundations and companies in the name of partner Astrid van Sluisveld and the children. That pattern, drawn up to limit risks per BV, is now turning against him.If the court grants a bankruptcy application filed by the trustee for a Lips BV, the trustee can claim claims on a subsequent BV – for which he then files for bankruptcy again. This chain reaction has also affected the companies in the name of Lips’ partner Van Sluisveld. Now it is the turn of the foundations. In January, trustee Ruud Dekker had De Vijf Musketiers in Dubai declared bankrupt. This foundation was intended to safeguard private assets for the Lips children. There is a recording from 2013, in which examining magistrate Piet Neijt demands information from Lips. Because this information was not forthcoming, Neijt had him held hostage in September 2013. When a second order for holding the hostage came at Christmas, Lips fled with his wife and the children to the United Arab Emirates. Since then, they have really dug in their heels. Previously, documents were not faxed or e-mailed to Lips in Dubai or sent to his Dutch lawyers. As a result, he missed response deadlines. By accusing his lawyers of money laundering – their fees would come from fraudulently obtained money – the curators tried to deprive him of legal assistance. Lips accuses the curators of wanting to secure their own reward, “10 to 16 million euros”. The sale of Lips’ luxury car fleet and villas in Uden, Belgium and Switzerland did not yield enough. Thijs Kelder, Lips’ lawyer, sees fierce debate, caused by frustration. The public prosecutors involved, Gonda van der Wulp and Martin Lambregts: “The question is how it is possible that these two suspects, who have been bankrupt for years, are able to live and work with their children in the millionaire’s paradise of Dubai. Their curators are not aware of any sources of income. The file, which is over 7,500 pages thick, includes witness statements recorded by the Fiod, claims and requests for legal assistance abroad, and e-mails from Lips and Van Sluisveld themselves. The criminal case in Zwolle was difficult. The suspects once attended a hearing from Dubai via Skype. Due to corona, judges, the Public Prosecution Service and lawyers also remained at a distance at that time. Before and after that, requests from Lips for video interrogation were rejected. The suspects personally refuse to travel to the Netherlands. After all, there is a risk of hostage-taking and abandonment of “minor, traumatized children”. The defense therefore disputes that their clients have evaded the obligation to appear – and all requested information has been provided, they claim. The Netherlands can now ask the Emirates for their extradition. In June 2024, Lips was sentenced to four years in prison for bankruptcy fraud and money laundering. The couple embezzled, among other things, a Swiss chalet in Crans Montana and a multi-million dollar claim on Canadian land development, as well as thirteen cars, including a Ferrari and an Aston Martin. The list of items also included the household effects of the Uden home. These were seized, but were nevertheless simply taken away.This also applied to the contents of the Vught castle Craijenstein, where the headquarters of the Lips group were located. The Netherlands has asked the Emirates for their extradition. Real estate agent Jeroen van der Geer (41) is also in Dubai. AA Properties is located in the WTC in Rotterdam and is mainly active in Dubai. According to investigative services, he invested criminal money from the major drug dealer Raffaele Imperiale. The money was invested in real estate in Dubai. Van de Geer came to Dubai in 2002 with less than 2000 euros to work as a waiter in the 7-star hotel Burj al Arab and made good contacts there. Within a year, hotel guests asked him to manage a foreign investment company. With his company AA Properties, he sells houses and apartments with returns of up to 900% in three years. Buyers bought on paper and paid 10 percent in advance. By the time the first construction instalment had to be paid, the house had already been resold several times. After five years, he had earned enough to buy his own villa on the reclaimed palm islands off the coast: a 465-square-meter property with two wings, marble floors, five bathrooms and a swimming pool. From the garage, he can walk with his surfboard to his 42-meter private beach. With his Dutch business partners Frank and Marco de Baat, who operate from Rotterdam, Van der Geer wants to entice as many Dutch and Belgians as possible to invest in Dubai, where residential towers and luxury villas are springing up like mushrooms. In criminal files, Van der Geer is accused of ties to the Italian mafia and investing criminal assets.operating from Rotterdam, Van der Geer wants to entice as many Dutch and Belgians as possible to invest in Dubai, where residential towers and luxury villas are springing up like mushrooms. In criminal files, Van der Geer is accused of ties to the Italian mafia and investing criminal assets.operating from Rotterdam, Van der Geer wants to entice as many Dutch and Belgians as possible to invest in Dubai, where residential towers and luxury villas are springing up like mushrooms. In criminal files, Van der Geer is accused of ties to the Italian mafia and investing criminal assets.
The Dutch police received a report from the American investigative service DEA in August 2018. The Americans wrote that major cocaine dealers had joined forces in Dubai. It concerns ‘a large number of people of different origins who invest in large quantities of cocaine and smuggle and sell it’. The DEA mentions, among others, the then still fugitive Ridouan Taghi and the Italian Raffaele Imperiale. According to the investigative service, the two were spotted in 2017 at the wedding of an Irish top criminal in the Burj al Arab hotel. For the Dutch police, this is crucial information, because the hunt for Ridouan Taghi was still in full swing at that time. Van der Geer was friends and worked together with Raffaele Imperiale, who lived in Amsterdam in the nineties and where he owned the coffee shop Rockland. Together with drug dealer Rick van de Bunt, he started trading ecstasy, cocaine and weapons. The Italian mainly supplies the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra. From the Netherlands he moved to Spain in early 2000, where Van de Bunt was shot dead in 2008. Imperiale then moved to Dubai, where he moved into the Burj Al Arab hotel. In 2016 he became world news when two Van Goghs stolen from the Van Gogh Museum turned up in his storage place near Naples. From Dubai, Imperiale, who is seen as one of the world’s biggest drug criminals, runs a drug line. In 2021, Italy persuaded Dubai to arrest and extradite him. In 2022 it was announced that the Italian had become a key witness for the judiciary. Many countries, including the Netherlands, wanted to hear him: Imperiale could make statements about the top of the international drug trade.
Two Italian criminal files also provide a link between the mafia-linked drug dealer and Jeroen van der Geer. Imperiale is a shareholder in AA Investments & Development. That company not only resembles Van der Geer’s real estate company AA Properties in its name, but according to a company video from 2016, it shares the same office on the 34th floor of the Concord Tower. The Italian justice system suspects Imperiale of setting up a whole money laundering carousel. For example, Imperiale owns a post office box company on the British Isle of Man, which is known as a tax haven, he has a company in Spain and he is a co-shareholder in AA Investments & Development in Dubai. According to his criminal file, a lot of money has been moved between all those companies. According to the DEA, broker and office colleague Jeroen van der Geer plays a role in investing Imperiale’s coke money. Jeroen van der Geer was known for accepting large sums of cash from Moroccan criminals in the Netherlands, for example. He made no secret of his ties to Imperiale. He even seemed proud of it. That Van der Geer. bought real estate for criminals is evident from properties in Dubai in the name of Timia S., which were confiscated by the justice system in 2022. Timia S. is the widow of Rick van de Bunt, a drug dealer who was shot dead in Madrid in 2008 and, coincidentally or not, the former business partner of Raffaele Imperiale. Timia S. appears to have bought several properties in Dubai through Jeroen van der Geer. over the years. She also engaged him after 2017 in connection with two real estate transactions.
Dubai is known as a haven and money laundering paradise for criminals. Reason for the Financial Act Taskforce (FATF) to place the Arab oil state last year on the grey list of countries that do too little against financial crime, like Yemen, Jordan and Syria.
For years, conducting financial investigations in Dubai was virtually impossible for the Dutch police. Real estate and bank details are not public, and cooperation with the Dubai Police was also difficult. The arrest and extradition of Ridouan Taghi was an exception. In August last year, the Netherlands concluded two treaties with Dubai that should simplify the extradition of suspects and the exchange of data. The fact that criminals have invested massively in real estate in Dubai is evident from a major leak of land registry data. Research showed that not only top criminals, but also people on sanctions lists own properties there.
The Public Prosecution Service claims that all of Timia S.’s assets come from Van de Bunt’s drug trade and in 2019, it starts a major criminal case against her for money laundering. By making a deal with the Public Prosecution Service, S. gets away with a suspended prison sentence three years later. However, she must have her money and properties declared forfeit. A former employee of AA Properties says: “In the early years, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the business he did. It was buying and selling houses. Jeroen was just in the right place at the right time. Dubai was booming. But in 2008 and 2009, Dubai ended up in a financial crisis, which meant that hardly any houses were sold. In 2010, Van der Geer got into a serious conflict with his business partners Frank and Marco de Baat. They accused him of embezzling millions of euros. He allegedly bought his capital villa on the Palm with money from the company, they claim. Van der Geer says he still lives in Dubai, but has not been a real estate agent for several years. He had his company AA Properties deregistered around 2019. Jeroen van der Geer denies ever having worked with ‘any group whatsoever’. He says he dismisses any suggestion of this as ’the realm of fantasy’. Van der Geer also says that he often did business with companies, or that lawyers acted on behalf of clients, which meant that it was not always clear to him who the purchasing party was. He denies having had an office on the 34th floor of the Concord Tower in Dubai, which was previously stated on the AA Properties website. He also denies having worked on the same floor as Raffaele Imperiale’s AA Investments & Development. He is said to have had his office on the 20th floor.
German tennis player Boris Becker was declared bankrupt in 2017. He had gotten into trouble because of an unpaid loan of 4.2 million euros for his villa in Mallorca. The judge found it proven that Becker kept part of his millions of euros from the trustee after his bankruptcy, by transferring money to other accounts, among other things. He was eventually released early after eight months, thanks to a scheme that foreign prisoners in a British prison can qualify for. Becker mentions Miami or Dubai as possible new places of residence to get his life back on track. His work as a tennis commentator for the BBC during Wimbledon is not an option for the time being: Becker is not allowed to enter Great Britain for the next ten years.
On Monday 17 June 2024, the FIOD arrested a 44-year-old and a 29-year-old man from Amsterdam and searched their homes. Both are suspected of bankruptcy fraud, deliberately filing incorrect income and sales tax returns and forgery. Physical and digital administration, two cars and cash were seized. The criminal investigation was initiated at the request of the trustee. The 44-year-old suspect was a director and sole shareholder of a taxi company that was declared bankrupt in 2021 for a long time. He did not provide sufficient administration to the trustee and transferred his taxi company to a front man shortly before the bankruptcy. The criminal investigation shows that the 44-year-old suspect and the taxi company respectively did not pay income and sales tax. The loss amounted to more than 400,000 euros.
In the period preceding the bankruptcy, the taxi company transferred over 1.3 million euros to the car rental company of the other 29-year-old suspect. The transfers were made on the basis of probably several false invoices. The transferred money was immediately withdrawn in cash at the time. Over 400,000 euros was also transferred to the 44-year-old suspect. In the context of the bankruptcy fraud, the creditors of the taxi company were disadvantaged by over 160,000 euros.
The two directors of the bankrupt plastic window frame company ProTech in Hengelo were sentenced on 20 June 2024. One to a prison sentence, the other to community service. As they had also been sentenced in a previous court case. At that time, text messages in the Twente dialect proved fatal. They were once fellow directors of the plastic window frame company ProTech in Hengelo, which, however, went bankrupt in the summer of 2019. ProTech employed several door-to-door salesmen who went door-to-door to persuade private individuals to have their window frames replaced. The customers were enticed with subsidy schemes, which allowed them to borrow money for the new window frames under favourable conditions. As a result of the bankruptcy, private individuals lost out financially to the tune of 75,000 euros. After the bankruptcy, curator Arco Blankestijn came across the problem that hardly any bookkeeping had been kept. For example, data on seized computers appeared to have been deleted. In his investigation, the curator subsequently made several bizarre discoveries. It turned out that a complete ‘ghost company’ had been set up in addition to ProTech. The remarkable situation arose that ProTech still existed on paper, but that there was no income at all. At the same time, invoices were still being sent. This was done from a newly started company: Professional Technicians. The company therefore not only had shadow accounting – as is often the case – but in this case a complete shadow company, as the curator discovered. The curator then had one of the directors locked up in prison. The entrepreneur came clean after just one and a half days and made a confession. Reason for the curator to hold both directors personally liable for the financial deficit in the bankruptcy, more than half a million euros. The two tried to hide behind each other, but in this case the text messages that both business partners sent to each other in the Twente dialect broke them badly. The court saw this as proof that the directors knew very well that they were working on a construction that was legally unacceptable.
For example, one window frame dealer wrote to his business partner: ‘Tomorrow I’m going to set up a new limited company where we can have all current orders paid out. Do you have to put your money in it and will you sign something somewhere next week or do you want to do that later?’ To which his business partner replied: ‘Who can have everything paid out to ProTech, but then I think we’ll get into trouble.’
Both of them felt that what they were doing was wrong, the judge ruled, who determined that they had to pay back the half a million euros demanded by the trustee. In anticipation of this civil procedure, trustee Blankestijn had already seized the various assets of the directors, including their private homes, a car and bank accounts. But the trustee did not stop there. He also filed a report of bankruptcy fraud, for which the window frame dealers had to answer to the judge again two weeks ago. In this latest case, both were convicted of bankruptcy fraud this afternoon. One director has to serve four months behind bars (eight months, half of which is conditional), his partner was given a community service order of 120 hours.
Charity fraud
Mobility for Everyone, a charity foundation from Made that arranged the transport of thousands of vulnerable people throughout the Netherlands, went bankrupt in early November 2022 due to fraud by the management. According to the Tax Authorities, the multi-million fraud at the charity foundation from Made that was supposed to provide cheap transport for the elderly and disabled is no longer a charity. This means that people who donate money to the foundation can no longer deduct it from their taxes. The Tax Authorities withdrew the so-called ANBI status and a police investigation is now underway. Director Edwin Kock (50) embezzled at least 1.5 million euros from the foundation.
Crowdfunder OnePlanetCrowd, who had transferred 430,000 euros for the purchase of buses, has reclaimed the money quickly. It turned out that the buses had not been purchased with that money, but leased. The financial consequences for MVI are so great that a former employee went to court to get his outstanding commission. The foundation must pay the man almost 10,000 euros. The financial investigation department of the Zeeland-West-Brabant police region investigated the fraud at the foundation. Mobility for Everyone has hardly transported anyone since the corona crisis. They probably kept their heads above water with almost five hundred thousand euros in government support. The MVI foundation ‘deeply regrets that there is a new investigation into abuses within the foundation’. “These are based solely on a personal dispute with a former board member who has since left in September 2020,” says chairman Edwin Kock. The MVI foundation was established in early 2014 with the aim of making transport cheaper for the elderly and disabled, so that they would not become lonely. In the first few years, the board was formed by Kock, his then partner Mettie Bakker and his younger sister Wendy. In April this year it emerged that Edwin Kock, who was a director until 1 January 2020, had transferred more than one million euros from the foundation’s account to the bank account of his sole proprietorship Forian from 1 January 2019. Although Kock is said to have signed an acknowledgement of debt in May and promised to repay an amount of almost seven hundred thousand euros, this is said not to have happened. On 9 September, the foundation terminated the agreement with Kock. Shortly afterwards, former director Helmer de Vries filed a report of embezzlement. A few weeks later, Mettie Bakker, the only remaining director, is said to have registered her former partner Kock as a director again.
The organizer of the children’s cancer gala Quality of Life robbed the charity of more than three quarters of a million euros. He also committed fraud at American Express, ABN Amro and cosmetics company Inglot. The director was marketing director at American Express and was praised for his years of efforts as a board member for the gala Quality of Life, which raised money for children with cancer. A prison sentence of 3.5 years was demanded against the organizer who used the embezzled money to pay the mortgage, renovation and furnishing of his house for an amount of six hundred thousand euros, and a community service order of 240 hours and a suspended prison sentence of three months was demanded against a co-defendant.
The Public Prosecution Service is demanding 6.3 million euros back from former partner of Loyens & Loeff. The director who was convicted in 2018 for falsifying invoices and embezzling money from four charities was previously sentenced to thirty months in prison, of which ten months were suspended. A suspected business partner and treasurer of the charities was also sentenced to one year in prison, of which half was suspended. According to the Public Prosecution Service, he must repay 1.7 million.
A 61-year-old man from Capelle aan den IJssel stole over 800,000 euros in donations for the Droom Wens foundation and used the money on gambling sites, in the casino and for private expenses. Only 10 percent of the donations were actually used to treat children to a dream day out.
The Overijssel court has sentenced a 76-year-old treasurer to eight months in prison. As treasurer, he stole money from the account of a foundation Friends of the Almelo hospice for more than seven years and drew up false annual accounts. He used his years of experience at an accountancy firm to do so. As treasurer, the man had access to the foundation’s account for years. He used a debit card from the foundation to withdraw money from payment machines and used it to pay for daily groceries, meals, clothing, fuel for his car, the furnishing of a study and a car. He also used money from the foundation to make payments to a bailiff for private debts. In total, between January 2013 and mid-2020, the theft involved an amount of more than 91,000 euros.
Gambling and gaming fraud
Last year, the supervisor imposed fines of 36.7 million euros on companies that offer online gambling. This amount had never been so high. Among other things, it concerned companies that did not have the correct license. Penalties were also imposed for violating rules regarding untargeted advertising for online gambling.
Land fraud
Drs. Jean-Louis CN Bertholet, the 31-year-old owner and founder of the Zaanse Grondobligatie Fonds, introduced land bonds to the market as a pioneer in 2013. In his approach, private individuals do not buy land, but lend at least 100,000 euros to the fund. As a result, the fund falls outside the supervision of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. The prospectus emphasises the ‘blind pool risk’, in which bondholders invest in a fund without an existing portfolio. The fund acquires plots of land with the bondholders’ money.
Since the fund is fully financed by debt from bondholders, it acquires land from banks and project developers at foreclosure prices that are sometimes below the “agricultural value”. These are then sold on to private investors. The bond vehicle takes over positions for the same price as the purchase price and pays with debt paper from the fund. Landowners who do not own the required minimum of €100,000 in bonds after the transaction must put up additional money. Bertholet aims to sell the positions at a profit to a ‘special purpose vehicle’, from which private individuals can buy certificates. The Land Bond Fund depends on the purchase and sale of ‘strategic land’ for income. The return for bondholders is linked to the increase in value of the purchased land, which according to Bertholet is promising for changes in zoning due to housing shortages and climate change. However, in the past fifteen years, no buyer has obtained the desired change in zoning. Bertholet owns plots of land spread across various locations, with some of the land remaining agricultural for longer periods. In addition to his involvement in the Grond Bond Fund, Bertholet is active on a website where investors can buy and sell land. On this site, a landowner exchanged two plots of land purchased in 2007 and 2008 for bonds from the fund. Other sellers have carried out similar transactions.
Another example in the land market concerns Symen Jellema, owner of Powerfield Nederland, who buys land from landowners and quickly sells it to Zonneperceel, an investment fund that raises money from investors through bond issues. The ABC transaction model, which involves the land being quickly resold, raises questions about the transparency and integrity of the parties involved, as recently illustrated by a notary in Alkmaar who was removed from office because of transactions with Powerfield. Sellers, land traders, sell the plots with a persuasive story that the land will be worth much more if housing construction is permitted. But on the 17,000 plots in the Netherlands that have been sold under this guise, no housing construction has yet been realised anywhere. Private individuals are therefore being cheated on a large scale. A disciplinary judge previously referred to this trading practice as ‘wind trading’.
Interim fraud
Fraudulent interim manager Gerard Hermsen has ruined the fast-growing travel company CityTijger and transporter Besseling. The young founder Mark L. was persuaded by Hermsen and hired Gerard H. in early November 2016 to be able to realize further growth. Due to overdue administration and unlawful expenses and many complaints, the company received negative publicity after which Gerard H. left and destroyed all financial administration. It is not the first time that Gerard H. has left a company in financial ruin. Transport company Hameleers, Proline DIY store and refrigerated transport company Frigo previously went bankrupt because of the fraudster. Gerard Hermsen was convicted in 2013 for fraud and embezzlement at refrigerated transport company Frigo. He also ruined FGM/Vermeulen Travel, which subsequently also went bankrupt. Hermsen bought a Porsche on Besseling’s account for around 180,000 euros, doubled his own salary without any consultation and charged enormous amounts without explanation or receipts. Besseling has filed a complaint against the man.
Cartel fraud
The European Commission imposed a cartel fine of 329 million euros on meal delivery companies Delivery Hero and Glovo at the end of May 2025. Glovo, originally from Spain, has been fully owned by the German Delivery Hero since July 2022. An investigation by the European Commission has shown that the two companies had already made far-reaching agreements in the years before, when Delivery Hero was only a minority shareholder. For example, the two companies agreed not to approach each other’s staff, exchanged commercially sensitive information and made agreements about which European markets they would be active in. According to the European Commission, these agreements were in breach of fair competition rules. Delivery Hero has agreed to a settlement to avoid prosecution. Delivery Hero and Glovo are not active on the Dutch market. Between 2015 and 2018, Delivery Hero was present in the Netherlands with a subsidiary, meal delivery company Foodora. However, that ceased after a few years due to fierce competition from the much larger market leader Thuisbezorgd (now part of Just Eat Takeaway). The German Delivery Hero is active in more than seventy countries worldwide and achieved a turnover of more than 48 billion euros in 2024.
The European Commission has fined 15 car manufacturers and the European Automobile Industry Association (ACEA) 458 million euros for collaborating and making agreements in a cartel for more than fifteen years (between 2002 and 2017). Mercedes-Benz was not fined because the company informed the European Commission of the existence of the cartel. All other manufacturers have acknowledged to the Commission that they were part of the cartel. The car manufacturers had made agreements about the recycling of old cars. They had agreed among themselves not to pay companies that dismantle old cars for this, because they would already make enough profit on the dismantled parts. They also agreed not to disclose what percentage of recycled material was used in a new car or how much of an old car was reused. “Their aim was to prevent consumers from taking information about recycling into account when choosing a car,” writes the European Commission. “This could reduce the pressure on companies to go beyond the legal requirements.” The industry association ACEA supervised the cartel. The collaborating car manufacturers were BMW, Ford, Honda, Hyundai/Kia, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, Opel, Renault/Nissan, Stellantis, Suzuki, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo. Volkswagen received the highest fine (almost 128 million euros). Last year, the car company booked a net profit of 12.4 billion euros. Car giant Stellantis has to pay almost 75 million euros. The manufacturer saw its net profit drop to 5.5 billion euros last year. Truck manufacturers MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF were given a record fine of almost 3 billion euros by the European Commission in 2016 for illegal price fixing.
Four carrot producers who had made illegal agreements among themselves for years were fined a total of 2.5 million euros. Since 2008, the companies Laarakker, VanRijsingen, Veco and Verduyn had divided the market. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) raided the company and found an A4 sheet with agreements about carrots. According to the ACM, these companies controlled half of the carrot market. The company Veco had a firm grip on the Parisian carrots. The other companies promised not to be involved in the cultivation, processing and sale of these round carrots, which are preferred over carrots, especially in Germany. The agreements ran for 10 years. After the raid, the companies Laarakker and Verduyn confessed to the cartel.
The European Commission suspects eight EU banks of forming a cartel. The financial institutions are said to have excluded competitors from the purchase and trading of European government bonds. In May 2019, the European Commission imposed fines of almost 1.1 billion euros on Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and the Japanese Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) for illegal cartel agreements in currency trading. The Swiss UBS avoided a fine because it brought the case to the Commission. The violations took place in varying compositions of the banks involved between 2007 and 2013. Rabobank was also fined no less than 26.6 million euros for making secret agreements with Deutsche Bank on trading in government bonds. They secretly exchanged market-sensitive information and coordinated their prices and trading strategies, the European Commission ruled.
Electronics manufacturer LG has been fined almost 8 million euros by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) for price-fixing on the sale of televisions. LG urged stores and web shops to follow LG’s price advice
KLM, Air France and Martinair were ordered by the General Court of the EU to pay a fine of over 325 million euros for illegal price agreements on air freight transport. KLM was ordered to pay 127 million euros. Eight other air freight carriers that were part of the cartel between late 1999 and early 2006 were also ordered to pay a fine for forming a cartel. The total amount was almost 790 million euros. Air France, KLM and freight subsidiary Martinair were ordered to pay a total of over 325 million euros for the agreements made on the level of fuel and security surcharges between late 1999 and early 2006. According to the Commission, deals were concluded ‘via numerous contacts’ between both individual companies and within groups. The case dates back 12 years. In 2010, the European Commission had already imposed fines on the airlines. In addition to Air France-KLM and Martinair, these were Air Canada, British Airways, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines, LAN Chile, SAS, Singapore Airlines and Qantas. All companies except Qantas appealed. In December 2015, the General Court of the European Union overturned the fine due to procedural errors. The European Commission continued to maintain that there was a cartel and imposed new fines in 2017, totaling 776 million euros. The airlines involved appealed again and the verdict was delivered at the end of March 2022. The parties can appeal to the European Court of Justice, of which the General Court is a part, within two months. Air France-KLM is still investigating whether such an appeal is feasible, a spokeswoman said. The airline group had set aside 350.6 million euros to pay any cartel fines.
In 2012, Philips was fined half a billion euros for a large cartel with other manufacturers for driving up the price of television components. In 2023, it emerged that people were being bribed in China. The company has reached a settlement of 58 million euros with the American stock market watchdog SEC. According to the SEC, Philips has unfairly influenced employees of hospitals in China in order to be able to sell its equipment. The medical technology company is said to have paid a hospital director for help with a tender procedure. Philips is also said to have given discounts to distributors, while the company knew that the extra profit margins could then be used to give bribes to officials. In addition, hospital directors were influenced so that they set technical criteria in their tenders that were favorable to the company. The settlement amount is made up of a fine of 15 million dollars and 47 million in profits that Philips is said to have obtained illegally.
Sea carriers such as the Chilean company CSAV, the Japanese carriers “K” Line, MOL and NYK, and the Norwegian-Swedish WWL-EUKOR made price-fixing agreements for the transport of new passenger cars, trucks and agricultural vehicles between October 2006 and September 2012. The German Bosch and the Japanese Denso and NGK had a cartel from 2000 to 2011. They supplied car manufacturers in Europe and agreed not to compete with each other. The American TRW and the German companies Bosch and Continental had a cartel in 2010 and 2011, for both electronic and hydraulic brake systems, causing losses to Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen. Only received fines from the European Commission. Car air conditioning companies Behr, Valeo, Calsonic, Sanden, Denso and Panasonic received a total of 155 million euros in fines for cartel formation and price fixing. Denso and Panasonic received a lower fine because they acted as whistleblowers with the European Commission. The six suppliers made price agreements within the European Economic Area (EU plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). The companies supplied Volkswagen, Daimler (Mercedes), BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Nissan/Renault and Suzuki (SX4). Inspectors from the European Commission raided BMW on 16 October 2017. Inspectors from the German cartel watchdog were also involved in the raid.
VW, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Daimler are also suspected of forming a cartel in Germany. The cartel is said to have been active since the 1990s with numerous arrangements for shared costs, technology, suppliers and emission standards. The supervisory authority was said to have been informed of this last year by employees within the car companies. A total of two hundred people at all companies are said to be involved in these illegal agreements. Since the 1990s, agreements have been made among themselves to manipulate the electronics and filters of the diesel cars. All three companies were raided by the European Commission. On 6 February, the German authorities searched the headquarters of Audi, a factory of the company in Neckarsulm and a private home. A week earlier, searches were also carried out at the homes of six technicians on the payroll of Audi. In the autumn of 2016, Porsche recalled cars of the Macan type. In the summer of 2017, the Cayenne with a 3-litre diesel engine was banned by the German transport minister. The German authorities raided Porsche in mid-April 2018. The action was aimed at employees suspected of fraud and deception. It concerns three suspects, including a board member.
The European Commission has also imposed fines totalling almost 3 billion euros on truck manufacturers. With the exception of Scania, which according to Brussels did participate but has so far refused to settle, all participants in the cartel have accepted their punishment. Hundreds of victims paid an average of around 10,000 euros too much for a truck between 1997 and 2011. Claims organisation MKB-Claim and the trade association Transport en Logistiek Nederland (TLN), transport insurer TVM and various interest groups from other countries are working on collective claims against the truck manufacturers.
The European Commission has imposed a fine of 31.6 million euros on two companies that sell canned vegetables. Dutch company Coroos must pay 13.6 million euros, the French company CECAB 18 million euros. Both companies had been fixing prices for more than thirteen years on the sale of canned corn, green beans, peas and pea-carrot combinations in Europe. The French Bonduelle was also involved in the cartel, but did not receive a fine of 250 million because they acted as whistleblowers.
Truck manufacturers DAF, Volvo/Renault, MAN, Daimler and Iveco also engaged in cartel formation for years. In 2016, they were fined a total of more than 2.9 billion euros by the European Commission. Daimler received the highest fine of 1 billion euros. DAF’s fine amounted to 752 million euros. In a civil procedure, more than two hundred medium-sized logistics companies are now also demanding 100 million euros in damages. The claim was filed on 23 March 2017 by a German trade association. In the fourteen years that the price agreements lasted, some 240,000 trucks were sold for a total of 1.2 billion euros more. In the first quarter of 2023, DAF reached settlements worth hundreds of millions with companies that purchased overpriced trucks from the Eindhoven-based company in the period 2007-2011. This was reported by the FD, based on financial documents from parent company Paccar. DAF had to pay a fine of more than 752 million euros at the time. DAF has made a provision of 550 million euros to compensate hauliers who have since filed a claim for damages. Recently, several cases have resulted in rulings that were (partly) unfavorable to Daf. An English judge ruled in the case brought by Royal Mail and British Telecom. Daf was ordered to pay 20 million pounds in damages. Many cases are still ongoing. In 2019, Transport en Logistiek Nederland (TLN) and transport insurer TVM filed a claim on behalf of a large number of Dutch hauliers. It was stated that approximately 8 thousand euros too much was paid per truck. A final judgment in the Dutch case is expected this fall.
DAF obstructs legal proceedings in UK’
DAF is accused in the UK of prolonging legal proceedings because of the cartel agreements. In a lawsuit, 11,000 customers are demanding damages of £6,000 per truck. DAF, Volvo, MAN and Iveco were jointly fined £3.8 billion in 2016, of which DAF had to pay £753 million. The British transport and logistics industry association RHA (Road Haulage Association) has itself filed a £1 billion damages claim against the manufacturers involved, on behalf of hauliers – mainly small (family) businesses with just a few vehicles in their fleet. ‘The manufacturers are inflating costs with the aim of denying claimants the money they are entitled to,’ Richard Smith, chief executive of the RHA, told The Guardian. Years of delays, partly caused by the coronavirus pandemic, have seen the number of hauliers claiming damages fall by more than a third. ‘When we started, we had 17,500 companies expressing interest,’ Smith says. ‘We now have 11,400 who have actually signed up. In those seven years we have lost 6,000 claimants. The manufacturers hope we will stop. In a lawsuit, 11,000 customers are claiming £6,000 per truck. The RHA’s claim involves around 200,000 trucks. It is estimated that 30 per cent of them were supplied by DAF, the UK’s largest supplier. The RHA is seeking £6,000 per truck in damages. Smith accuses the manufacturers of using legal tactics to frustrate the claim. DAF reportedly said in court that it would settle but later withdrew its promise. Other affected companies, including Royal Mail and BT, received between £17 million and £25 million in damages from DAF last year.
Rotie, Nieuwcom and UCO Kampen together controlled 80 percent of the entire Dutch Used Cooked oil. The collection from cafés, snack bars, restaurants and food manufacturers was sold on to producers of biofuel. The collection companies have little influence on the prices they receive from biofuel manufacturers. In order to earn more money, agreements were made to reduce the rates that the companies themselves charged to collect the fat, or at least not to let them increase any further, by dividing the market among themselves. For example, it was agreed that drivers from one company were not allowed to collect the used frying fat from addresses of the other company. If a driver tried to win a new address as a customer, he first had to ask which company had collected the frying fat up to that point. Suppose the other company already had a deal, the hijacker was asked to withdraw the offer. The café or restaurant was then the victim of this, because the first company usually offered less money to collect the used fat. With Rotie as the linchpin between the three companies, agreements were made for years in two separate cartels about the maximum prices for the old frying fat. Rotie sometimes made a lower bid at a restaurant that already had an agreement with Nieuwcom. In this way, the illusion was created at the restaurant that they really did have the best deal, while the purchase price was lower than if there had really been competition. Because if this did happen because Nieuwcom made a higher bid, Rotie immediately requested that the bid be withdrawn. Or Rotie requested Nieuwcom to make a new, lower bid. In this way, the restaurant was driven back into the arms of Rotie. The highest fine of over 2 million euros was imposed on Rotie, who played the largest role in the deception. With UCO Kampen, it concerned the period 2011 to the end of 2016, with Nieuwcom Rotie had agreements from November 2012 to the end of 2018. The company Nieuwcom was fined over 1.5 million. UCO Kampen did not receive a fine because it went bankrupt in 2019. Initially, the ACM wanted to impose higher fines, of 1.7 million on Nieuwcom and almost 9 million on Rotie. These fines are based on what has been earned in all those years by collecting used fat and increased by 10 percent to compensate for the too low prices that were paid. The fact that the fine for Rotie is still much lower is because the ACM is allowed to impose a maximum of 10 percent of a company’s turnover in fines. And in the case of Rotie, that is 2.3 million. In addition, the ACM has reduced the fines because of the ‘special cooperation’ that the companies provided, which allows the cases to be handled easily.
In recent months, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has again warned various suppliers of building materials, bicycle and car accessories, batteries and care products because they may have been putting pressure on retailers to charge higher sales prices for their products.
New raids by European Commission in car tire cartel investigationEuropean Commission inspectors have conducted new raids on July 2, 2024 in a cartel investigation into possible price fixing by car tire manufacturers. This concerns raids at a consultancy firm in two member states. Earlier this year, searches were already conducted at companies active in the tire industry. The consultancy firm is suspected of having facilitated the price fixing and of having violated European competition rules. The raids were conducted together with inspectors from the member states where the searches took place. The Commission also states that the searches are a preliminary step in the investigation and that these raids do not yet mean that companies are actually guilty of violating the rules. The fine for violating cartel rules can amount to up to 10 percent of a company’s total annual turnover. Companies that have been involved in secret cartels and report this and cooperate with the European Commission’s investigation can receive immunity or a significant reduction in fines. In January 2024, raids were also carried out at France’s Michelin, Germany’s Continental and European offices of Japan’s Bridgestone and America’s Goodyear. According to AFP, Michelin denies any involvement in price fixing and Bridgestone and Goodyear have said they are fully cooperating with the investigation. House searches were also reportedly carried out at Italy’s Pirelli and Finland’s Nokian.
Frontman fraud
The curator of De Zwart Autoservices has filed a report with the FIOD against the previous owner. The car dealer registered his company in the name of a front man shortly before the bankruptcy. The former director-manager had to be held hostage for six months because he refused to provide the bookkeeping. The car dealership De Zwart Services was previously located in Amsterdam, but was transferred to an address in Almelo a few months before it went bankrupt. In this case, a terraced house in the Windmolenbroek district. An investigation by curator Wouter Weenink subsequently revealed that the original owner had registered the car dealership in the name of a front man, who received a thousand euros for this. After which he immediately paid this money to someone who had been blackmailing him for some time. This person had allegedly threatened the front man from Almelo for some time, during which he was told that he had to “temporarily register the company in his name” to avoid further harm. After the front man complied, the threats stopped, according to him. During the bankruptcy investigation, the original owner was also held hostage for six months by order of the trustee; an exceptionally long time in such cases. Eventually, the car dealer promised to hand over the documents, after which he was released two weeks later. However, after the trustee subsequently examined the annual accounts, he came to the conclusion that the documents had been forged. The trustee had previously filed a report of embezzlement. This was after he had discovered via the national vehicle registration system that there were three more cars registered in the company’s name that had disappeared without a trace. Later, two cars – a Volkswagen Golf and a Renault Mégane – turned up again. In one of his earlier reports, the trustee had already announced that he had held the car dealer personally liable for the financial damage caused by the bankruptcy. This was because he had come to the conclusion that “improper management was an important cause of the bankruptcy”. The total debt burden has been calculated at over half a million euros. The debt to the tax authorities alone has increased to almost 4.2 tons. In addition, three creditors are owed a total of EUR 111,623.56.
In early September 2019, sports bags full of money, pistols and expensive sports cars were seized from the 50-year-old owner BS of car company Klok & Smit in Hoogeveen. The Milltown judicial investigation concerned the export of second-hand lease cars, tens of millions of euros, firearms and a direct link with Lebanese clans in Berlin. In early 2017, the Financial Intelligence Unit Netherlands (FIU) received more and more reports about the 53-year-old Syrian Mahmoud A. who bought cars from the company for more than 9.6 million euros in cash. BS and his 41-year-old partner from Meppel were sentenced to years of imprisonment. BS was sentenced to 59 months in prison. The partner to a prison sentence of 47 months. The men bought cars from Dutch leasing companies and sold them on to dozens of front men, whereby the VAT was never paid. The cars were delivered around Berlin and then resold without VAT being paid. From various email and WhatsApp conversations it became clear that the men talked among themselves about the money-snatching companies. In reality, there was a limited number of buyers who controlled the dozens of money-snatching companies and then let them ‘pop’. After reading the camera images of the Hoogeveen car company, it also became clear that the men knew about the construction and the deliberate avoidance of VAT payments. They themselves played an active role in this. For example, the company was in possession of so-called VAT stamps from the money-snatching companies. These stamps were placed on consignment notes at the company in Hoogeveen, while these stamps only have to be placed by the purchasing company upon delivery. The men were also warned by the tax authorities that they were doing business with suspected money-snatchers. With the trade, approximately 15 million euros were earned on a very large scale and structurally. In addition, the men had weapons in their possession. In addition to the two traders, the company was also convicted. The company must pay a fine of 500,000 euros. In addition, a so-called confiscation case will be brought. In that procedure, the Public Prosecution Service will try to recover the financial advantage. Two employees of the company also had to answer to the judge later for involvement in this criminal organization.
Mileage fraud
The owner of a car company in Opmeer must pay 975,000 euros and perform 200 hours of community service because he rolled back the odometer readings of passenger cars on a large scale. This has disadvantaged many car buyers: they thought they were buying a car that had not driven too many kilometers, while in reality the number of kilometers was much higher. As a result, the company was able to sell the cars for a higher price than the actual value, so customers paid too much. In 2021, a criminal investigation was started by the FIOD and the district police in Alkmaar, led by the Public Prosecution Service in North Holland. AH, the 57-year-old owner of the car company, was arrested on January 25, 2022. He was released two days later, but he remained a suspect. On the day the man was arrested, searches were carried out in, among other places, his home and his company. Among other things, the company’s administration was seized. On this basis, an investigation could be conducted into the illegally obtained profit. The investigation revealed that at least 1,073 cars were sold with the odometer readings rolled back. A total of 26 buyers reported that they had bought the car partly because of the low odometer reading. The conviction was for fraud, money laundering (because of the money the man earned with it) and changing the odometer readings (Article 70m of the Road Traffic Act). The Public Prosecution Service considers the transaction with punishment and confiscation of the illegally obtained profit to be an appropriate settlement. In addition, the complainants will be compensated. The criminal response includes a penalty component (community service and a fine) and a financial recovery component (confiscation of criminal proceeds). By imposing a penalty and confiscating criminal proceeds, the past is settled. It is clear that the suspect will not get away with committing criminal acts and that he must repay the unfairly earned profits. The fine was 75,000 euros. The amount confiscated because of the criminal proceeds is 900,000 euros. In addition, the suspect had to perform 200 hours of community service. The suspect has now paid almost 50,000 euros in compensation to victims. Cars, firearms and cash were seized during seven raids in North Holland that preceded this one. The raids took place in Heerhugowaard, Opmeer and Barendrecht. In Heerhugowaard, raids were carried out on two trailer parks. One of the two, a 33-year-old man from Heerhugowaard, is suspected of setting up synthetic drug labs on a large scale. He is said to trade raw materials and goods and sell synthetic drugs. He is also suspected of money laundering, including through bitcoins. He is also said to have been involved in a synthetic drug labthat was discovered in September 2020 in Lendelede, Belgium. This lab was located in an old pigsty and is said to be the largest drug lab ever dismantled in Belgium.
Childcare fraud
The 35-year-old owner of childcare centre De Parel in Capelle aan den IJssel, Gouda and Zoetermeer has been sentenced to 24 months in prison, six of which are conditional. The court found it proven that the man, as the actual manager of the childcare centre in 2014, was guilty of forgery, money laundering and fraud. The court acquitted his wife and co-owner of De Parel, because it had not been proven that she was aware of the irregularities in the administration of the childcare centre by her husband. This fraud affected some 134 families. Soon after the fraud came to light in 2014, parents received substantial additional assessments from the Tax Authorities. They had to repay amounts of up to 138,000 euros.
Agricultural fraud
A 56-year-old resident of Tietjerksteradeel (Friesland) is suspected of fraud with the accounting for fertilizers and may have drawn up false transport tickets and invoices for manure transports for dozens of farmers. Dozens of farmers involved will be issued additional assessments. During the house search in collaboration with the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), computers and administration were seized in the man’s home. The investigation concerns malpractices in 2014 and 2015. Incidentally, the total number of companies that are blocked due to fraudulent registration of dairy cows has increased to more than 2,100 at the beginning of February 2018. These cows are no longer allowed to be brought in and taken away. The cattle farmers attribute multiple calves to one cow. As a result, she will have a multiple birth on paper. Other cows that have had such a calf will remain registered as an animal that has not yet calved and therefore does not produce milk. This means that more dairy cows can be kept than is permitted, because young cows only count for half in the rules for phosphate reduction.
The court in Den Bosch found the directors of agricultural consultancy firm Bergs guilty of participating in a criminal organisation to evade manure legislation. Three of them were sentenced to 18 months in prison, six of which were conditional. The fraud earned the farmers up to tens of thousands of euros per year. The four men are between 47 and 59 years old and worked at a consultancy firm for farmers in the north of Limburg. Some of them called themselves “the Arithmetic Club”. According to the Public Prosecution Service, they did not write down how much manure was actually spread over their fields by farmers, but looked for ways to make the excess manure spread disappear on paper. In seized documents and wiretapped conversations, there was talk of “creative solutions” and “correct calculation”. The public prosecutor called that “slang for fraud”. The consultancy firms in particular play an important role in facilitating manure fraud. It is almost impossible for the farmer himself to understand the complicated manure legislation so well that he can get away with spreading too much manure illegally without being noticed. The consultants themselves ensure that everything is correct on paper, even if it is not in practice. The four have been personally charged. The agency had already been convicted once for manure fraud and, with around 1,800 clients, is one of the largest agricultural consultancy firms in the Netherlands. These 1,800 farmers are said to account for approximately a quarter of all livestock in the Netherlands. Tapped telephone conversations, internal e-mails and seized conversation reports made it clear that the consultancy sought out the boundaries of the law and regularly exceeded them. A former employee testified to the judiciary: “If the client wanted more and wanted to break the law, they could.” In performance reviews, some employees complain that they find it difficult to process farmers’ manure accounting in such a way that they feel it is incorrect. Another employee finds “the application of creativity” the most fascinating. “Explaining the rules in such a way that development is possible.” All kinds of tricks were said to have been used. For farmers who had spread too much manure on their own land, other plots of land were sought. On paper it was then claimed that they had also spread their manure there, so that the manure bookkeeping was correct. Manure silos were made smaller on paper than they actually were, so that farmers did not have to apply for a permit to build them. Laboratories that examined the manure of the farmers were also fooled, so that the farmers had to remove less manure. The Public Prosecution Service also indicates in the case that the legislator, cabinet and parliament, have made the manure legislation far too complicated. The Hague has already been warned about this several times in vain.
The scale of a scandal involving dangerous hormones in the pig sector in 2002 was concealed by the Dutch government. European legislation was violated and potentially major risks to public health were ignored. If the European regulations had been strictly followed at the time, half of the Dutch pig population (six million pigs) would have had to be culled. Pig feed was contaminated with the hormone MPA at the time. Piglets from sows that had eaten that feed showed strange abnormalities. Only fifty thousand pigs were killed at the time. Nevertheless, contaminated products ended up in the food chain and were consumed by people via, among other things, lemonade and ice cream. MPA may not end up in food under any circumstances due to health risks. Livestock farms received animal feed from 73 compound feed companies, which was contaminated with MPA-contaminated glucose syrup. Minister Brinkhorst emphasized at the time that there was no risk to public health. The farmers filed the claim with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Cara Environmental Technology. The waste was released during the production process of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Cara zEnvironmental Technology ensured that it ended up with the Dutch company Bioland in Belgium. Bioland sold it on to two Dutch compound feed companies. The Dutch Agricultural and Horticultural Organisation (LTO) and the Dutch Animal Feed Industry Association (Nevedi) held two Irish companies liable for the damage.
For years, millions of kilos of heavily contaminated manure were dumped on Dutch and German fields. Nineteen suspects, including the Bunschoten biogas plant, an agricultural company in Eemdijk, livestock farmers in Gelderland, Brabant and Utrecht, a Limburg manure trader, a Brabant manure transporter, a German intermediary, an industrial digester in Spakenburg and a biodiesel producer in Botlek had to appear in court in 2021. The Public Prosecution Service investigated the fraud for five years, following an anonymous report in 2015. Thousands of tons of digestate, the residual product of the biogas plant, were illegally used by them as manure. The permits were permanently revoked until the appeal, but the company continued to operate until 6 May 2022. Enforcement by the government was delayed for a year due to employment.
Environmental fraud
Cruise company Princess must pay the American government the equivalent of 38 million euros for using a ‘magic pipe’ to illegally discharge oil into the sea. The company has been using the drain since 2005 to get rid of water polluted with oil for free. As much as 16,000 liters of oily water were pumped into the sea per discharge. After investigation, it turned out that four other Princess ships also use the ‘magic pipe’. Sensors on board were manipulated so that no pollution was measured in the seawater. The captains and crew members deliberately discharged illegally to save costs. Princess Cruise Lines pleaded guilty to seven violations. In addition to the fine, parent company Carnival must subject all 78 other cruise ships to environmental inspections.
Education fraud
A 64-year-old Rotterdam woman Aad W, who now uses her maiden name De K., was arrested at the end of 2014 after it emerged that she had collected approximately eight million in European training subsidies for disadvantaged young people and the unemployed and spent millions of them privately on, among other things, a holiday home in Zeeland, a Porsche for her husband and millions in loans for acquaintances, while the chance of repayment was slim. In 2007, the woman set up two organisations that handled the application for European training subsidies for sectors. Initially, these organisations only worked for the Wholesale Training Fund, but later also for funds for the building materials trade, insulation, poultry and catering sectors. In the period 2007 to 2011, the Ministry of Social Affairs provided advances of more than 29 million euros to the training funds. They transferred that money to the woman’s companies that handled the subsidy applications. When it emerged in 2011 that too much had been paid out, the ministry demanded money back. The two organisations and one of the five funds went bankrupt as a result. Because the ministry waived millions in claims on the four other training funds, these bankruptcies were prevented. A recently published verdict by the Hague court shows that the woman provided loans to her brother to buy back his house from a divorce. She also lent money to a director of her company for his wedding. And to an owner of an art rental company, to set up a designer furniture store and she provided loans to start-up companies. The woman must already pay the curator an advance of 2 million euros in total. According to a report by the Ministry of Social Affairs, the responsible State Secretary Jetta Klijnsma expects that the proceeds from the settlement of the bankruptcies will be ‘nil or very limited’. Her LinkedIn page shows that the woman is still active with a company that deals with interim management and housing for the elderly, among other things.
A former chairman of the board of the Stichting Primair Onderwijs Zundert embezzled 158,000 euros between 2009 and 2014. The man used a debit card from an account of the board. He transferred more than 10,000 euros to his private account, spent 9,407 euros on petrol, 22,195 euros on clothing and withdrew 109,515 euros in cash. Envelopes with receipts that he declared remained unopened in the administration office.
Pallet and packaging fraud
From Sunday 10 March to Wednesday 12 March, the FIOD made four arrests and conducted six searches in a criminal investigation. Various meat and pallet companies and four men (aged 34, 34, 40 and 48) from Dordrecht, Ede and Oosterbeek are suspected of large-scale money laundering through the fictitious purchase of pallets and/or packaging and the immediate cashing of the funds. The suspects’ homes and a business premises in Zevenbergen were searched. Luxury goods and cash amounts totalling 154,000 euros, cars, a business premises, homes and physical and digital administration and data carriers were seized. The criminal investigation was initiated after several reports of unusual transactions by financial service providers to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-Netherlands). The investigation team found that the pallet companies transferred more than five million euros to a company that was probably unable to supply as many pallets or packaging. The men immediately withdrew the money transferred in cash from an ATM. It is suspected that the pallet companies are involved in the (illegal) trade of stolen packaging crates within the Europool System (EPS). The illegally obtained profits in the past four years are provisionally estimated at four million euros. The four suspects were brought before the examining magistrate on 14 March and were remanded in custody for 14 days.
Travel agency fraud
Booking Holdings has a turnover of 7 billion and is booking record turnover. Booking Holdings also owns Rentalcars.com, priceline.com., Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable and operates in more than 220 countries and territories. The company appears to still lure customers with misleading travel offers. Research by the Consumers’ Association showed that two-thirds of the 250 offers examined from ten parties in the travel industry were incorrect. The number of reports of fraud via Booking.com is increasing and the fraud is becoming increasingly serious. The financial damage per affected traveler is also increasing considerably. In 2024, the Fraud Helpdesk, which warns against fraudulent practices and advises victims, received a total of 101 reports about Booking.com. In 34 cases, money was actually stolen, with an average amount of 854 euros per person. A significant increase compared to 2023, when only thirty reports were received in one year. Of these, thirteen cases resulted in financial loss with an average of 484 euros per person. The actual number of victims is probably higher. Reporting fraud is not mandatory. The increase is due to the rise of artificial intelligence. Emails and advertisements can be easily and realistically imitated by this technology, which means that customers easily do not have the right party in front of them. The majority of the reports came from travelers who had booked accommodation via the website, but then received such a fake message. These messages, originating from fraudsters, ask the consumer to verify payment or personal data.
Product fraud/brand counterfeiting
Cosmetics brand Rituals is demanding 20 million euros from bankrupt industry peer The Body Shop . Curator Cedric de Breet confirms that Rituals has filed a claim for that amount as compensation for the damage suffered due to infringement of trademark rights. The claim stems from a ruling by the Court of Appeal in The Hague approximately one year ago. The court stated that ’the specific manner in which The Body Shop uses the word ritual in a product line’ was unlawful. It remains to be seen whether the sale of the assets of The Body Shop Netherlands, which was declared bankrupt in November, will yield enough money to pay out to all creditors. Other creditors have jointly filed claims for 3.8 million euros. Among them, the Tax Authorities and the UWV will be given priority. The other creditors will divide the remaining amount based on the amount of their claim. De Breet must also assess whether Rituals’ claim for damages is reasonable. Otherwise, the curator will inform the company of this and they will have to find another way to resolve the matter. Rituals responded by saying that the 20 million euros is a ‘rough estimate’. ‘Normally, the judge determines the damages in a separate procedure, for example on the basis of a reasonable royalty fee per product sold, but due to the bankruptcy, this procedure cannot take place. The trustee has so far refused to make a statement about The Body Shop’s sales figures. We have stated that this amount may be adjusted after verification,” says a spokeswoman. In 2015, The Body Shop launched a care line under the name Spa of the World, which is called Secrets of the World in the Netherlands and Belgium, including a body wash and cream. The various products were called Relaxing Ritual, Revitalising Ritual, Blissfull Ritual and Firming Ritual, and the Dutch cosmetics company Rituals almost immediately protested against this. Ultimately, the court ruled in Rituals’ favour. According to the judges, the words ‘ritual’ and ‘rituals’ are used a lot in the industry for (skin) care products – to present it as part of a ritual – but The Body Shop uses it ‘conspicuously prominently’ and also repeats the word often and in capital letters. According to the judges, there is therefore a ‘risk of confusion’. ‘It is plausible that Rituals may have lost customers and market share due to confusion and will continue to do so’, it said in the verdict.
An operation in South America targeting the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods resulted in the seizure of more than 11 million products and 104 arrests in September 2024. Operation Crete II (August to September 2024) brought together 12 countries to combat a range of intellectual and industrial property infringements. These included the illicit trade in counterfeit fashion items, medical products and digital piracy. The operation resulted in seizures with an estimated value of US$225 million. Among the millions of items seized were nearly 300,000 pharmaceutical products, including prescription drugs such as vaccines, antidepressants and chemical precursors that can be used to produce illicit drugs. Of the 104 people arrested during the operation, 35 were arrested for smuggling, 47 for violation of intellectual and industrial property rights, 15 for the illegal marketing of medicines and medical supplies and seven for other offences. As part of Operation Crete II, police in Brazil dismantled a criminal organization that had been smuggling more than $250 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes. Their investigation revealed that the group had used false documents and invoices to evade inspections and transport the cargo by road. As a result, several suspects were arrested and assets were seized. The perpetrators are accused of counterfeiting, trafficking in substandard products, exploitation and money laundering, with sentences of up to 48 years in prison. In Chile, investigators working on the operation conducted an investigation that led to the discovery of locations selling reproductions of a well-known Spanish jewelry brand. This led to the seizure of 2,478 pieces of counterfeit jewelry, including necklaces, bracelets and rings, with an estimated value of $523,000. Ecuadorian police dismantled a counterfeit liquor network that produced and distributed fake versions of premium whiskey brands. The group produced the unregulated alcohol in unsanitary conditions, using recycled bottles and counterfeit branding elements such as labels, tax stamps and QR codes to imitate the authentic products. In Paraguay, authorities searched a secret warehouse in the tri-border region, an area between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and discovered molds and plates used to produce counterfeit shoes. Approximately USD 750,000 worth of products were seized. Counterfeiting and piracy are closely linked to a wider network of serious crimes, including human trafficking, drug trafficking, corruption and money laundering.As part of the operation, INTERPOL’s South America Regional Office in Buenos Aires worked closely with the IP KEY Latin America Project and the International IP Crime Investigators College (IIPCIC) on a series of training sessions and intelligence-sharing activities. One key event brought together over 100 stakeholders, including police, customs agents, prosecutors and private sector companies. This facilitated national-level coordination between frontline officials and fostered links between brand representatives and government agencies in South America.
On Tuesday 30 January and Wednesday 7 February 2024, the FIOD made eleven arrests and six searches in an investigation. Three men (30, 21, 19) and a 22-year-old woman from Groningen, the municipalities of Het Hogeland and Westerkwartier and Assen are suspected of trading in counterfeit clothing and money laundering. Seven men (aged 18, 19, 20, 21) from Groningen, the municipality of Westerkwartier, Soest and Tilburg, suspected money mules, were also arrested and are suspected of (debt) money laundering. On 30 January, searches were carried out in five homes in Groningen and the municipalities of Het Hogeland and Westerkwartier. Counterfeit clothing, watches and jewellery, four cars, cash and administration were seized. The 30-year-old man from Groningen, the main suspect, was brought before the examining magistrate on 2 February and was held in custody for 14 days. Large quantities of chat messages were found on his telephone. These messages showed that he had been coordinating the trade in counterfeit clothing from October 2020 to the present. The front buildings in Leek and Tolbert (Schouten lighting) are owned by the H family. Lorenzo H., one of the sons, is known at Sikkom and to the justice department of Luxurycars Exclusive. He made the news because he was allegedly violently robbed in a parking garage in the center of Groningen and then parked his Mercedes against a wall and because his cars were set on fire
The Consumers’ Association has taken 1,850 fraudulent webshops offline. The association investigated the webshops that offered branded clothing or luxury products with high discounts, but which in practice delivered fake products or sometimes nothing at all. In many cases, the shops use existing, unused domain names, such as nikeschoenen.co.nl and Klassieke-autos.nl. Most of the sites were registered with four hosting parties: a Dutch, a German, an Indian and an American one. Local providers have taken the sites offline.
Research by the RDW and the vehicle industry, association in the Vereniging Aanpak Odometer Fraud (VAT) shows that at least one in ten imported cars from Germany has had the odometer turned back. For another one in ten there is reasonable doubt as to whether the odometer reading is correct. The odometer reading on the display of 5218 vehicles from Germany that were offered for import was compared with other sources, such as inspection reports. In half of the cases the odometer was turned back by 10,000 to 50,000 kilometers, in 20 percent of the cases this was even more.
The Consumers’ Association investigated over 150 fraud-sensitive products and one in five cases it turned out that there had been tampering. The Consumers’ Association found deviations in manuka honey (50%*), lamb (47%*), extra virgin olive oil (31%*), oregano (11%*) and cod (3%*). For the lamb investigation, 10 lamb curries, 10 portions of minced lamb and 10 times lamb shawarma or kebab were purchased and in 14 of the 30 cases it turned out not to be pure lamb. In 6 cases there was no trace of lamb in it, but beef or turkey instead. In 8 other portions there was some lamb, but also at least 40% other meat.
Fake olive oil was found in about fifty restaurants in Rome, sold as real olive oil. The producer of the fake oil is located in Apulia, a southern Italian region that lives from olive oil production. In Spain, the police in Seville seized 74 tons of stolen olives in October, and in December 2023, Spanish and Italian authorities also dismantled a network that sold bad olive oil as extra virgin oil. And in Greece, a father and son were arrested because they wanted to sell 13,000 liters of Bulgarian sunflower oil as extra virgin olive oil.
The Dutch House of Animals reports that discarded Irish and British racehorses are once again illegally entering the human food chain with the help of Dutch horse traders. The foundation conducted research together with the Irish TV programme RTÉ Investigates. According to the foundation, horse meat is often processed into snacks such as bitterballen and croquettes that are sold at catering wholesalers. People are not allowed to eat the meat of the racehorses, because they have had an extreme amount of medication to treat injuries and increase performance. The racehorses are transported to the Netherlands and Belgium under “appalling conditions” and are given a new identity there. Traders then take them with a new chip and a false passport to slaughterhouses in countries including Spain, Italy, Poland and the Dutch Kerkdriel, after which the horse meat illegally enters the food chain. The fact that the horses are given a false passport in the Netherlands is because a veterinarian is not required here, while this is the case in many other countries. The chips are ordered on the internet with a German code, which makes the background of a horse almost impossible to trace, because Germany has a closed database. House of Animals reports that in 2022 a European food warning was issued for meat from the slaughterhouse in Kerkdriel, because it should not have ended up in the food chain. Founder of the animal foundation Karen Soeters does not understand how it is possible that the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has not checked this slaughterhouse better since then. According to the NVWA, horses were indeed slaughtered in a Dutch slaughterhouse in 2022 without their passports in order. The supervisory authority reports that the meat was taken off the market at the time. House of Animals has submitted an enforcement request to the NVWA for extra supervision of animal transports from Ireland and the United Kingdom. In addition, the foundation wants an investigation into fraud with passports and chips and for the slaughterhouse in Kerkdriel to close.
Shipbuilding fraud
In January 2017, the Fiod raided the head office of Damen Shipyards in Gorinchem. According to the Functioneel Parquet, it was an investigation into corruption abroad. At the international shipbuilder (turnover almost €2 billion, 9,000 employees worldwide) from the Netherlands, it concerned irregularities that one or more agents of the shipbuilder may have committed abroad. The 2015 annual report already reported that an investigation (‘compliance audit’) had been initiated into one of the agents. This representative of Damen abroad had a long-term working relationship with the Dutch shipbuilder.
Sponsor fraud
Former CEO of JumboFrits van Eerd will appear in court in Groningen on June 23, 2025 for his non-official bribery, forgery and money laundering of large sums of money. After an investigation into Marcel Boekhoorn (Hema), a raid and search was also carried out on September 13, 2022 at the villa of Jumbo CEO Frits van Eerd in Heeswijk-Dinther in Brabant in a large-scale money laundering investigation that revolved around, among other things, car trading for criminals and sponsorship contracts in motocross sport (Theo E.). Frits van Eerd is not only an investor, but also the owner of Jumbo, but the supermarket chain reports that the investigation does not focus on Jumbo, but there was also a raid there. The raid on Van Eerd’s villa is part of a joint investigation by the Fiod, the police, the Functional Parket and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Northern Netherlands. Frits van Eerd temporarily withdrew as general manager of supermarket chain Jumbo, after consultation with his family and the board of directors. The Public Prosecution Service recently offered him a settlement, but he chose to have the case brought before the court because he was said to be innocent. A 58-year-old accomplice from Aa en Hunze was also arrested on suspicion of involvement in laundering large amounts of money and goods and VAT fraud. In addition, eight more arrests were made. One of the raids took place at Theo E. (58) from Gasteren. A trailer with special vehicles, fitness equipment and one motocross bike were seized. The suspect was active in motorcycle racing as a team manager. He supervised a large number of racers, who in some cases also lived with him. In the past, E. was team leader of the Jumbo TvE MX team sponsored by Frits van Eerd. Van Eerd also linked talented drivers from Brabant to manager E. in the past. Frits van Eerd did not return as chairman of the board of supermarket chain Jumbo, regardless of the outcome of the criminal investigation into him. Jumbo remains the property of Frits and his sisters Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd and Monique Groenewoud-van Eerd. In 2014, Frits was also suspected of laundering drug crime money. 446,000 euros in cash was found in his house in denominations of 200 (253 notes) and 500 euros (104 notes). Part of the money is said to have come from the cash sale of a Bentley for 250,000 euros and another car from his stock. Another part of the cash consisted of repayments of a loan that Van Eerd had granted to an acquaintance. The second preliminary hearing against Van Eerd and the Drenthe car dealer Theo E. was held in the Assen court on 27 January 2025. The discovery of the large amount of cash was reason for the Public Prosecution Service (OM) to prosecute Van Eerd for ‘habitual money laundering’. He is also accused of corruption and forgery, because according to the OM he allegedly accepted money and goods from co-suspect Theo E., in exchange for sponsorship payments by Jumbo.The judge allowed Van Eerd to hear seven witnesses, including the buyers of cars, motorcycle parts and the person who took out a loan from Van Eerd. They must be able to explain the cash found on him. The cash payments, which Van Eerd brought in, originated from an employee and other persons who have a close connection with Van Eerd and are therefore not credible to the Public Prosecution Service. The Public Prosecution Service therefore demanded that the witnesses be heard under oath. Nothing was put down on paper about any of the deals and there is no repayment schedule for the alleged loan and no interest was charged. If the owners of large amounts of cash have no logical explanation for their origin, the judge will assume a criminal origin and a conviction for money laundering will follow. At the request of the Public Prosecution Service, Van Eerd submitted written statements in 2023 from persons who had paid him cash, in order to substantiate his own statement. The criminal case against Van Eerd will continue on 23 June 2025 with a substantive hearing. Three days are scheduled for the case and it will take place in the Groningen court. Main suspect Theo E. will also appear before the judge, as his negotiations with the Public Prosecution Service regarding a penalty notice failed last month.
Subsidy fraud
The 16 electric vehicles of the former taxi company Prestige GreenCab, for which 1.6 million euros in subsidies were received from AgentschapNL, have not been active as a taxi for some time. The subsidies for clean cars have cost the taxpayer 6.4 billion euros, while the environmental effects are very limited. The electric cars of gCab have stopped because of a financial conflict with the municipality of Amsterdam. The 105,000 euros in subsidies were promised by the municipality, but only 40,000 euros were transferred by the Zuid-Oost district. The Public Prosecution Service is now demanding a 24-month prison sentence, of which 8 are conditional, against the former director for leading embezzlement and forgery. The company was transferred to a friendly relationship in 2012 because the director himself was struggling with burnout. A front man was allegedly given 500 euros to put the company in his name. The Public Prosecution Service states that a lot was paid in management fees and accuses J. of saying that only ‘he and his friends profited from it’ and that ultimately 450,000 euros was spent on consultancy work, management fees and guidance in two years for 16 cars that were always standing still.” The invoices for the financial lease were also said to have never been paid.
The FIOD arrested three people on Thursday 20 June and conducted multiple searches. Two men (27, 38) and a 21-year-old woman, all from the municipality of Groningen, were taken in for questioning. They are suspected of forgery and fraud with government money. During the searches in three homes in the municipalities of Groningen and Midden-Groningen, physical and digital administration, digital data carriers and telephones were seized. The criminal investigation was initiated following signals from the Groningen Mining Damage Institute (IMG) and the Northern Netherlands Cooperation Association (SNN). These government agencies handle damage or provide subsidies for buildings and objects that have suffered damage due to earthquakes as a result of gas extraction.
The Van der Valk hotels are frequently used for asylum reception. Bob van der Valk, the deposed director of the hotel in Duiven, is accused by his uncles of ‘large-scale fraud’ in contracts with the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). He is said to have pocketed tens of millions of euros in profit. According to his uncles, 35-year-old Bob van der Valk skimmed off profits and commissions ‘at the back’ of the Van der Valk hotel group. As director of the hotel in Duiven, he helped the family group with contracts for asylum reception. He is said to earn money through intermediary LCHD of the COA who searches for hotel rooms. According to his uncles, who manage the Van der Valk Exclusief hotels, Bob and his business partner charged inexplicably high margins. They suspended him at the beginning of 2024. Bob wanted to leave, but both parties were in court over the conditions. In Didam, several expensive cars, including a Lamborghini, a Porsche and a motorbike were seized. Van der Valk has since filed a claim of 55 million with LCHD. The COA reports to the FD that it is still considering ‘possible further steps’. Bob van der V. and LCHD are said to have invoiced rooms that were never used for asylum seekers and that there was fiddling with hourly rates for security guards. In the original deals between the COA and the Van der Valk hotels, it was agreed that LCHD would act as a permanent intermediary for finding hotel rooms. Bob would act on behalf of the family. However, according to the FD, Van der Valk’s lawyers claim that Bob and René D. of LCHD would have made price agreements with the COA without the knowledge of the hotel chain. The room rate was lowered in the meantime, without anyone knowing, while the price that LCHD invoiced to the COA for the same rooms remained unchanged. With that, the Van der Valk hotel in Duiven suddenly received two tens of euros per room per day less for asylum reception. Commissioner Van de Klok resigned due to a possible conflict of interest. The former Deloitte partner was an important advisor to LCHD. Van de Klok resigned two weeks after the investigative service Fiod raided LCHD. Van der Valk says that he did not know that LCHD was one of Van de Klok’s clients until the raid. Van de Klok is co-owner of PK & Partners, a financial, fiscal and legal consultancy firm, but claims to have no ownership or control interest in LCHD. Van der Valk also states that Van de Klok was ‘in no way’ involved in the concluded reception contracts.
After a 7-year investigation, the Public Prosecution Service did not prosecute three suspects for a subsidy fraud with integration, reintegration and deradicalization budgets and settled the case. The subsidies for foundations were invested in a cheese factory in Morocco. The settlement concealed the fact that Aboutaleb himself decided to continue the subsidies for the foundation while it was already considered suspicious. Previously, this choice was vaguely substantiated with the claim that the Public Prosecution Service’s investigation could be hampered if the subsidies were stopped prematurely, but this turns out to be completely untrue. The mayor failed to initiate an investigation because they thought that the Public Prosecution Service would take it up. She said she would look into whether the municipality could still enforce a lawsuit, ‘because we believe that we are interested parties.’ The suspicions for which the Public Prosecution Service prosecuted the three covered the period from 2010 to 2018. The suspects accepted light community service sentences ranging from 100 to 140 hours and a fine of 25,000 euros.
TV fraud
RTL broadcasted an award program “De Succesfactor” that turned out to be rigged and where the participants paid for their own award. The so-called winners paid 12,750 euros to end up at the top of their industry category. In return, they not only received a prize, but also an item in the program. Each participant could create a new industry category, so that everyone could ultimately win a prize. In 2016, former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende even awarded the main prize. The broadcasts were stopped in January 2017 after the program Rambam exposed the fraud.
Benefits fraud
The FIOD has arrested a 61-year-old man from Dordrecht who wrongfully submitted applications for childcare allowance on behalf of third parties. His home was searched and the administration, a laptop and telephones were seized. The criminal investigation was initiated following reports from Logius and the Financial Intelligence Unit Netherlands (FIU). The investigation revealed that the suspect submitted various applications for childcare allowance to the Tax and Customs Administration’s Allowances Service. He did this on behalf of other people and used their DigiD details to do so. These people turned out not to be entitled to childcare allowance, because their children were not known to the childcare organisation specified. The man received compensation from his clients for submitting the applications for childcare allowance. In the allowance affair, there were parents who actually committed fraud by wrongfully applying for childcare allowance. A mega fraud recently came to light, in which parents ‘childishly easily’ collected six hundred thousand euros. 68,921 parents have registered as victims with the Benefits Recovery Implementation Organisation (UHT). At the end of April, 96% of the registered parents (66,443) had their first assessment completed. It is expected that all the first assessments will be completed in the coming months. It has now been established that more than 35,300 parents are indeed victims. From the moment of registration, parents are entitled to support from the municipality where they live. Parents who have been established as victims will quickly receive 30,000 euros. In addition, debts are being tackled and public debts are being forgiven. Almost all submitted debts and/or payment arrears have now been settled. This involves a total amount of 931 million euros. The integral assessment has now been completed for 61% of all registered parents. It is expected that by the end of the year more than 75% of all parents will have completed the integral assessment. The remaining integral assessments will be completed in 2025. In April, the tax investigation service FIOD again started a criminal investigation into the abuse of allowances from Bulgaria. The investigation follows a series of reports that the Benefits Agency received from government organisations. “This often concerns people from abroad, specifically from Bulgaria. In order to obtain the benefits, the people involved are said to have made incorrect registrations in the Personal Records Database (BRP). They are also said to have misused DigiDs and to have been guilty of address or identity fraud “which results in abuse with benefits”. One of the signals came from the Logius agency, the service that manages digital government services. Logius reported users who logged in with multiple DigiDs from certain IP addresses. Almost 2000 unique BSN numbers are said to be involved.
Two municipalities also recently raised the alarm with the Allowances Department, part of the Ministry of Finance, about incorrect registrations and suspected false rental contracts. Furthermore, reports were received about the use of intermediaries or “sharing step-by-step plans on social media about ways to wrongly apply for benefits, while not living in the Netherlands. More than ten years ago, the first large-scale benefit fraud by a Bulgarian gang came to light. Criminals encouraged Bulgarians to register in the Netherlands, collect benefits and then return to Bulgaria. The fraud case, which cost the Dutch treasury millions of euros, was one of the reasons for stricter rules and a tougher stance by the Tax and Customs Administration, which in many cases also led to things going wrong. The stricter approach of the Tax and Customs Administration contributed to the benefits affair, in which thousands of parents had to wrongly repay large amounts of childcare benefits received. The reclaims caused serious problems for the affected parents. More than ten years ago, the first large-scale benefit fraud by a Bulgarian gang came to light. Criminals encouraged Bulgarians to register in the Netherlands, collect benefits and then return to Bulgaria. Bulgaria. The fraud case, which cost the Dutch treasury millions of euros, was one of the reasons for stricter rules and a tougher stance by the Tax and Customs Administration, which in many cases also led to things going wrong. The stricter approach of the Tax and Customs Administration also contributed to the allowance affair, in which thousands of parents had to wrongly repay large amounts of childcare allowance received. The reclaims caused serious problems for the affected parents.
Employment agency fraud
Too low hourly wages, incorrect payment of pension premiums, incorrect settlement of transport and double housing with the gross wage and tax evasion. All abuses that the FNV Bouw found, among others, at construction company Heijmans and Royal BAM during the construction of the Central Axis and aqueduct Leeuwarden. The affected employees had been employed since September last year by employment agency AOK bv from Beers, which had pocketed large sums of government money by exploiting the Hungarians. The summary proceedings against the employment agency were filed on 20 August in Den Bosch. The director and the direct client of the employment agency had both disappeared without a trace and the company premises had been abandoned. The 25 employees were also not paid in July. FNV had already reported in October about the abuses on the railway during the construction of the Sontbrug in Groningen, where the hired Hungarians appeared to earn around 800 euros per month too little. This was confirmed in April by the SZW Inspectorate. The Hungarian iron benders also worked on the construction of an aqueduct in Leeuwarden. The underpaid Hungarians still work for the same client, but via a different employment agency. With the Law on Combating Sham Constructions, injured employees can claim from the person ultimately responsible. After the builders, the clients are also ultimately liable. At the beginning of July, the FIOD arrested the director of the employment agency on suspicion of systematic tax and bankruptcy fraud. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the international investigation in Germany, Belgium and Cyprus has ramifications for companies in Brabant and Limburg. The tax loss is estimated to exceed 2 million euros. Evidence of systematic fraud was searched in sixteen locations in the countries mentioned. In the Netherlands, the FIOD searched a bank vault, six homes and three business premises in Heerlen and in the vicinity of Heerlen. In Cyprus, a second home of the suspect was searched. Bank accounts were seized there and false passports were found. Valuable goods, such as a Jaguar, were also seized. Evidence was also searched at a tax advisor. Across the border near Heerlen, two homes were searched in Germany. In Belgium, a construction company was searched for evidence. Four companies were declared bankrupt under his leadership, leaving behind tax debts. Payroll taxes were withheld but not paid. After a BV went bankrupt, the temporary staff always moved to a new company.
Real estate fraud
At PMR Vastgoed Beleggingen BV, 5 million euros disappeared from more than 135 victims. The 68-year-old director was arrested in The Hague on February 19, 2025 on suspicion of embezzlement, money laundering and fraud. Customers who thought they were investing in real estate and real estate bonds are left empty-handed. The police tracked down the man when the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) filed a complaint against him. According to the judiciary, the man collected more than five million euros from investors from 2022 onwards. But the money did not go to bricks and mortar, but was transferred to the private accounts of the man and a number of acquaintances and/or family members and companies. Potential investors could register online via two investment companies. These companies are also part of the investigation by the judiciary. The websites of the companies have now been taken offline. The suspect’s accounts have been frozen and data carriers such as mobile phones, laptops and PCs have been seized. The investigation has been ongoing for some time. The police took action after it became apparent that substantial investments of up to a million euros had been made in recent months via funds belonging to the suspect. ‘There is a fear that this money will also be siphoned off. The suspect was arrested in The Hague. One of his investment companies is located there. It is unclear whether the man, who grew up in The Hague, still lives there himself. PMR Vastgoed Beleggingen BV attracted investors with the term ‘Hugo Proof investing’. The housing market was at a standstill due to Hugo de Jonge, according to old web pages. ‘By converting alternative locations, such as vacant office buildings into housing, we can respond to the current housing crisis at a crucial moment’, according to the brochure of PMR Vastgoed Beleggingen BV. Investors who took the bait were promised a return of 6 to 12 percent per year and a refund of the entire investment at the end of the term. In order to gain a better picture of the practices, the police want to get in touch with people who invested money in the funds. In addition to PMR Vastgoed Beleggingen BV, this also includes the Spain Real Estate fund.
Cor van Erp is known for his DBMC because of the bankruptcy of Multiplan, which at the time contributed to the downfall of SNS Property Finance . The bankrupt Multiplan of the corrupt Cor van Erp, was one of the parties that caused Property Finance great problems. The company bought expensive cars, a Beechcraft C90 GT aircraft and an Enstrom 480 helicopter instead of real estate for 4 million of the borrowed money. 20 million euros were spent on unjustified dividend payments. Multiplan went under due to the failed Belval shopping centre in Luxembourg. Belval then became 100% owned by SNS. The legal battle between the Belgian and Dutch curators of Multiplan about the ownership of the aircraft, which are valued at more than 1.5 million dollars together, lasted 5 years. The Dutch curator was eventually instructed to auction the aircraft. 800,000 euros were raised for the aircraft and 165,000 euros for the helicopter. Cor van Erp borrowed 88 million euros from SNS for the construction of a shopping centre in Luxembourg. That project failed. The proceeds from the aircraft were 60% than mainly valued. Auctioneer Frank Oosterbeek received bids from 30 interested parties from 14 countries’ the proceeds could have been even higher if the missing logbooks had surfaced. A number of well-known Dutch people, including Optiver founder Chris Ooomen, could lose 40 million euros due to DBMC. Van Erp is suspected of having siphoned off approximately 20 million euros from DBMC to private Swiss accounts. The now 73-year-old Van Erp has a turbulent history behind him, including the bankruptcy of his Multiplan in 2014. Multiplan developed a failed mega plan in Luxembourg together with SNS Property Finance. The loss of hundreds of millions on the project led to the nationalization of SNS in 2013. The legal successors of SNS then continued the hunt for Van Erp, and he was sentenced to a long term for fraud in 2019 and 2020. On appeal, he was eventually given a four-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of €100,000 due to his age. There is now a confiscation procedure for €20 million in embezzled funds against Van Erp. The revealed convictions were not previously known. As a silent shareholder, Van Erp raised €40 million with his company DBMC in 2019 from dozens of wealthy entrepreneurs for a €65 million mixed-use project in Mönchengladbach. DBMC was supposed to yield a 1% return per month. However, the interest payments were stopped in December. In addition to Oomen, the Brabant meat trader Erik van Loon also participated and the Heerema (offshore), De Rijcke (Kruitvat) and former Audi CEO Bram Schot families are also mentioned. Leading asset managers from Optimix, Waterland and Friesland Bank are also on the list of victims. The construction of the DBMC project has come to a standstill, which means that the sale/delivery to end investor HIH Invest could be jeopardized at the end of this year. A residential and shopping complex in Mönchengladbach was also managed by Cor van Erp with his DMBC. Van Erp was previously convicted of serious fraud, The financial problems started when costs rose significantly and construction came to a standstill at the end of last year. The investors, including billionaire Chris Oomen and meat tycoon Erik van Loon according to the FD, were misled with the promise of a return of 1% per month. These returns proved unsustainable when interest rates and construction costs rose and DBMC stopped paying interest in December. The situation worsened when it turned out that Van Erp and some relatives had siphoned off money when they knew the project was in financial trouble. The investors now have a loss of 30% to 50% on their investment, while construction has been forced to stop. Legal steps and a possible additional cash injection are being considered, but the complexity of the situation and the international involvement of parties such as Van Erp, who lives in Belgium, complicate the handling. This case sheds a sharp light on the limited supervision of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) on such private investments and the naivety of financiers who invest significantly without a thorough background check. Despite Van Erp’s bad reputation, the Municipality of Vught also did business with the now bankrupt company. The FiftyEight project located on the Wolfskamerweg in Vught has been discredited because of this. 58 apartments are to be built on the Wolfskamerweg, priced in the low to medium-priced category (300,000 to 450,000 free on name).
Real estate entrepreneur Jan-Dirk Paarlberg was held hostage from January 8, 2025 to April 3 because of an outstanding tax debt of 15 million euros. He was held ‘hostage’ for a period of one year but was released by appealing to his declining health. On April 1, summary proceedings were filed against the state for this. In 2019 , the Supreme Court ruled that Paarlberg had to pay 24 million euros. He was found guilty of laundering millions that had been extorted by Willem Holleeder from real estate dealer Willem Endstra. He was considered an underworld banker. Paarlberg had previously also been sentenced to four years in prison for money laundering. He was temporarily released in 2015, because he was said to be too ill to be in prison. But not much later he had to report to the prison in Scheveningen again, after he had been seen several times in the nightlife. Paarlberg is said to have had a fortune of 280 million euros and was the owner of the Euromast in Rotterdam, among other things. The fine will not expire at the end of the hostage period. The Public Prosecution Service states that “considerable efforts” have been made in the Paarlberg case by the Judicial Collection Agency, but that the amount due has not yet been paid.
Real estate entrepreneur and owner of holiday parks, Peter Gillis (63) of the Oostappen Group, has been convicted of tax fraud, not keeping and maintaining his administration correctly, providing incorrect information to the Tax Authorities and not filing tax returns on time. At his holiday park Prinsenmeer, cottages were rented out without being included in the administration. The tenants had to pay in cash, which resulted in a significant turnover off the books. The fraud case involved an amount of 520,000 euros. In April 2023, the municipality of Terneuzen carried out new inspections, during which it was found that the violations of illegal occupation had not ended. The Oostappen Group was imposed a penalty of 400,000 euros, of which 200,000 euros had already been collected. His ex-wife, Treesie Michielsen, and daughter Inge Gillis have also been summoned, because they worked at the office of the Oostappen Group in Prinsenbeek between 2014 and 2019. The investigation by the FIOD and the Public Prosecution Service lasted for years. Several raids were carried out on the parks of the Oostappen Group, during which documents and goods were seized. The fraud involved, among other things, the rental of holiday homes to so-called “rangers” without this rent being processed in the administration. Gillis himself is said to have driven along the houses to collect the cash payments in envelopes. His daughter, Inge Gillis, worked as an executive assistant and was said to be responsible for blocking houses in the systems and indicating the locations where the cash payments had to go. Both Gillis’ did not comment during the trial. The case against Treesie Michielsen was only dealt with later due to her state of health. In addition to Gillis, his ex-wife and daughter, the Oostappen Group BV and eight holiday parks were designated as suspects. The Public Prosecution Service demanded eighteen months in prison, of which six were conditional. The verdict was expected on 10 April 2025. Gillis also had to answer for fines imposed by the Tax Authorities on 26 March 2025. The judge found that Gillis had committed tax fraud for five years and sentenced him to one year in prison, six months of which were suspended. His daughter and ex-wife were sentenced to 240 and 180 hours of community service and a six-month suspended prison sentence, respectively. In addition, Gillis and his company were faced with substantial fines. In connection with the sale of the Marina Beach park, which would cost 61 million euros, there has been uncertainty about the takeover for three years. The intended buyer, Braakmaneiland Projectontwikkeling, did not want to operate the park itself, but outsource it to an international player. Due to legal complications and the tax seizure, the purchase now seems to be off the table. Peter Gillis expressed his frustration about the situation, but claimed that the seizure by the Tax Authorities would not hinder the takeover, because the parks could be “delivered free of seizure”. Peter Gillis also has to pay 5.6 million euros in fines to the Tax Authorities, but the court in Breda reduced the fines to approximately 2.5 million euros. The reduced fine was partly due to the fact that the Tax Authorities did not always follow the correct procedure and because Gillis’ lawyer had filed an objection to the double fines for the same offence.
The Adler Group consists of Adler Group SA (the Holding), a holding company under Luxembourg law, and various German subsidiaries (the Group). The Group owns and operates real estate (residential properties) located in Germany. Adler ran into financial difficulties in 2021 and 2022. This was due to allegations that Adler had artificially inflated the valuation of its real estate portfolio. In addition, a local and global economic downturn in 2022 led to a decline in demand for residential and commercial real estate in Germany. The Group has debts of approximately EUR 6.1 billion in respect of financing raised. A significant part of this is due under bonds issued by the Holding, with a total principal amount of EUR 3.2 billion, which are governed by German law. The Notes are issued in six series, each with a different term. In 1997, Cevdet Caner founded Call & Logistik Center GesmbH (CLC) and became Managing Director. In 2001, he floated the company on the Vienna stock exchange and subsequently acquired the larger call center group Camelot. Three years later, he sold his shares and CLC went bankrupt. A year later, in 2005, Cevdet founded the real estate holding companyLevel One, registered in the Channel Island of Jersey. By 2008, the portfolio had grown to a total value of €1.85 billion. Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland and other British companies invested in his company. Credit Suisse, the largest lender, approved a total of €1.3 billion in loans and acted as lead bank for the IPO planned for March 2007. This IPO was postponed and the second attempt was thwarted by the subprime crisis. In 2008, he also filed for bankruptcy for this property group. Some 20,000 apartments and 500 commercial properties, mainly in Berlin and East Germany, were affected. With a debt of €1.5 billion, Level One was considered Germany’s largest property bankruptcy. Caner’s £20 million worth of London properties were seized in 2009, the largest property seizure in British history to date. On November 19, 2018, a trial against him and five other defendants began in Vienna but was accused of aggravated commercial fraud, fraudulent bankruptcy and money laundering. In 2020, he was acquitted of all charges. In 2022, Caner became a shareholder and CEO of Aggregate Holdings SA, one of the largest shareholders of the Adler Group. His influence within the Adler Group was questioned after conflicting reports about his role within the group. In June 2023, the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt am Main and the German Federal Criminal Police Office searched the offices of Adler Real Estate on suspicion of false accounting, market manipulation and embezzlement. Caner’s offices in London and Monaco were also searched. The police went to Caner’s offices in London and Monaco. According to the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office, 21 properties, including commercial properties, apartments and a law firm, were searched in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Erftstadt, as well as in Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Monaco, Luxembourg and Great Britain. The suspicion remains that sham deals were made to drive up prices for projects. 175 officials from the German public prosecutor’s office and the police were involved in the investigation. The suspects are “German, Austrian and British citizens” between the ages of 38 and 66, the prosecutor says. They are accused of having misrepresented the company’s balance sheets or having helped them do so from 2018 to 2020 in their roles as former board members.
In addition, they are said to have concluded consultancy contracts on behalf of Adler Real Estate and made payments to the company for which no consideration was given. As a result, Adler was financially disadvantaged. A hint of shady dealings lingers around Caner.
Insurance fraud
Dutch insurers are detecting more insurance fraud every year. Insurance fraud had already increased by 21 percent in 2016 compared to 2015. In 2018, a record number of 12,879 cases of proven insurance fraud were detected and in 2019 this number had increased to 22,376. This prevented an amount of 96 million euros from being paid out wrongly. In 2018, this amounted to 82 million euros. Stating untruths and deliberately withholding information in the insurance application were the main causes of insurance fraud.
Often it concerns non-existent employees in non-existent BV’s who first receive a substantial pay rise and then fall ill shortly afterwards. Students claimed tens of thousands of euros and had teachers sign false statements claiming that they were supposedly experiencing study delays after a scooter accident and had insurers pay out up to 16,000 euros as compensation for the salary they allegedly missed out on because they entered the labour market later. Most cases of fraud occurred in: Sickness absence (+125%), Motor vehicles (+35%), Travel (+14%), Liability (+11%), Fire (+5%), Healthcare/medical expenses (+5%), Legal aid (-4%), Mortgage (+2%), Life (-18%), Disability (-23%). The Dutch Association of Insurers states that in 2015, around 90 million euros in fraud was detected, and that only concerns the 8,336 intercepted fraud cases; the actual damage is estimated to be four to five times higher. With regard to motor vehicles, this would amount to 20 million euros. Based on the provisional figures for 2016, the number of fraud cases with motor vehicles will increase by tens of percent. In 2016, 18.9 million euros in improperly charged healthcare costs were declared. A year earlier, this was 11.1 million euros. The most fraud was committed with PGB budgets and district nursing (more than two million). Insurers speak of fraud when there is a conscious or intentional act that results in an undue advantage. Approximately 500 million euros is defrauded with Personal Budgets (PGB) each year.
DENK alderman Faouzi Achbar (42) allegedly gave the order to set fire to his home in Rotterdam. This came out after a confession by a 37-year-old Rotterdam resident who is suspected of arson in July last year. Not only did he admit that he had started the fire, but also that he had done so on the orders of two intermediaries. They were allegedly incited to do so by the alderman himself. The aim was said to have been insurance fraud. The Rotterdam alderman and his family were not at home when it happened. The fire made the house uninhabitable. A two-year prison sentence has been demanded against the suspect. After the fire, Achbar suggested that it was politically motivated. The alderman (Welfare, Coexistence, Sports and Digital Inclusion) did not want to respond to the investigation by the National Criminal Investigation Department. The mayor and aldermen did issue a joint statement. “This accusation against alderman Achbar is serious. The Rotterdam faction of DENK expresses ‘unconditional support’ for Achbar on X. “It is bitter and completely unacceptable that Achbar, as the victim of a serious crime, is now being accused.” The accusations against Achbar are ‘completely unbelievable’ and ‘extremely damaging to his good name and reputation’, the party reports.
Thousands of Polish migrant workers were found to be systematically committing unemployment benefit fraud, assisted by at least 150 fraudulent intermediaries. In order to qualify for unemployment benefits, migrant workers must have worked in the Netherlands for at least six months, reside in the Netherlands and be available to work and apply for jobs. The intermediaries provided fake applications, arranged false residential addresses and provided Dutch purchase receipts. They advised their clients not to use Dutch bank cards in Poland, or to travel to that country by plane, in order to avoid detection. In 2017, the Polish intermediaries assisted approximately 9,400 benefit recipients. An internal sample of UWV showed that 30 percent of the Polish WW recipients who worked with such an intermediary did not indeed reside in the Netherlands. In return for payment of 300 euros, hundreds of benefits including a false address were provided by the agencies. Despite this, UWV paid the benefits without any problems, even though it turned out that dozens of so-called unemployed people were registered at the same false address for which 75 euros per month was paid. The agencies took care of fake job applications and sending a CV to companies where they would not be hired anyway. In 2013, such frauds were also committed by Bulgarians. Since then, despite political pressure, UWV has not taken sufficient measures.
The court in Leeuwarden sentenced a former financial manager of the organization to 30 months in prison, of which six months were suspended, after it emerged that he had embezzled more than a million euros between 2008 and 2016 for luxury goods, an expensive car, a horse, electronics, clothing and holidays to Thailand. He also had his house renovated and paid for his wedding with the money. In the past, Yarden mainly sold ‘kind policies’ that included the entire funeral. Because the costs of funerals have risen rapidly, Yarden also has to make a significant contribution to these insurances. An attempt to pay out a fixed amount of 3,733 euros for a funeral was prohibited by the court. That will cost the funeral organization tens of millions of euros. The company’s reserves have fallen to an all-time low and an upcoming suspension of payments or bankruptcy cannot be ruled out. Yarden has 1 million policyholders and 700 employees. Yarden attempted to sell the company to Dela, but Dela decided against it due to the financial chaos.
The second largest industrial insurer in the Netherlands, HDI-Gerlings, wanted 30 million euros back from a former CEO and his son who had defrauded the company by that amount. The former CEO (74) and his son were held liable by the court for all damage caused by their actions. The fraud by the director and his son began in 2007 when HDI-Gerling sold an insurance portfolio for 1 Aruban guilder to Treston, an insurer in Aruba. It later emerged that the two themselves had shares in Treston and that the portfolio was worth at least twenty million euros. The 49-year-old Rotterdam resident was CEO of HDI-Gerling from 2006 to 2013 and signed for the deal, according to him not knowing the value and that the two had shares in Treston. In 2010, the CEO lent a lot of money to the Rotterdam entrepreneurs, who were well-known from television and who lived and worked in Dubai at the time. The couple was supposed to have received the money to open up new markets, but instead a yacht and a villa were bought in Mallorca. Supposedly with a ‘business interest’. The chairman of the board was impressed by the entrepreneurship and the network that the couple had in Dubai and together they made plans for new growth markets. The couple would introduce the chairman of the board to the highest circles of Dubai and thus help HDI Gerling to new customers. HDI-Gerlach had to profile itself mainly as a sponsor of Feyenoord and also with activities abroad. The chairman of the board had HDI deposit tens of thousands of euros in the couple’s BVs as “loans” that had to be repaid on 1 July 2013 and for which an acknowledgment of debt was signed. Dubai yielded little, after which the course was set to Mallorca. HDI Gerling would start insuring yachts there. For the bravado a yacht worth 1.2 million euros was purchased and a representative villa in Santa Ponca with a golf course worth 4.2 million to receive customers. The court was very critical of the mortgage of 1.5 million euros that the couple established via a private holding company on the villa in Mallorca financed by HDI Gerlach. The couple clearly enjoyed life in Switzerland, Dubai and Mallorca and they were frequently seen Dutch celebrities in various society programs. After retiring from a car company, the couple earned a lot of money from a cleaning and window cleaning company in Dubai that they set up with the severance pay. In between, the wife flew to Rotterdam to set up the restaurant Chalet Suisse, which failed miserably. HDI Gerling holds them liable for 4.4 million euros and, as a precaution, had their real estate, including the Taste eatery in the Kralingse Bos, seized.The couple’s activities in Dubai are on a low flame and the woman is said to have been sentenced to six months in prison in Dubai in a criminal case for defrauding the company Powersteel with a steel transaction. In order to avoid punishment, the couple fled Dubai. The couple themselves stated that they had gone to Mallorca on behalf of HDI and once there, promises were not kept, which meant that they were in danger of losing everything. At the end of 2012, they were stopped by an accountant from KPMG who reported the case to the Dutch central bank. The chairman of the board was dismissed on the spot in 2013 and must repay more than 3.7 million euros according to the court for ‘improper management and taking unacceptable risks’. HDI-Gerlach itself was also fined a total of 60,000 euros because not enough had been done to prevent fraud. According to the court, the director was guilty of ‘improper management’ and had taken ‘unacceptable risks’. The companies of the Van Vliet couple also had to repay 76 thousand euros and 454 thousand euros to HDI. In August 2015, the director was sentenced to repay more than 3.7 million euros to the insurer. In addition to these frauds, it turned out that business partners AON (467,000), an ICT company in Baarn (14,713.77), Partyservice vd Loo (502,926), Bouwbedrijf H. van der Sluis (approximately 500,000), Boogaard Exploitatie Mij, Noroba, an upholstery company and Ahrend (85,000) also paid a total of more than 2.2 million euros in bribes around 2006 to the private company Detoma, which invoiced the kickback amounts as consultancy costs, commission or introduction fee. An employee of KPMG was also involved in this. Ahrend is said to have already reached a settlement with the authorities and repaid amounts to HDI.In addition to these frauds, it also emerged that business partners AON (467,000), an ICT company in Baarn (14,713.77), Partyservice vd Loo (502,926), Bouwbedrijf H. van der Sluis (approximately 500,000), Boogaard Exploitatie Mij, Noroba, an upholstery company and Ahrend (85,000) had paid a total of more than 2.2 million euros in bribes around 2006 to the private company Detoma, which invoiced the kickback amounts as consultancy costs, commission or referral fee. An employee of KPMG was also involved in this. Ahrend is said to have already reached a settlement with the authorities and repaid amounts to HDI.In addition to these frauds, it also emerged that business partners AON (467,000), an ICT company in Baarn (14,713.77), Partyservice vd Loo (502,926), Bouwbedrijf H. van der Sluis (approximately 500,000), Boogaard Exploitatie Mij, Noroba, an upholstery company and Ahrend (85,000) had paid a total of more than 2.2 million euros in bribes around 2006 to the private company Detoma, which invoiced the kickback amounts as consultancy costs, commission or referral fee. An employee of KPMG was also involved in this. Ahrend is said to have already reached a settlement with the authorities and repaid amounts to HDI.
Meat fraud
The NVWA-IOD recently completed a criminal investigation into the forging of horse passports, the file is now with the Public Prosecution Service. Last year, it was meat wholesaler ‘Willy Selten’ that sold horse meat as beef. Now it appears that meat trader ‘Van Hattem Vlees’, from Dodewaard in Gelderland, also mixes or replaces beef with horse meat and then sells it as ‘pure’ beef. In February 2013, horse meat was found in products labelled as beef products in Great Britain, Sweden, Ireland and Poland. Several frozen lasagnes from a French supplier were immediately withdrawn from sale, also in the Netherlands. That same month, the Netherlands was linked to the horse meat scandal by a French deputy minister. British media reported that the Dutch company Draap played a central role. The company, owned by Jan Fasen, is said to have purchased sixty tonnes of horse meat from the Romanian slaughterhouse, of which horse meat appeared as beef in frozen meals. On 18 February 2013, the production of the meat processing company of Willy Selten from Oss was stopped by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). The company mixed horse meat with beef and then sold it as beef. The Netherlands processes around 4.2 million tons of meat and employs 10,000 people in the meat trade. The trade also generates 5.5 billion euros. This meat is often unbranded and what happens to it is often unclear. The horse scandal has a Dutch origin. A few weeks later, horse meat was in great demand. Butchers had their hands full with the run on horse meat.
In March 2013 it became clear that it was not possible to guarantee that Dutch horse meat was safe and in April 2013 the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) called on buyers of the suspected meat processor Willy Selten in Oss to trace and remove approximately 50,000 tons of meat from the market. The system of paper passports is susceptible to fraud. All medication administered to a horse must be registered in this passport. This often does not happen. That same month, employees of the meat company Selten reported that horse meat was mixed with beef every week. Old and spoiled meat was also said to have been mixed with new meat. In May 2013 EenVandaag broadcasted a report on the origin of the horse meat from the meat company Willy Selten. The horse meat did not come from dubious Romanian or Polish slaughterhouses, but it was Irish and English criminal gangs that slaughtered tens of thousands of horses, many of which were unsuitable for slaughter, after which the meat was transported by truck to the meat processing company Willy Selten in Oss. In May 2013, Jan Fasen was fined 50,000 euros for fraud involving horse meat. At the end of May, the Brabant meat processor Willy Selten was arrested on suspicion of forgery and fraud. He is suspected of having processed 300,000 kilos of horse meat. It is unclear where all that meat has gone. After three days of interrogation, Selten was released again. In October 2013, Selten’s company was declared bankrupt. The company’s curator, Jaap van der Meer, says that there is nothing wrong with two million kilos of meat from Willy Selten. The NVWA has only seized the meat. The curator therefore goes to court, because the NVWA kept refusing to release the meat for sale for consumption. The curator concluded from research in the administration of Willy Selten, that the stock would come from EU-approved companies, but according to the NVWA the administration of Van Selten was not reliable, and therefore it was not proven where the meat came from. In December 2013 a judge also decides that the two million kilos of frozen meat may not be sold for human consumption. The judge determined this in summary proceedings that the curator of the bankrupt company had initiated against the NVWA.
The 67-year-old Dutch meat trader who was arrested in Belgium in April on the orders of Europol, led a large international gang of meat fraudsters. A total of 65 suspects were arrested. Jan F. led the operation from the province of Alicante. He was charged with forgery, animal abuse and obstruction of justice. Jan F. had previously been convicted for selling cheap horse meat as expensive halal slaughtered beef and earned 2.6 million euros from it. His company Draap was also linked to the then major European horse meat scandal in 2013. At the time, horse meat was found in meals labelled with beef in several European countries. The company Draap, registered in Cyprus, which means ‘horse’ in reverse, had previously been linked to a European meat scandal. Horse meat from Romania eventually ended up as beef in frozen meals in several European countries. For example, Jan F.’s meat ended up in a ‘beef lasagna’ from a French supermarket chain. F. was never convicted for this in the Netherlands. Jan F. was sentenced to 28 months in prison in March 2021 for large-scale meat fraud together with co-suspect Hans W. They supplied more than 850,000 kilos of horse meat to companies and pretended it was beef. Draap Trading must pay a fine of 100,000 euros. A five-year prison sentence and a fine had been demanded against 71-year-old Jan F. Co-suspect Hans W. was already sentenced to one year in prison in 2019. Jan F. was not present at the verdict. He is currently living in Spain. According to the judge, Jan F. led a criminal organization and forged documents. Together with Hans. W, he shipped the horse meat from Canada to the Netherlands, where it ended up in Breda. There, the labels were changed, so that the origin of the meat was no longer visible. The meat was then sold to a French company, as beef from Romania. In 2013, the fraud came to light when checks in Great Britain and Germany revealed that horse meat was contained in various frozen meals. The labels stated that the meals contained beef. The scandal occurred in thirteen European countries. The court holds Jan F. responsible for damaging the trust of customers and consumers. According to the court, food safety was also compromised and, in connection with this, people’s health was endangered. In 2019, the court ruled that Jan F. must repay 2.6 million euros to the state. The ruling followed an earlier court ruling, in which it was determined that F. must repay the profit he made from the fraud. In 2019, F. was also convicted in France in another meat fraud case. There he was sentenced to two years in prison.
In the United Kingdom, 2 Sisters Food Group has been allegedly fiddling with old and fresh meat and with the expiration date on the packaging for years. At the end of 2017, meat inspectors once again sounded the alarm about the situation in many Dutch slaughterhouses. They stated that there is feces on the meat and that random samples are manipulated. According to veterinarians and inspectors, there is a large culture of fear.
Football fraud and match fixing
The chairman of Juventus is being prosecuted for ties to the Italian mafia. He and other club executives are said to have negotiated with the mafia about the sale of tickets and season tickets. In Switzerland and the US, FIFA executives are also being prosecuted for the same acts for the black market in tickets and broadcasting rights. The corruption has been going on since 1991. There are also more than a hundred reports of suspicious financial activities related to the allocation of the 2018 World Cup (Russia) and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Via tax havens, approximately twelve football companies paid invoices for millions in transfers and advertising revenue from, among others, a Colombian World Cup top scorer and two Argentinian attackers. On paper, the Dutch companies are the official business partners of the clubs, which meant that the footballers remained out of the picture for tax purposes. The transactions were organised from Argentina and managed in Uruguay. In the Netherlands, the coordination is in the hands of the director and a lawyer of trust office Duma Corporate Services, located in the Amsterdam Zuidas, who carried out the administrative procedures. The secret transactions were leaked to Football Leaks via Hushmail. Sixty journalists from twelve countries investigated the emails with contracts, invoices, emails, bank statements and 18.6 million other documents. A Portuguese top footballer also siphoned off 63.5 million euros to a tax haven at the end of 2014.
Luis Rubiales was arrested in Spain on April 3, 2024, in connection with a criminal investigation into fraud during his time as president of the Spanish Football Federation and his involvement in the awarding of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
Seven tennis players and four officials were sanctioned for match-fixing in 2016. The officials, two from Turkey and two from Uzbekistan, were banned for life. The anti-corruption unit TIU in London reported 292 reports of suspicious gambling at tennis matches in 2016. Of the seven players sanctioned, one was once ranked 164th in the world and was suspended and fined for betting on 220 tennis matches online. Two of the seven players who were sanctioned had already been found guilty in 2015, but appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne. The CAS upheld their suspensions last year. 232 alerts came from tennis matches in tournaments at the lower professional levels (Challengers and Futures), but the TIU also recorded eight reports from the highest professional level (ATP and WTA).
The man who allegedly defrauded football clubs, players and agents throughout Europe has been arrested in Belgium. The Amsterdam resident and former professional footballer Nidal H. (26) has now been extradited to the Netherlands. There are 22 reports against him. The Public Prosecution Service of Amsterdam informed De Telegraaf of this. After an investigation, De Telegraaf revealed that H. had been defrauding clubs, agents and players in the Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland and Sweden on a large scale and for at least a year for amounts between a few thousand and tens of thousands of euros with fake transfers. Victims included technical manager Peter Hofstede of Telstar and the well-known former professional footballer and agent Youssouf Hersi. The defrauded persons had to pay advances for player medical examinations, pay a self-made tax and advance other costs. In the end, it turned out that there was no question of purchasing players at all.
Advance payment fraud
Fraudsters pressure victims to lie to their bank when asked difficult questions about suspicious transactions. Some victims are even given a detailed script of what to answer to make the bank suspicious.
Six bitcoins in an account that has not been looked at for years and that are now worth half a million euros. It must have felt like winning the jackpot for an ABN Amro customer when he received a call with this story from a company that trades in crypto coins. About ten years ago, bitcoin had indeed aroused his interest, but had he actually bought anything? The customer can no longer remember well, but the scammer makes him believe that he had.
There is just one problem. These bitcoins can only be paid out once the additional costs involved have been reimbursed. A few hundred euros have to be paid out. A piece of cake compared to the wealth that awaits him. The customer bites and transfers the first euros. But then he is caught in the trap where the scammer wants him. The scammers manage to get more and more money out of the customer for ever new invented problems and expenses that crop up when paying out these bitcoins. When the customer has finally transferred more than 300,000 euros, he slowly realizes that he has very probably been scammed and asks his bank for advice.
The bank employee confirms his hunch. It is advance fraud , as they call it in the fraud department. People are approached with the good news that there is money waiting for them somewhere, because they made an investment in the past. And this amount has increased considerably. If there is so much money waiting, why don’t fraudsters deduct those costs from it in order to be able to pay it out?
ABN’s fraud department received a signal when this customer was about to transfer the first few hundred euros. It was a very unusual transaction for him, but the customer convinced the bank employee that it was at his own request, because he wanted to try out an investment in crypto coins. When he later asks the bank for help, he confesses that he had to tell this because of the fraudster who put him under a lot of pressure.
And there are more worrying developments, especially on social media. Fraudsters try to entice people to do business with dubious crypto companies. They even post fake photos and videos of celebrities, such as Lucille Werner or Jort Kelder, to gain the trust of their viewers. Those celebrities are said to have already done business with the company. “And once you are in this algorithm on social media, you get one success story after another about how much wealth investing in crypto has brought these people,” says Swaak.
With a few mouse clicks, you can reach real people who want to help you. “Cryptos are still something intangible and complicated for many people. So how nice is it when there are people who do understand it and say that they want to help you. Investing in crypto can be lucrative, but can also lead to major losses. Major Dutch banks are extremely reluctant to offer platforms to trade in this and often do not provide advice on it. They consider it too risky, difficult to understand and vulnerable to deception, fraud and manipulation.
Money laundering
At the end of June 2025, the public prosecutor seized the villa of Mohamed Lemhadi, better known as the popular Breda influencer Mo Bicep. The measure is part of an ongoing criminal investigation into possible money laundering practices in which Lemhadi is suspected of being involved. The criminal investigation focuses on the origin of Lemhadi’s income. The Public Prosecution Service suspects that he may have been guilty of laundering criminal assets. The seizure is intended to secure any illegally obtained benefits for any subsequent confiscation procedure.
Data from the Land Registry shows that it concerns a detached villa at the Heilaarpark in Breda, with an estimated market value of over €924,000. The home is one of the assets that has been seized as part of the investigation led by the Public Prosecution Service in collaboration with the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD). The FIOD raided several locations on Monday morning, including Lemhadi’s villa and several business premises on the Nikkelstraat in Breda.
During these raids, various luxury possessions were seized. According to a spokesperson for the FIOD, these include vehicles, expensive goods and the suspect’s entire administration. Lemhadi’s lawyer was not yet available for comment at the time of publication. The influencer himself has not yet responded to the developments on social media. The case is attracting a lot of attention, partly due to Mo Bicep’s fame on platforms such as Instagram and YouTube, where he has hundreds of thousands of followers. The Justice Department emphasizes that the investigation is still ongoing and that no further details are being provided at this time.
Kickboxer Jamal Ben Saddik (34), his brother Saïd Ben Saddik and his friend Emad N. were money mules of sports agent Karim S. Karim transferred illegally earned money to the bank accounts of the three men, whereby it appeared to be legally earned money. For example, it was described as ‘wages’, ‘a loan’ or ‘a fee’. To make it appear as legal as possible, false documents were drawn up. For example, in the form of pay slips. While in reality no services were provided for the amount received.
The illegally obtained money was then used to renovate a villa and swimming pool in Wommelgem. Bought by sports agent Karim S. In addition, two suitcases containing more than 507 thousand euros in cash were found at Emad N.’s home. The Antwerp Court of Appeal took into account in this conviction that Emad N. and Jamal Ben Saddik had previously been convicted, including for drug crimes. Several years ago, several attacks and explosions took place at properties belonging to Saddik or his family members.
For example, at the end of 2022, a bomb went off at Jamal’s gym in Antwerp, Belgium. The perpetrators left a message in graffiti: “Kill JBS Dede Dief.” ‘Dede’ means ‘death’ and the abbreviation ‘JBS’ logically stands for Jamal Ben Saddik. Clear language. Various Belgian media wrote at the time that the attacks could be related to a drug conflict. According to several sources, Jamal’s brother ‘Urbanus’ was accused of embezzling a shipment of cocaine. On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal sentenced Emad N. and Saïd Ben Saddik to a prison sentence of four years and thirty months. The kickboxer is given a 40-month prison sentence, half of which is conditional. In addition, the men are no longer allowed to be directors of a company and must pay hefty fines of up to 40,000 euros. The laundered money, worth more than 1.2 million euros, was seized by the state.
Justice is auctioning the apartment of ten-time Dutch national team international Romeo Castelen (42) in The Hague. He is suspected of laundering 2.2 million euros. Castelen is also said to be involved in the forgery of contracts with the Chinese club Zhejiang Yiteng Football Club. Castelen himself denies all accusations. In 2019, he was arrested at Schiphol with 140,000 euros in cash. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Castelen has had a total of more than 2.2 million euros in criminal money in his possession. Two of Castelen’s properties were previously frozen by Justice. There are now five attachments on his apartment in The Hague, including from the Public Prosecution Service and the Tax Authorities. Castelen’s apartment will be auctioned on Thursday, July 3, 2025. The home was purchased in 2004 for €359,000, with a mortgage of €385,000.
Interior designer Eric Kuster (57) laundered 3.5 million from criminals. The well-known interior designer, who furnishes homes for wealthy Dutch celebrities and criminals, was given a community service order of 140 hours plus a total fine of 250,000 euros for laundering almost 3.5 million euros.
On Tuesday 5 March, the FIOD arrested a 42-year-old man from Capelle aan den IJssel on suspicion of trading in PGP phones equipped with Sky-ECC and Encrochat between 2017 and 2021, with a turnover of more than 15 million euros. The man is suspected of money laundering and deliberately filing incorrect VAT returns. During the search of his home, digital and physical administration, more than 9,000 euros in cash and various devices, including 35 mobile phones, were seized. The suspect was brought before the examining magistrate in Rotterdam and was remanded in custody for 14 days. The criminal investigation was initiated following signals from various investigative and control services. Until 2021, the suspect ran a shop selling telecommunications products and internet services. It is suspected that the suspect sold large numbers of PGP devices and the associated subscriptions for using Sky-ECC and Encrochat from this business. But even after closing his shop, he continued this trade. It is a well-known fact that PGP devices are frequently used by people who are guilty of (serious) organised crime. According to the investigation team, the PGP turnover was kept out of the accounts by the suspects. The purchasers of the PGP devices were paid in cash or with Bitcoins. The suspect advised his customers not to make payments via bank account. The suspect has also had no visible source of income since the store closed. The man was, at least on paper, employed, but this has not yet been demonstrated by the investigation. The suspects probably concealed and disguised the criminal origin of these sums of money by not keeping accounts for the PGP sales, offering anonymity to the PGP purchasers and also accepting large amounts of cash or anonymous Bitcoin payments, while the suspects knew that their customers were involved in criminal circles.
Director Joep van den Nieuwenhuijzen of shipyard RDM was sentenced to one year in prison in 2015, of which 285 days were conditional, and a fine of 150,000 euros, but was eventually acquitted on appeal due to serious procedural errors by the Public Prosecution Service. Van den Nieuwenhuijzen now no longer has to pay anything back to the Dutch State, which initially claimed 111 million euros. That amount had already been reduced to 13 million euros, but Van den Nieuwenhuijzen does not have to pay that either, the court in The Hague ruled. According to the court, the Public Prosecution Service made a crucial error. The lawsuit against the businessman has been stopped with immediate effect. The ruling of the court in The Hague marks the (provisional) end of years of proceedings against the Rotterdam businessman. Van den Nieuwenhuijzen is said to have bribed the then director of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, Willem Scholten, for more than one million euros. In return, he received more than 180 million euros in dubious bank guarantees. With this, he managed to take out loans for RDM worth tens of millions of euros. After the conviction in 2013, the Public Prosecution Service announced a confiscation order of 42 million euros. That was the money that Van den Nieuwenhuijzen had pocketed according to the Public Prosecution Service and therefore had to pay back. This claim was based on the bankruptcy fraud; RDM had been declared bankrupt in 2004. But in 2015, the businessman was acquitted of bankruptcy fraud on appeal. The Public Prosecution Service therefore came up with a new claim, which was no longer based on bankruptcy fraud but on bribery. The claim was also increased to an amount of 111 million euros. The judge in Rotterdam initially declared this ‘plucking order’ invalid, but the court of appeal forced the district court to review the case. This led to the imposition of a fine for bribery of 13 million euros in 2020. Van den Nieuwenhuijzen appealed again and now the court states that the claim had previously been about bankruptcy fraud for years and that the sudden transition to ‘bribery’ is not legally valid and in conflict with the principles of a fair trial, as laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, the court of appeal points out that the documents on which the Public Prosecution Service based the claim have been partly destroyed and partly returned to ’third parties’, such as bankrupt companies, accountants and trustees. “Those documents may contain data that may benefit the person concerned”, says the court. In other words: if Van den Nieuwenhuijzen wants to demonstrate that he did not benefit privately from the bribery, it is possible that those files can no longer be found. The court of appeal in The Hague also speaks in this case of “an irreparable infringement of the right to a fair trial” and therefore declares the Public Prosecution Service inadmissible. The 112 boxes of documents were stored at the FIOD in Haarlem.Due to lack of space, they cleared it with permission from the Public Prosecution Service, despite knowing that it could be important to the case. The Public Prosecution Service can still appeal to the Supreme Court, I’ll wait and see,” he says. During the eighties, the director also managed to revive the listed Begemann Group as a company doctor. In 1990, Begemann had 140 subsidiaries, a turnover of 1.4 billion guilders and over 7,000 employees. The success came to an end with the purchase of the ailing automation company HCS and the associated insider trading, which earned him a six-month prison sentence, but he was acquitted on appeal. He then made a comeback with defense company RDM.
The administration office Moving Finance BV in Blaricum was busted in November 2021. The administration office was said to be a money laundering office. Several convictions were handed down in the Neath criminal investigation, in which the administration office was mentioned. In June 2021, the company had rented an office space in the De Kolonie business complex in Blaricum. Four people were arrested, including a partner of the indirect director of the office. Summary proceedings that were filed at the Midden-Nederland court in early 2022 showed that the raid was part of an ongoing investigation into drug crime. Landlord Vallis Rosas CV initiated summary proceedings to resolve the eviction and the four-month rent arrears (a total of €6,300). Vallis Rosas also claimed damages of €5,373.01 because the electronic front door had been damaged during the police raid. The claims were granted by default. The trustee discovered that the company was involved in criminal activities. The director of the company was said to be a front man/front man for drug criminals and the bank accounts were used to launder money. The receiver, in consultation with the judiciary, decided not to file a report because all the relevant facts were already known and the managing director had agreed on a payment arrangement. The receiver has received information from the judiciary showing that the director of the company was involved in a drug organization, for which several convictions have been pronounced. The criminal investigation is still ongoing.
In early November 2020, the Public Prosecution Service demanded a fine of 14,800 euros from Almere-based Schenk Recycling and its 35-year-old director. Half of this fine is conditional. The company is said to have been guilty of forgery and laundering 45,647 kilos of scrap metal. The total value: more than 8,000 euros. According to the public prosecutor, Schenk Recycling entered incorrect data in the mandatory Digital Buyers Register (DOR) between 1 January 2018 and 13 March 2019. The name and address of the seller must be entered in this system to prevent the handling of stolen goods. For customers who handed in scrap metal, no identification documents were linked or initials were missing from the surnames. Four people were even entered as sellers, who had already died at the time of the sale. Of the twenty sellers who were approached in the criminal investigation into Schenk Recycling, eighteen turned out to have no knowledge of it when asked. The officer thinks he knows why. One of the director’s brothers allegedly told a witness that sometimes they just pick a name from the phone book if a salesperson can’t identify himself. The recycling company denies the charges and blames it on misunderstandings.
Housing association fraud
A 47-year-old employee of Stadgenoot robbed the housing corporation of 1.9 million euros in 11 years . The senior financial employee was able to transfer large sums of money to her underage daughter’s bank account undisturbed for years. She gambled away the money and used it to book holidays to sunny places. The employee was immediately fired. For years, between ten and twenty thousand euros were transferred unnoticed every month, totalling between around two million euros. The administrative employee does not have to go to jail. The woman gambled away the money. The Public Prosecution Service demanded a prison sentence of 24 months, of which 12 months conditional, but the Amsterdam court found that there were mitigating factors. For example, the woman says she regrets the theft and has since been treated for her gambling addiction. She also has a repayment arrangement with Stadgenoot, who already received the proceeds from the sale of her Amsterdam home, among other things. Finally, the court took into account that she is responsible for the care of an underage daughter. Incidentally, according to the court, there is only evidence of an embezzled amount of more than 1.5 million euros, because there were no bank statements for more than four hundred thousand. Due to the mitigating factors, the woman was given a suspended prison sentence of 12 months with a probationary period of three years. In addition, she will receive a community service order of 240 hours. ‘Stadgenoot is the third largest housing corporation in Amsterdam with 29,000 homes. After her dismissal, the employee has already started working elsewhere in the financial services sector.
In March 2017, the court sentenced two former directors of the Limburg housing association Vitaal Wonen to repay approximately 800,000 euros for wrongfully received salary and incorrect declarations. The two directors and two companies associated with the son committed fraud. The son must repay more than 500,000 euros and his companies another eighty thousand. These amounts concern wrongfully received salary and expense allowances in the period 2005-2013. Furthermore, there were unaccounted cash withdrawals and wines were purchased and dinners and lunches were consumed unlawfully. The former director must also reimburse the costs for the investigation into the extent of the damage. The father received more than two hundred thousand euros in wrongfully received salary. The son was dismissed for malpractice, but there was insufficient evidence against him to prosecute him. The dismissed son was arrested and questioned in April 2016 after an investigation lasting more than a year. In March 2014, the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) raided the offices of the Vitaal Wonen foundation in five locations in Limburg. The administration was seized and the homes of the two former directors and the former chairman of the supervisory board in Limbricht and Maastricht were searched. The administration was also taken from the construction company Habets Bouw in Nuth. Father and son were arrested on suspicion of forgery, money laundering, embezzlement and defrauding the housing association. The son was also placed in restrictive detention for a few days in the interest of the investigation. At the same time, the Public Prosecution Service imposed a precautionary attachment on the duo’s possessions, including five houses and apartments. The housing association also seized two homes in Maastricht for 1.5 million euros. NRC Handelsblad published that 184,000 euros had been earned privately from a real estate transaction between Vitaal Wonen and contractors, including Habets Bouw. It also turned out that Vitaal Wonen bought a villa that, after being renovated, was rented to the chairman of the supervisory board. The raid on Habets Bouw was due to a transaction in 2007 when a multi-million dollar deal was concluded with the Landgraaf construction company Jongen, a subsidiary of VolkerWessels. Vitaal Wonen bought building land in Sittard for seven hundred thousand euros, on which a residential complex annex wellness and rehabilitation centre was built for the corporation. After this deal, a subsidiary received a house with shop in Sittard for 72,000 euros. The building was sold on to another contractor for 256,000 euros. Vitaal Wonen then bought the same building back for almost three hundred thousand euros, with the obligation to have it renovated for seven hundred thousand euros.
Erik Staal, the former chairman of the board of housing corporation Vestia, was arrested by the FIOD on March 3, 2017 and stood trial in 2020, where he was sentenced to two years in prison after a sentence of 3.5 years. His 64-year-old sister-in-law was also arrested on suspicion of complicity in money laundering. The raids took place at a beach villa on Bonaire and at a house in Krimpen aan de Lek. Real estate worth 1.47 million euros was seized and a car was also confiscated. The chairman of the board had to resign from Vestia in 2012 due to extensive fraud with derivatives, which almost caused the corporation to go bankrupt. Despite the fraud, he received a severance payment of 3.5 million. In 2016, Vestia reached settlements for 4.8 million euros and also with the former supervisors of the housing corporation, for their inadequate supervision during the fraud. Of this, the chairman paid 1 million euros and the rest was reimbursed by the insurance. A few years before leaving Vestia, the chairman bought a house in the millionaires’ district ‘Punt Vierkant’, south of the capital Kralendijk, had the house demolished and then built a beach villa there. The arrest is said to be related to the embezzlement of 1.2 million euros as a director of the HASA foundation, one third of the budget that was intended for social housing for the very poorest in South Africa. Through this foundation, several hundred homes for the very poorest in the South African city of East London were built ten years ago. The foundation was financed by Vestia and the municipality of Leiden, the sister city of East London. In 2013, a villa in South Africa affiliated with the HASA foundation was said to have been used for private purposes and hundreds of thousands of euros were said to have been transferred to unknown bank accounts. This was used to pay for a Mercedes GL400, a jet ski, travel, theatre tickets, clothing, dinners and the financing of his son’s wedding party. Aldermen of 23 municipalities in the regions of The Hague and Rotterdam and the deputy of the province of South Holland write in an open letter to Minister Kajsa Ollongren of the Interior that they want to use part of the landlord levy that housing corporations pay to the government to solve the problems that have arisen. Despite the fact that other corporations stepped in to keep Vestia afloat with around 700 million euros, Vestia is on its deathbed. Vestia must try to get the remaining deficit of 1.3 billion euros together by selling homes and implementing rent increases. The court in Rotterdam has found it proven that the 52-year-old former cash manager of Vestia Marcel de V. is guilty of bribery, fraud, forgery and money laundering. He was sentenced to three years in prison on 17 July 2018. The 47-year-old financial intermediary Arjan G. was found guilty of bribery and fraud. He was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.Together, they concluded hundreds of contracts with banks for years – worth 23 billion euros – for so-called derivatives, financial products that protect against interest rate increases. Things went wrong when interest rates fell sharply. Vestia got into serious financial trouble in 2012 because of the investments. The derivatives had to be bought off, which cost 1.9 billion euros. It eventually turned out that De V. and G. secretly collected more than 20 million euros in commission for these contracts. G. received these ‘fees’ and paid half to De V.. In order to cover up the conduct, the bribes and the bribery relationship, they committed forgery. De V. used this money to renovate his house and buy luxury items. De V. has always denied that he committed any criminal offences. He also paid tax on what he sees as ‘side income’. Two other suspects were given a community service order and a fine for complicity in bribery. Three suspects, including G.’s father and ex-partner, have been acquitted. Two former employees are to serve up to 2.5 years in prison for corruption, fraud and money laundering. The judge in The Hague believes there is more than enough evidence that they accepted bribes and tampered with quotes. They received the bribes from maintenance and cleaning companies, which were then allowed to carry out attractive jobs for the housing association. Former real estate manager Christiaan B. and social management employee Mischa W. were guilty of accepting bribes from 2015 to 2018. In addition, numerous companies from the Rotterdam region were involved in the bribery scandal. They defrauded Vestia of around 2.5 million euros, the Public Prosecution Service previously estimated. The judge sentenced B. to thirty months’ unconditional imprisonment. W. must serve a year in prison for his role in the fraud. B.’s father was also involved in the corruption and was sentenced to four months in prison. Several directors of the companies that were guilty of bribery and fraud must also spend months in prison or perform community service. None of the suspects were fully acquitted. According to the judge, those involved hardly seem to realize that what they did was wrong. “Fees” paid by one of the companies were considered perfectly normal. This also makes it difficult to determine whether the suspects had any remorse, said the judge. This while corruption at a housing corporation seriously damages confidence in the public sector. “The court finds that unbridled greed prevailed. Nevertheless, the sentences for the two main suspects are lower than the Public Prosecution Service had demanded. But the court also points out that intermediaries in particular received higher sentences in the fraud than prosecutors demanded. The suspects also falsified quotes from subcontractors. These were sometimes increased by tens of thousands of euros, without these companies knowing.The former employees pocketed the difference between the original cost and the final quote themselves. The companies involved sometimes also invoiced for work that was never carried out. An example is cleaning gutters, which is difficult to control. According to the judge, the former Vestia employees worked “meticulously” in the corruption. For example, Excel sheets showed how the orders were divided among companies, what amounts were received and how that money had to be divided.
The former CEO of housing corporation Rochdale, Hubert Möllenkamp, must repay almost 2.2 million euros to the state. Möllenkamp was also sentenced to 39 months in prison for embezzlement, money laundering, perjury, tax evasion and accepting millions of euros in bribes, in the form of cars, cash deposits and a villa in Spain, on top of his salary of 300,000 euros. Another suspect in the case had to repay 2.5 million euros. The ex-wife of the former CEO was convicted of forgery and had to pay 300,000 euros. Möllenkamp appealed the case and has applied for an Italian passport. Möllenkamp expects that he will not have to go to prison after all. As an Italian, you cannot be sentenced to prison if you are over seventy. He was also sentenced to 3 years in prison in cassation at the Supreme Court. Former director Walter V. and business partner Wim S. of the housing corporation Laurentius will appear in court from 14 December. A third suspect, former ROC West-Brabant top man Pierre P., has since died and can therefore no longer be prosecuted. The men were arrested in May 2012 on suspicion of committing fraud and deception up to an amount of 4.4 million.
Healthcare fraud
The abortion chain that provides half of all abortions in the Netherlands has wrongly declared millions in care, causing the sister foundations Casa Nederland and Casa Medical to go bankrupt. The foundation with the seven clinics, which provide the actual abortion care, initially escaped the dance. At the end of October, the care institution came under increased supervision of the Health Care Inspectorate. The curator of the affiliated foundations Marc Udink and Admiraal could not prevent the Casa Klinieken Foundation from also going bankrupt. The debts to the Ministry of Health, the banks, the curator and others are too high. The restart must be completed before 1 December.
Erbudak, the 47-year-old flamboyant owner of a call center and former parking attendant, became the protégé of millionaire Jan Schram. They took over the ailing Slotervaart hospital in 2006 and initially made sure they were in the black. According to her, Erbudak found a hospital that had been losing 4.5 million a year for 26 years and where there was a backlog of maintenance, a protracted conflict with the health insurer and great uncertainty about the future, causing skilled people to leave, and she informed the judge that she had not received a salary for years and that projects were in her name because there was no ‘entity’ yet. Erbudak had been under suspicion by the Fiod since the spring of 2014, who at the time searched her house in her then place of residence Beverwijk. Erbudak had already to appear before the civil court on November 23, 2017 and before the criminal court on September 9, 2019. Erbudak was sentenced to fifteen months’ unconditional imprisonment and a professional ban from management positions in the Netherlands for six years and three months at the end of November 2019. She was found guilty of embezzling 1.2 million euros and forgery. In reaching her verdict, the court took into account Erbudak’s previous convictions, including for participation in a criminal organization and fraud, and took into account the ‘reprehensible procedural attitude’ in which Erbudak does not take responsibility and hides behind others. Erbudak was not present at the verdict, but was present at the plea for a postponement of the verdict to hear new witnesses, which the court rejected. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Erbudak is said to have siphoned off money from the hospital to invest in two private companies. 1 million supposedly for a hospital and care resort in Turkey and 200,000 zeuro for a so-called e-health project. In reality, the money ended up in her bank account via ‘false invoices’ for the purpose of land purchases. The public prosecutor described this as ‘stealing’ and demanded two years in prison and an additional year if she did not repay the amount of 1.2 million. The judge came down nine months lower and rejected the possible additional year, because Erbudak had already been punished with her dismissal and personal bankruptcy. She had previously said that she did not feel obliged to repay the amount. Erbudak had also been sentenced to fifteen months in prison in 2000 for tax fraud as director of an employment agency. She had always denied guilt and after a request for clemency the prison sentence was commuted and she got away with community service. At that employment agency she is also said to have helped illegal Turks and benefit recipients with false papers to work and to have arranged sham marriages in the 1990s. Aided by two accomplices. All three are suspected of fraud, money laundering and forgery. In 2000 she was also convicted of tax fraud.Despite this past, Erbudak was chair of the board of directors without any problems or VOG and from 2006 to 2013 the director of the Amsterdam Slotervaart hospital. After negotiations with Achmea about a contract failed, she was suspended in February last year. She was fired in early 2013. In 2011, Erbudak pocketed two hundred thousand at the expense of the hospital through transactions with Drimpy, a digital platform for patients, family members and doctors. With the help of an entrepreneur from Utrecht, Erbudak received two hundred thousand plus a bank guarantee of eight hundred thousand for the construction of a hospital plus a hotel for patients and their families. Erbudak had to pay a guarantee in advance and when the deal fell through, she contractually lost one million. She solved this by having Slotervaart make two transfers, each of half a million, with the description ‘Advance security for purchase of goods for the Radiology department’. After her dismissal, she also became involved in civil lawsuits against the hospital and the relatives of Jan Schram. After Schram’s death, Erbudak wanted to take over the hospital with her children. This was made impossible because the hospital issued additional shares. Erbudak was ordered to repay a total of 4.1 million euros. In the spring of 2015, she was declared personally bankrupt at the request of MC Slotervaart, which is still owed 1.7 million of her money. Erbudak received advances and paid for many of her private expenses at the hospital’s expense. She also withdrew cash from the hospital safe. Erbudak emigrated to Turkey after the debacle. Her house in Beverwijk was publicly auctioned. Now, more than two years later, an official investigation by two healthcare supervisors has acquitted the directors De Boer and Loek Winter. No laws were broken and no healthcare money was withdrawn. At the request of the Minister for Medical Care, two supervisors jointly investigated five years of management prior to the bankruptcy. The former chairman of the board of the Slotervaart Hospital was sentenced on appeal on 20 October 2023 to an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months conditional, for embezzlement in employment and forgery. The court previously imposed an unconditional prison sentence of 15 months and a ban on being a director of a legal entity for a period of 6 years and 3 months and ordered the publication of the judgment in the registers of the Chamber of Commerce. The Public Prosecution Service demanded and ultimately received a verdict on appeal five years later with an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months conditional, and a professional ban of 5 years.After negotiations with Achmea on a contract failed, she was subsequently suspended in February last year. She was fired in early 2013. In 2011, Erbudak pocketed two hundred thousand euros at the expense of the hospital through transactions with Drimpy, a digital platform for patients, family members and doctors. With the help of an entrepreneur from Utrecht, Erbudak received two hundred thousand euros plus a bank guarantee of eight hundred thousand euros for the construction of a hospital plus a hotel for patients and their families. Erbudak had to pay a guarantee in advance and when the deal fell through, she contractually lost one million. She solved this by having Slotervaart make two transfers, each of half a million, with the description ‘Advance security for purchase of goods for the Radiology department’. After her dismissal, she also became involved in civil lawsuits against the hospital and the relatives of Jan Schram. After Schram’s death, Erbudak wanted to take over the hospital with her children. This was made impossible by the hospital issuing additional shares. Erbudak was ordered to repay a total of 4.1 million euros. In the spring of 2015, she was declared personally bankrupt at the request of MC Slotervaart, which is still owed 1.7 million of her money. Erbudak received advances and paid for many of her private expenses at the hospital’s expense. She also withdrew cash from the hospital safe. Erbudak emigrated to Turkey after the debacle. Her house in Beverwijk was publicly auctioned. Now, more than two years later, an official investigation by two healthcare supervisors has acquitted the directors De Boer and Loek Winter. No laws were broken and no healthcare money was withdrawn. At the request of the Minister for Medical Care, two supervisors jointly investigated five years of management prior to the bankruptcy. The former chairman of the board of the Slotervaart Hospital was sentenced on appeal on 20 October 2023 to an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months conditional, for embezzlement in employment and forgery. The court previously imposed an unconditional prison sentence of 15 months and a ban on being a director of a legal entity for a period of 6 years and 3 months and ordered the publication of the judgment in the registers of the Chamber of Commerce. The Public Prosecution Service demanded and ultimately received a verdict on appeal five years later with an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months conditional, and a professional ban of 5 years.After negotiations with Achmea on a contract failed, she was subsequently suspended in February last year. She was fired in early 2013. In 2011, Erbudak pocketed two hundred thousand euros at the expense of the hospital through transactions with Drimpy, a digital platform for patients, family members and doctors. With the help of an entrepreneur from Utrecht, Erbudak received two hundred thousand euros plus a bank guarantee of eight hundred thousand euros for the construction of a hospital plus a hotel for patients and their families. Erbudak had to pay a guarantee in advance and when the deal fell through, she contractually lost one million. She solved this by having Slotervaart make two transfers, each of half a million, with the description ‘Advance security for purchase of goods for the Radiology department’. After her dismissal, she also became involved in civil lawsuits against the hospital and the relatives of Jan Schram. After Schram’s death, Erbudak wanted to take over the hospital with her children. This was made impossible by the hospital issuing additional shares. Erbudak was ordered to repay a total of 4.1 million euros. In the spring of 2015, she was declared personally bankrupt at the request of MC Slotervaart, which is still owed 1.7 million of her money. Erbudak received advances and paid for many of her private expenses at the hospital’s expense. She also withdrew cash from the hospital safe. Erbudak emigrated to Turkey after the debacle. Her house in Beverwijk was publicly auctioned. Now, more than two years later, an official investigation by two healthcare supervisors has acquitted the directors De Boer and Loek Winter. No laws were broken and no healthcare money was withdrawn. At the request of the Minister for Medical Care, two supervisors jointly investigated five years of management prior to the bankruptcy. The former chairman of the board of the Slotervaart Hospital was sentenced on appeal on 20 October 2023 to an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months conditional, for embezzlement in employment and forgery. The court previously imposed an unconditional prison sentence of 15 months and a ban on being a director of a legal entity for a period of 6 years and 3 months and ordered the publication of the judgment in the registers of the Chamber of Commerce. The Public Prosecution Service demanded and ultimately received a verdict on appeal five years later with an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months conditional, and a professional ban of 5 years.With the help of an entrepreneur from Utrecht, Erbudak received 200,000 euros plus a bank guarantee of 800,000 euros for the construction of a hospital plus a hotel for patients and their families. Erbudak had to pay a guarantee in advance and when the deal fell through, she contractually lost one million. She solved this by having Slotervaart make two transfers, each of half a million, with the description ‘Advance security for purchase of goods for the Radiology department’. After her dismissal, she also became involved in civil lawsuits against the hospital and the relatives of Jan Schram. After Schram’s death, Erbudak wanted to take over the hospital with her children. This was made impossible because the hospital issued extra shares. Erbudak was ordered to repay a total of 4.1 million euros. In the spring of 2015, she was declared personally bankrupt at the request of MC Slotervaart, which is still owed 1.7 million euros. Erbudak received advances and paid for many of her private expenses at the hospital’s expense. She also withdrew cash from the hospital safe. Erbudak emigrated to Turkey after the debacle. Her house in Beverwijk was publicly auctioned. Now, more than two years later, an official investigation by two healthcare supervisors acquitted the directors De Boer and Loek Winter. No laws were broken and no healthcare money was embezzled. At the request of the Minister for Medical Care, two supervisors jointly investigated five years of management prior to the bankruptcy. The former chairman of the Slotervaart Hospital was sentenced on appeal on 20 October 2023 to an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months conditional, for embezzlement in employment and forgery. The court previously imposed an unconditional prison sentence of 15 months and a ban on being a director of a legal entity for a period of 6 years and 3 months and ordered the publication of the judgment in the registers of the Chamber of Commerce. The Public Prosecution Service demanded and ultimately obtained a sentence on appeal five years later with an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months were conditional, and a 5-year professional ban.With the help of an entrepreneur from Utrecht, Erbudak received 200,000 euros plus a bank guarantee of 800,000 euros for the construction of a hospital plus a hotel for patients and their families. Erbudak had to pay a guarantee in advance and when the deal fell through, she contractually lost one million. She solved this by having Slotervaart make two transfers, each of half a million, with the description ‘Advance security for purchase of goods for the Radiology department’. After her dismissal, she also became involved in civil lawsuits against the hospital and the relatives of Jan Schram. After Schram’s death, Erbudak wanted to take over the hospital with her children. This was made impossible because the hospital issued extra shares. Erbudak was ordered to repay a total of 4.1 million euros. In the spring of 2015, she was declared personally bankrupt at the request of MC Slotervaart, which is still owed 1.7 million euros. Erbudak received advances and paid for many of her private expenses at the hospital’s expense. She also withdrew cash from the hospital safe. Erbudak emigrated to Turkey after the debacle. Her house in Beverwijk was publicly auctioned. Now, more than two years later, an official investigation by two healthcare supervisors acquitted the directors De Boer and Loek Winter. No laws were broken and no healthcare money was embezzled. At the request of the Minister for Medical Care, two supervisors jointly investigated five years of management prior to the bankruptcy. The former chairman of the Slotervaart Hospital was sentenced on appeal on 20 October 2023 to an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months conditional, for embezzlement in employment and forgery. The court previously imposed an unconditional prison sentence of 15 months and a ban on being a director of a legal entity for a period of 6 years and 3 months and ordered the publication of the judgment in the registers of the Chamber of Commerce. The Public Prosecution Service demanded and ultimately obtained a sentence on appeal five years later with an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months were conditional, and a 5-year professional ban.In the spring of 2015, she was declared personally bankrupt at the request of MC Slotervaart, which still owes her 1.7 million. Erbudak received advances and paid for many of her private expenses at the hospital’s expense. She also withdrew cash from the hospital safe. Erbudak emigrated to Turkey after the debacle. Her house in Beverwijk was publicly auctioned. Now, more than two years later, an official investigation by two healthcare supervisors has acquitted the directors De Boer and Loek Winter. No laws were broken and no healthcare money was embezzled. At the request of the Minister for Medical Care, two supervisors jointly investigated five years of management prior to the bankruptcy. The former chairman of the Slotervaart hospital was sentenced on appeal on 20 October 2023 to an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months suspended, for embezzlement in employment and forgery. The court previously imposed an unconditional prison sentence of 15 months and a ban on being a director of a legal entity for a period of 6 years and 3 months and ordered the publication of the verdict in the registers of the Chamber of Commerce. The Public Prosecution Service demanded and eventually received a verdict on appeal five years later with a prison sentence of 18 months, of which 6 months conditional, and a professional ban of 5 years.In the spring of 2015, she was declared personally bankrupt at the request of MC Slotervaart, which still owes her 1.7 million. Erbudak received advances and paid for many of her private expenses at the hospital’s expense. She also withdrew cash from the hospital safe. Erbudak emigrated to Turkey after the debacle. Her house in Beverwijk was publicly auctioned. Now, more than two years later, an official investigation by two healthcare supervisors has acquitted the directors De Boer and Loek Winter. No laws were broken and no healthcare money was embezzled. At the request of the Minister for Medical Care, two supervisors jointly investigated five years of management prior to the bankruptcy. The former chairman of the Slotervaart hospital was sentenced on appeal on 20 October 2023 to an 18-month prison sentence, of which 6 months suspended, for embezzlement in employment and forgery. The court previously imposed an unconditional prison sentence of 15 months and a ban on being a director of a legal entity for a period of 6 years and 3 months and ordered the publication of the verdict in the registers of the Chamber of Commerce. The Public Prosecution Service demanded and eventually received a verdict on appeal five years later with a prison sentence of 18 months, of which 6 months conditional, and a professional ban of 5 years.
The Public Prosecution Service demanded a four-year prison sentence, of which six months were conditional, against the last care director Darryl N. of the care institution Stichting Vivence Wonen II (ZSV Wonen). He allegedly laundered almost 1.9 million euros, intended for people with a mild intellectual disability. Darryl N. and his girlfriend Dominique van D. lived like pop stars and went on luxurious trips, each had their own Porsche in front of their door, rented a luxury apartment for almost 400,000 euros and bought at the most expensive shops. In addition to the two Porsches, the police also seized a BMW i8 and an Audi A8 from N. The mildly mentally handicapped people lived in supervised accommodation in buildings of the foundation in Almere, Burcolo and Deventer, among other places. The care money intended for them disappeared into the pockets of the fraudulent couple. They filed false income tax returns and forged invoices and signatures for this. His girlfriend and her brother allegedly arranged for credit cards and bank accounts. The Public Prosecution Service demanded a one-year prison sentence against accountant Jan B. and a member of the supervisory board. A community service order of 240 hours was demanded against Dominique van D. and her brother. The healthcare institution must repay 2.1 million euros from the bankrupt estate.
A former director of the care institution Harmoniezorg in Overijssel, was sentenced in 2023 to pay 370,000 euros in damages and a two-year prison sentence, one of which was conditional, for fraud and forgery. The fraud was only discovered after the bankruptcy and an investigation by the trustee. The man had forged invoices and embezzled money.
Six hospitals are investigating the companies and foundations of their medical specialists. Dozens of cardiologists receive sponsorship money from the medical industry, intended for scientific research and education, out of sight of the hospitals. The Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam received almost 16 million euros in three years, the University Medical Center in Utrecht 7.6 million and the Leiden University Medical Center almost 5.6 million and the Isala hospital in Zwolle received millions for preferential treatment. In 2022, the Isala hospital in Zwolle suspended two cardiologists because they are suspects in a criminal investigation into corruption. The Public Prosecution Service seized assets of an emeritus professor of interventional cardiology from the Radboud UMC who previously worked at Isala, the former director of the Isala Heart Center and a retired cardiologist from Isala. The Fiod searches in the Netherlands, Germany and Curaçao. All five suspects are said to be involved in Diagram bv., which conducts non-commercial and commercial heart and blood vessel research and provides ICT services to hospitals. The FIOD also raided that company. The company was founded in 1996 by those involved. Nine cardiologists from the hospital have a joint interest of 40.5 percent in the company. The former director of the Isala Heart Center, a suspect in the investigation, also has an interest in Diagram. The cardiologists have pressured patients to get a pacemaker or implantable defibrillator. In one case, a pacemaker was implanted in a clinic in Indonesia where Isala cardiologists worked. They also invested in that clinic. the major fraud case surrounding the Isala hospital in Zwolle. The fiscal investigation service FIOD investigated cardiologists who allegedly accepted millions in bribes from Biotronik. The investigation is still ongoing. In 2022, the Fiod seized the assets of an emeritus professor of interventional cardiology at Radboud UMC who previously worked at Isala, the former director of the Isala Heart Center and a retired cardiologist from Isala. The searches were in the Netherlands, Germany and Curaçao. All five suspects are said to be involved in Diagram bv., which conducts non-commercial and commercial heart and blood vessel research and provides ICT services to hospitals. The Fiod also raided that company. The company was founded in 1996 together with the people involved. Nine cardiologists from the hospital jointly have a 40.5 percent stake in the company. The former director of the Isala Heart Center, a suspect in the investigation, also has a stake in Diagram. Internal reports showed that there was cronyism and a toxic working environment. The cardiologists put patients under pressure to get a pacemaker or implantable defibrillator.In one case, a pacemaker was implanted in a clinic in Indonesia where Isala cardiologists worked, who also invested in that clinic.
The owner of DKB Thuiszorg in Hengelo turned out to have gambled away more than 75,000 euros. In January 2023, the justice department had taken the owner, Karen Balayan, into bankruptcy custody after she had refused several times to give curator Kim Fraterman access to the company’s accounts.
The three directors of healthcare organisation Co-Med received millions from the health insurers. However, the millions were not used to pay healthcare providers but for banking. This caused the company to go bankrupt and was later put inactive by the health insurers, leaving 5,000 patients without a GP. NL Invest invested 460,000 euros and Rabobank 250,000 euros. After its own investigation, the Dutch Healthcare Authority suspects that criminal offences have been committed. The final conclusion has been transferred to the Public Prosecution Service. The NZa concludes that rules have been violated at Co-Med. For example, Co-Med asked health insurers for GP visits that had never taken place and the Healthcare Authority also saw a pattern of short consultations that were entered in the books as long consultations. The bookkeeping also did not meet the requirements. For example, there was no clear division of tasks and responsibilities and financial transactions could not be traced back to the source. The file was transferred to the Public Prosecution Service for prosecution.
Pancras Hogendoorn, vice-chair of the board of directors of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), has resigned after reports in the press that he had been aware of fraud with European research subsidies since 2021. Percuros BV, a subsidy agency that was hired, committed fraud for personal financial gain. The fraud was recorded in conversations with former PhD students of the LUMC in a security report from 2019. A whistleblower revealed in the spring of 2022 that the fraud was already discussed in December 2021. She was dismissed as a PhD student because she worked at the LUMC, but was officially employed by a Scandinavian company. Such a construction is against the rules. Despite this, the hospital did not inform subsidy provider REA.
In December 2021, the government announced that it would allocate 47.5 million euros for 2022 for the corona jobs in healthcare and the National Healthcare Class, which allows people to quickly follow healthcare training and courses. The Dutch Labour Inspectorate has reported to the Ministry of Health about possible abuse or improper use of this subsidy. ‘Very striking’ cash flows were discovered at affiliated organisations. This may involve a ‘maximum damage amount’ of 11 million euros. Some healthcare providers who received the subsidy appear to have had no employees of their own for a long time. The fraud may involve a large part of the subsidy provided: in 2021, more than 500 healthcare providers received a total of around 84 million euros.
On 5 July 2024, the Public Prosecution Service of the East Netherlands demanded prison sentences before the court in Zutphen against two residents of Apeldoorn, who, as healthcare providers, allegedly made and used false documents, including invoices, on several occasions. The Public Prosecution Service demanded a prison sentence of 21 months against a 27-year-old man. The Public Prosecution Service demanded a prison sentence of 10 months against his former partner, a 25-year-old woman, of which 4 months were conditional. Both would also be banned from working in healthcare for three years. The 27-year-old suspect manager at healthcare provider Flexzorg, a company that provided care under the Social Support Act (WMO) and the Youth Act, has frequently forged employment contracts, pay slips and annual statements of employees. For example, former employees stated that the number of hours worked was in reality much lower than what was stated in the forged employment contract. It also happened that the employee had long since left the company or that the salary stated in the employment contract did not match. The suspect also created fake invoices and proof of payment for services not provided by other, sometimes non-existent, healthcare companies. Furthermore, false annual accounts were created for Flexzorg. Forged documents were sent to the court to serve as evidence in a civil procedure between Flexzorg and municipalities. Forged documents were also sent to the municipality of Arnhem, when that municipality conducted a legality investigation. At the time, the 25-year-old woman worked closely with her partner at Flexzorg. Among other things, she did the payroll administration. She was also the owner of healthcare provider XL Zorg and in that capacity forged invoices and proof of payment to make it appear as if Flexzorg hired staff from XL Zorg for large amounts of money. In the opinion of the Public Prosecution Service, she has also been guilty of complicity in forgery on several occasions. It has also been established with regard to both suspects that they jointly committed forgery when submitting a mortgage application in the name of the female suspect. The public prosecutor demanded a prison sentence for both suspects: “I hold the suspects very responsible for damaging the trust in the correctness of documents such as invoices, employment contracts, pay slips and the like. In social intercourse, it must be assumed that such documents are truthful. The 27-year-old suspect also had an important social responsibility as a director of a care provider. A care provider is paid from public funds. He did not hesitate to introduce false documents in a civil lawsuit and a legality investigation. At all costs, he wanted to keep up the appearance that Flexzorg had provided more care than had actually happened.” The public prosecutor also demanded a ban on both suspects from working as a healthcare provider for 3 years. The verdict will be on August 22, 2024. The criminal case against the accountant of Flexzorg was heard earlier this year. The court sentenced the accountant to 240 hours of community service and a 6-month suspended prison sentence for forgery, committed multiple times. In this case, a higher sentence had been demanded by the public prosecutor. The Public Prosecution Service has appealed against this verdict.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is demanding a twenty-month prison sentence for a 51-year-old woman suspected of healthcare fraud. The woman is said to have earned money by submitting incorrect invoices to health insurers and having them paid out. She is also said to have pretended to be a general practitioner, while she had no medical qualifications. “The suspect undermined the healthcare system and used it as a criminal profit model,” according to the public prosecutor. The investigation into the suspect started in 2019, after the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) filed a complaint against the suspect. At the time, she was the director of a general practice in Utrecht. The suspicion arose after incorrect invoices were submitted to health insurers, but had been paid out. The suspicion also arose that the director had been pretending to be a general practitioner for a long time. For example, without a diploma and BIG registration, she would conduct consultations with patients herself, provide medical advice and write prescriptions. The IGJ investigation shows that the suspect provided unauthorised care in May 2018 at the very least. Similar abuses were also reported in 2017 and 2018. The patients and employees of the GP practice who were interviewed by the police confirm that the suspect presented himself as a GP. It is striking that the suspect’s partner also indicates that he was convinced that his partner had studied medicine. In addition to the witness interview, the police investigation also includes the e-mail traffic about observations in the GP practice and the invoices sent in and from the GP information system to the health insurers. After the GP practice went bankrupt, the abuses continued. This time with the help of a home care organisation that the suspect set up shortly after the bankruptcy. Presumably to prevent fraudulent invoices from being detected or to have them detected later. The investigation also shows that the suspect provides indications to health insurers and declares costs while no or less home care was provided. The suspect then makes the mistake for the third time. She once again sets up a home care organization, where she continues her abuses. When determining the sentence, the public prosecutor weighs the seriousness of the facts, the number of them, the period over which the facts took place and the attitude of the suspect, who takes no responsibility for her actions. Taking everything into account, the Public Prosecution Service demands a prison sentence of 20 months. As far as the Public Prosecution Service is concerned, the time that the suspect spent in pre-trial detention, 47 days, will be deducted from this. If it is up to the Public Prosecution Service, the suspect will also receive a fine of €25,000 and a professional ban of 60 months. The ban must prevent the suspect from working in the healthcare sector again after her prison sentence. The court will render its verdict on March 27, 2025.
Motorcycle clubs
A motorcycle club that supported charities appears to have earned 1.4 million euros with a drug lab . Two years ago, the police discovered a synthetic drug lab in a warehouse on Bankloopstraat in Olen. The drug lab appeared to be run by members of a motorcycle club that was known for supporting charities. “A few Poles cooked the drugs, members of the motorcycle club dumped the waste.” Six people involved now risk prison sentences of up to 6 years.
Motorcycle club Bandidos The court has banned the club under the flag ‘Bandidos Holland’, but under the flag ‘Bandidos Sittard’ the members are allowed on the road. This means that chapters of the club can remain active. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Bandidos is a criminal organisation whose members were guilty of extortion, assault, theft, drug trafficking and money laundering . The Public Prosecution Service demands a total of 2,272,000 euros from eight suspects. The money laundering cases will be discussed in detail later – the trial will last fifteen days. Then the lawyers of these eight suspects will have the opportunity to respond.
On March 10, 2021, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal convicted 6 Angels and the Hells Angels Haarlem Foundation itself for participating in a criminal organization. Of these, 5 were sentenced to a prison term of 20 months, of which 5 months were conditional. One of them had 2 weapons and associated ammunition in his possession and was sentenced to 25 months in prison, of which 5 months were conditional. The Foundation’s clubhouse in Haarlem was declared forfeited for an amount of €80,000. The 6 members were from the Haarlem branch of the Hells Angels (also called a charter) and, together with the Foundation and 4 other persons, formed a criminal organization. The court determined that serious violent incidents, including extortion, assault and arson, can be directly related to this charter of the Hells Angels. The 6 men did not actively participate in the acts of violence themselves, as committed by 3 other members who had already been irrevocably convicted. However, this does not affect the criminal liability of participating in a criminal organization. The charter had a clubhouse in Haarlem and the court has declared it forfeit. The prison sentences are higher than those imposed by the court.
Motorcycle club Satudarah was banned and dissolved in June 2018. The verdict was upheld on appeal and by the Supreme Court . In practice, the ban means that the Satudarah logo is banned, that members are no longer allowed to meet in clubhouses and that they are no longer allowed to wear their Satudarah vests. The chapters and support clubs are also covered by the ban. According to the Public Prosecution Service, members of Satudarah are still involved in drug trafficking and laundering the proceeds from it. The organization is said to operate in a very sophisticated manner. Prison sentences of up to nine years have been demanded against nine suspects of the now banned motorcycle club Satudarah. Among the nine suspects are four from Enschede, including the founder of the motorcycle club. They are said to be involved in large-scale smuggling and trading of cocaine from South America. Mitchell van H. from Enschede is said to have been the linchpin in this case together with the founder. A large cocaine transport from South America went wrong twice, but they did not give up. This is evident from the Public Prosecution Service’s (OM) story about the suspects. A first transport of around 2,000 kilos of coke was intercepted in the port of Antwerp. A second transport – for half the price as compensation – was intercepted at the port of departure in Ecuador. The verdict is expected on 4 February 2025. In Tilburg, ten members were arrested in January 2025 in café t Uilennest, but released after questioning. The police say that “significant amounts” of cash were seized during the raid. An arrest team was deployed during the raid. The police had been keeping an eye on the catering establishment for some time after a tip. The court in Den Bosch imposed sentences on the seven who continued the banned motorcycle club Satudarah. According to the judge, the men maintained the organizational structure and hierarchical lines. They organized Satudarah-related events, wore clothing from the motorcycle club and made attributes available and communicated with encrypted messages in chat groups. A 31-year-old member from Enschede was sentenced to eight years in prison for drug trafficking. He is said to be the initiator of the import of thousands of kilos of cocaine from Colombia. Two men from Tilburg, aged 48 and 42, were sentenced to sentences of eight and seven years, for trafficking in cocaine and MDMA, among other things. Another four men were only convicted of continuing Satudarah, and not of drug trafficking. The court also convicted three suspects of drug trafficking , without a proven link to Satudarah.
Motorcycle club Caloh Wagoh was disbanded in 2020. The Public Prosecution Service demanded life sentences for five suspects. The Public Prosecution Service demanded prison sentences ranging from 20 to 30 years for a large number of other suspects, who are also said to have cooperated in committing murders to order. A total of 21 suspects were tried in the case for carrying out five liquidations and planning another eleven murders. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Ridouan Taghi was their main client. Caloh Wagoh president Delano ‘Keylow’ R. (54) filmed many of these messages and also saved them. He planned to make a documentary. Delano accepted murder orders from, among others, Ridouan Taghi and deployed them within his network. It was almost assembly line work: the liquidations were carried out in just over half a year in 2017. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the perpetrators often had debts or an addiction or they were threatened themselves. In this way, they were pressured to cooperate. The victims were all active in the criminal circuit. One of them had previously been involved in a mistaken murder and was subsequently eliminated as a precaution, according to the Public Prosecution Service. According to the public prosecutor, the suspects did not hesitate to also “involve” innocent bystanders or family members in their murder attempts. The Caloh Wagoh case came to light after one of the perpetrators of a liquidation went to the justice department. He made a deal and became a key witness. In exchange for a lower demand, he made extensive statements about his co-suspects. For example, De G. heard that the group had a death list of 40 to 50 people to work through. The Public Prosecution Service is demanding a 10-year prison sentence for this Tony de G. Much of the evidence also came from messages sent with PGP telephones, intended for encrypted communication. The evidence in the Eris trial consisted partly of a large number of tapped chat messages from the suspects. De G. was given a reduced sentence in exchange for his statements. In addition to R., eighteen suspects were tried on appeal in February 2025. Jermaine B., Feno D., Greg R., Guyno O. and Ferrel T. were sentenced to life imprisonment. The other sentences ranged from sixteen to thirty years. Although the Public Prosecution Service is convinced that almost all the murders were carried out on Taghi’s orders, he himself will not be prosecuted. He was already sentenced to life in the Marengo trial, which concerns a large number of other liquidations. On appeal, Delano R, Jermaine B. and Feno D. were sentenced to life imprisonment.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, motorcycle club Hardliners has grown into one of the largest so-called outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) in the Netherlands and was also banned in March 2024. The Public Prosecution Service request is part of the national approach against OMGs. Hardliners was founded from prison by a 41-year-old man. He did this shortly before the ban on Hells Angels was pronounced by the court. The founder was previously sentenced to nine years in prison for, among other things, leading a Hells Angels chapter. A criminal case is currently pending at the Noord-Holland court. Several members of Hardliners, including the founder, are suspected of participating in a criminal organization focused on committing violent crimes. The Hardliners also appeared to be involved in the theft of Romanian art works from the Drents Museum in Assen. Gang members have recruited executors of the museum burglary, say sources in the criminal environment. According to them, the art theft was committed on behalf of the Romanian underworld. The valuable art pieces, including the golden helmet of Cotofenesti, are said to have been stolen as bargaining chip so that a Romanian criminal can avoid a prison sentence. This makes the most likely scenario that the irreplaceable Dacian helmet, which is 2,500 years old, is still intact. “The indications are mounting that the helmet has not been melted down,” said a source close to the police investigation. Burglars used a firework bomb to force open a door of the Drents Museum on the night of 24 to 25 January, where the exhibition ‘Dacia, empire of gold and silver’ was on display. Reportedly, within four minutes the art thieves smashed two display cases with large hammers and made off with the helmet of Cotofenesti and three gold bracelets, with a total insurance value of 5.8 million euros. The motorcycle club the Hardliners was founded in 2019 from the prison in Zaanstad by members of the banned motorcycle club Hells Angels. Over the years, members of the motorcycle club have been convicted of several criminal offenses, such as extortion, arson and assault. The leader of the Hardliners, Lysander de R., has been in custody since 2018 on suspicion of leading a criminal organization. The police immediately did everything they could to recover the Romanian heritage. The investigation quickly focused on Heerhugowaard in North Holland and the surrounding area. The police raided homes and storage spaces there and arrested seven suspects, including Douglas W. (36), Bernhard Z. (35) and Jan B. (20). The police launched an undercover operation on Jan B. before his arrest. Officers posed as representatives of foreign buyers of the Romanian helmet. They offered 400,000 euros, an amount that B. is said to have declined. When the operation proved unsuccessful, B. was arrested after all. These men are said to have been recruited with the help of the banned motorcycle gang Hardliners,report well-informed sources. “They were promised 15,000 euros per person,” says a source from the criminal circuit. One of the suspects is said to be a prospect, an aspiring member, of the Hardliners. The order for the art theft is said to have come from Romania, sources say independently of each other. The Dacian treasures are said to have been stolen on the orders of a major criminal who wants to avoid a prison sentence. This person is said to want to return the helmet and the armbands in exchange for a reduction or cancellation of his sentence. It is not unusual for criminals to purchase art treasures to serve as a barter material for a reduction in sentence. For example, two paintings by Van Gogh stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in 2003 turned up in a hidden room of the Italian drug criminal Raffaele Imperiale. The Italian had put the justice department on the trail in exchange for a lower prison sentence. And recently it emerged that a Frans Hals stolen five years ago probably ended up in the hands of the Belgian top criminal Flor B.
After the ban on big clubs like Hells Angels, Satudarah and No Surrender, the police already saw a fragmentation in the motorcycle club world. There are now 84 small outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs). These newcomers are more radical than the old clubs.
Boeing
John Barnett, 62, the whistleblower who publicly raised concerns about safety at a Boeing aircraft manufacturing plant , was found dead in his truck in a hotel parking lot in the United States.Barret retired in 2017 after 32 years at Boeing. He raised concerns about production standards at Boeing’s North Charleston, South Carolina, plant where 787 Dreamliners are built. In 2019, he told The New York Times about safety issues, alleging that defective parts had been installed in some of the planes and that there were oversight issues that could have compromised safety. He was still facing a lawsuit against Boeing and was scheduled for further questioning, but failed to show up for the hearing. His hotel was questioned. He was then found dead in his car in the hotel parking lot. He was found with a “self-inflicted wound.” A suicide note was found on the passenger seat, with phrases such as “I can’t take this anymore” and “I pray Boeing will pay,” suggesting personal distress, possibly related to his legal battle. His fingerprints were found on the note, and medical records showed he suffered from chronic stress, anxiety and PTSD, possibly exacerbated by his whistleblowing lawsuit. The Boeing factory came under stricter supervision by the American aviation authority FAA, partly due to Barnett’s complaints. Boeing has come under fire for various technical problems in recent times. For example, a 737 MAX lost a door panel during flight earlier this year and earlier this month a tire came loose on a Boeing 777 taking off. There was also a problem with the tail rudder of a 737 MAX. There was also an incident with a 787 Dreamliner that suddenly nosedived during a flight between Sydney and Auckland. Dozens of passengers were injured as a result. This too is said to have been due to a technical problem. Workers under pressure are said to have deliberately fitted substandard parts to aircraft on the production line. There were serious problems with oxygen systems, which could mean that one in four respirators would not work in an emergency. He was concerned that the rush to build new aircraft was rushing the assembly process and compromising safety. Workers allegedly failed to follow procedures designed to track components through the factory, allowing defective parts to go to waste. In some cases, substandard parts were allegedly taken from scrap bins and installed on planes under construction to avoid delays on the production line. Mr Barnett said he had raised his concerns with managers, but no action was taken. Boeing denied his claims. However, a 2017 investigation by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), confirmed some of Mr Barnett’s concerns.It was determined that the location of at least 53 “nonconforming” parts at the plant was unknown and had been considered lost. Boeing was ordered to take corrective action. On the oxygen cylinder issue, the company said that in 2017 it had “identified a number of oxygen cylinders received from the supplier that were not functioning properly.” But it denied that any of them had actually been installed on airplanes. Boeing belittled him and hampered his career for reporting the problems. At the time of his death, he had just been in Charleston for legal interviews related to that case. His death comes at a time when production standards at both Boeing and its main supplier, Spirit Aerosystems, are under intense scrutiny and a recent spate of accidents, including when an unused emergency exit door fell off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport because some bolts were missing. The FAA said a six-week audit of the company found “multiple instances where the company failed to meet quality control requirements for manufacturing. New Zealand authorities have seized the black boxes of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that ran into trouble, causing a “severe movement” due to a technical problem and injuring dozens of passengers. Latam Airlines and several passengers said the plane carrying 263 passengers and nine crew members suddenly descended sharply. The plane was eventually able to land at Auckland Airport. Twelve passengers were taken to hospital. New Zealand and Chilean authorities will jointly investigate the cause of the incident. The black boxes should provide more information about the plane’s route and communications between the pilots. Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco to Japan. The United Airlines plane carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members was en route to Osaka. The wheel came down in the airport’s employee parking lot, a car was damaged. Also in 2018 and 2019 there were two fatal accidents with new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents were with the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also turned out that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for more than a year. But after an internal investigation, the conclusion was drawn that there was no safety risk. June 12Boeing was ordered to take corrective action. On the oxygen cylinder issue, the company said that in 2017 it had “identified a number of oxygen cylinders received from the supplier that were not functioning properly.” But it denied that any of them had actually been installed on airplanes. Boeing belittled him and hampered his career for reporting the problems. At the time of his death, he had just been in Charleston for legal interviews related to that case. His death comes at a time when production standards at both Boeing and its main supplier, Spirit Aerosystems, are under intense scrutiny and a recent spate of accidents, including when an unused emergency exit door fell off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport because some bolts were missing. The FAA said a six-week audit of the company found “multiple instances where the company failed to meet quality control requirements for manufacturing. New Zealand authorities have seized the black boxes of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that ran into trouble, causing a “severe movement” due to a technical problem and injuring dozens of passengers. Latam Airlines and several passengers said the plane carrying 263 passengers and nine crew members suddenly descended sharply. The plane was eventually able to land at Auckland Airport. Twelve passengers were taken to hospital. New Zealand and Chilean authorities will jointly investigate the cause of the incident. The black boxes should provide more information about the plane’s route and communications between the pilots. Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco to Japan. The United Airlines plane carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members was en route to Osaka. The wheel came down in the airport’s employee parking lot, a car was damaged. Also in 2018 and 2019 there were two fatal accidents with new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents were with the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also turned out that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for more than a year. But after an internal investigation, the conclusion was drawn that there was no safety risk. June 12Boeing was ordered to take corrective action. On the oxygen cylinder issue, the company said that in 2017 it had “identified a number of oxygen cylinders received from the supplier that were not functioning properly.” But it denied that any of them had actually been installed on airplanes. Boeing belittled him and hampered his career for reporting the problems. At the time of his death, he had just been in Charleston for legal interviews related to that case. His death comes at a time when production standards at both Boeing and its main supplier, Spirit Aerosystems, are under intense scrutiny and a recent spate of accidents, including when an unused emergency exit door fell off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport because some bolts were missing. The FAA said a six-week audit of the company found “multiple instances where the company failed to meet quality control requirements for manufacturing. New Zealand authorities have seized the black boxes of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that ran into trouble, causing a “severe movement” due to a technical problem and injuring dozens of passengers. Latam Airlines and several passengers said the plane carrying 263 passengers and nine crew members suddenly descended sharply. The plane was eventually able to land at Auckland Airport. Twelve passengers were taken to hospital. New Zealand and Chilean authorities will jointly investigate the cause of the incident. The black boxes should provide more information about the plane’s route and communications between the pilots. Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco to Japan. The United Airlines plane carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members was en route to Osaka. The wheel came down in the airport’s employee parking lot, a car was damaged. Also in 2018 and 2019 there were two fatal accidents with new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents were with the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also turned out that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for more than a year. But after an internal investigation, the conclusion was drawn that there was no safety risk. June 12But it denied that any of them had actually been installed in planes. Boeing belittled him and hampered his career for raising the issues. At the time of his death, he had just been in Charleston for legal interviews related to that case. His death comes at a time when production standards at both Boeing and its main supplier, Spirit Aerosystems, are under intense scrutiny and a recent spate of accidents, including when an unused emergency exit door fell off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport because some bolts were missing. The FAA said a six-week audit of the company found “multiple instances where the company failed to meet quality control requirements for manufacturing. New Zealand authorities have seized the black boxes of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that ran into trouble, causing a “severe movement” due to a technical problem and injuring dozens of passengers. Latam Airlines and several passengers said the plane carrying 263 passengers and nine crew members suddenly descended sharply. The plane was eventually able to land at Auckland Airport. Twelve passengers were taken to hospital. New Zealand and Chilean authorities will jointly investigate the cause of the incident. The black boxes should provide more information about the plane’s route and communications between the pilots. Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco to Japan. The United Airlines plane carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members was en route to Osaka. The wheel came down in the airport’s employee parking lot, a car was damaged. Also in 2018 and 2019 there were two fatal accidents with new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents were with the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also turned out that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for more than a year. But after an internal investigation, the conclusion was drawn that there was no safety risk. June 12But it denied that any of them had actually been installed in planes. Boeing belittled him and hampered his career for raising the issues. At the time of his death, he had just been in Charleston for legal interviews related to that case. His death comes at a time when production standards at both Boeing and its main supplier, Spirit Aerosystems, are under intense scrutiny and a recent spate of accidents, including when an unused emergency exit door fell off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport because some bolts were missing. The FAA said a six-week audit of the company found “multiple instances where the company failed to meet quality control requirements for manufacturing. New Zealand authorities have seized the black boxes of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that ran into trouble, causing a “severe movement” due to a technical problem and injuring dozens of passengers. Latam Airlines and several passengers said the plane carrying 263 passengers and nine crew members suddenly descended sharply. The plane was eventually able to land at Auckland Airport. Twelve passengers were taken to hospital. New Zealand and Chilean authorities will jointly investigate the cause of the incident. The black boxes should provide more information about the plane’s route and communications between the pilots. Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco to Japan. The United Airlines plane carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members was en route to Osaka. The wheel came down in the airport’s employee parking lot, a car was damaged. Also in 2018 and 2019 there were two fatal accidents with new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents were with the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also turned out that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for more than a year. But after an internal investigation, the conclusion was drawn that there was no safety risk. June 12such as when an unused emergency exit door fell off a brand new Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport because some bolts were missing. The FAA said a six-week audit of the company found “multiple instances where the company failed to meet quality control requirements for manufacturing. New Zealand authorities have seized the black boxes of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that ran into trouble, causing a “severe movement” due to a technical problem and injuring dozens of passengers. Latam Airlines and several passengers said the plane carrying 263 passengers and nine crew members suddenly descended sharply. The plane was eventually able to land at Auckland Airport. Twelve passengers were taken to hospital. New Zealand and Chilean authorities will jointly investigate the cause of the incident. The black boxes should provide more information about the plane’s route and communications between the pilots. Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco to Japan. The United Airlines plane carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members was en route to Osaka. The wheel came down in the airport’s employee parking lot, a car was damaged. Also in 2018 and 2019 there were two fatal accidents with new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents were with the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also turned out that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for more than a year. But after an internal investigation, the conclusion was drawn that there was no safety risk. June 12such as when an unused emergency exit door fell off a brand new Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport because some bolts were missing. The FAA said a six-week audit of the company found “multiple instances where the company failed to meet quality control requirements for manufacturing. New Zealand authorities have seized the black boxes of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that ran into trouble, causing a “severe movement” due to a technical problem and injuring dozens of passengers. Latam Airlines and several passengers said the plane carrying 263 passengers and nine crew members suddenly descended sharply. The plane was eventually able to land at Auckland Airport. Twelve passengers were taken to hospital. New Zealand and Chilean authorities will jointly investigate the cause of the incident. The black boxes should provide more information about the plane’s route and communications between the pilots. Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco to Japan. The United Airlines plane carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members was en route to Osaka. The wheel came down in the airport’s employee parking lot, a car was damaged. Also in 2018 and 2019 there were two fatal accidents with new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents were with the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also turned out that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for more than a year. But after an internal investigation, the conclusion was drawn that there was no safety risk. June 12Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 en route from San Francisco to Japan lost a wheel during take-off. The United Airlines plane was carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members en route to Osaka. The wheel landed on the airport’s staff parking lot, damaging a car. In 2018 and 2019, there were also two fatal accidents involving new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents involved the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also emerged that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for over a year. However, after an internal investigation, it was concluded that there was no safety risk. June 12Earlier, a Boeing 777-200 en route from San Francisco to Japan lost a wheel during take-off. The United Airlines plane was carrying 235 passengers and 14 crew members en route to Osaka. The wheel landed on the airport’s staff parking lot, damaging a car. In 2018 and 2019, there were also two fatal accidents involving new Boeing aircraft in which technical errors played a role. Both accidents involved the slightly shorter Max 8 aircraft, but the 737 Max 9 was also grounded for inspection at the time. American research showed that Boeing had never reported changes to the system to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It also emerged that Boeing had known about the problems with the failing warning system for over a year. However, after an internal investigation, it was concluded that there was no safety risk. June 12another Boeing crashed on top of a block of flats where medical students lived. Besides 241 people died and also 5 students from the block of flats died.
FTX
In New York, the trial of 31-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried began on October 3, 2023, after he was arrested on December 12, 2022 in his $30 million mansion in the Bahamas on suspicion of the largest fraud in American history. In November 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy, after which the cesspool opened. FTX, which was one of the big boys both inside and outside the crypto world, was destroyed by fraud. When FTX declared bankruptcy, it turned out that $10 billion had been transferred to Alameda, of which $1 billion disappeared to the Cayman Islands. From an estimated value of $40 billion, FTX went to a deficit of $9 billion. Sam Bankman-Fried personally ordered the deception of customers of his crypto trading platform, Caroline Ellison testified in court. She herself already admitted to large-scale fraud last year, Alameda, the investment fund of Bankman-Fried, used according to her around 10 billion dollars from FTX customers. In 2017 he founded crypto trading house Alameda and in 2019 he brought FTX to the stock exchange supported by Katy Perry, Bill Clinton, Tom Brady, Tony Blair and even Blackrock and Softbank. At the beginning of 2022, the company was worth 31 billion euros. On November 2, 2022, Coindesk published how FTX filled holes in the balance sheet of crypto trading house Alameda. Alameda lent a lot of money to other weak crypto companies. To conceal this, FTX’s own cryptocurrency, FTT, was put on the balance sheet for a lot of value. The price of FTX dropped enormously after the publication. Binance withdrew confidence and customers withdrew their crypto from FTX. The value of crypto coins fell by 230 billion dollars worldwide. A week later, FTX customers could no longer access their accounts. The big crypto companies no longer wanted to do business with FTX. This was a problem for Solana in particular, because FTX owns 685 million dollars of Solana. He was found guilty on all counts of seven charges, two for fraud and five for conspiracy. During the trial, he was accused of stealing 8 billion dollars (more than 7.5 billion euros) from his customers. This makes the case one of the largest financial frauds ever. During the trial, several friends and colleagues stated that Bankman-Fried had personally ordered the deception of his customers.
FEST
The energy investment fund FEIST (Fund for Energy, Innovation, Sustainability and Technology) was established in 2009 to support and guide start-up Dutch companies in the field of sustainable energy and technology. The legal predecessor of FEIST was established on 17 July 2008 and converted from a BV to a NV on 2 December 2009. In this conversion, DIR Management BV of Henk K. was acquired. Director Communitize (a subsidiary of MVO Holding BV) and EDG Media, a subsidiary of EJT Management Nederland BV each held 40% of the shares and Naga (of Perycom Consulting and private holding of Henny P.) held the remaining 20%. Soops in turn held 49.8% of the shares in EDG. Groet Houdstermaatschappij BV of Floor Mouthaan held the remaining 50.2%. EDG had no employees and generated no turnover. FEIST agreed to generate 200,000 euros in turnover for Soops BV through its investments, provided that Soops Investment, via EDG, would buy 500,000 shares in Feist. Soops subsequently only paid the first 300,000. In AlgaeSpring, FEIST contributed less than half of the agreed amount and its obligations towards Vertec were also only met up to an amount of €678,000. On 1 December 2012, DIR Management stepped down and Perycom Consulting BV became a director. As of 19 March 2013, Communitize became a director of FEIST. Start-ups that primarily focused on sustainable energy production and infrastructure, energy conservation & efficiency, energy storage, biobased economy and recycling & waste management could apply to FEIST, which was led by Henk K. However, in December 2012, Henk K. left after his business empire collapsed. His place was filled by Henny P. (ex-VBird and ex Senior Investment Manager at his RIG Investments NV), Paul S. (ex-TopTel) and Floor M. (of Greenfield Capital, Gold‐Zack AG, Transmatch and TCP Invest, EPF, Flevo Invest, Oostveen, De Buitenplaats, Mansfeld, NHD, ZES, etc.). The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), a department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, awarded FEIST a subsidy of 2,375,000 euros in 2012, which enabled it to finance interests in six sustainable companies: FlexSol Solutions, Vertec Clean Technologies, Compakboard, Algaespring, Compotape and Bistrena. Under the “SEED Capital” scheme, no more money is provided to a fund than the private investment amount of that fund. FEIST subsequently invested in participations in FlexSol, Compakboard, AlgaeSpring, Vertec, Bistrena and Compotape in 2012 and 2013 by means of participation agreements and entered into contribution obligations for a total amount of 6,250,000 euros: 16 October 2012 for 1.5 million euros with Compakboard in exchange for 20% of the shares. 2 November 2012 for 900,000 euros with FlexSol in exchange for a phased one third of the shares, 4 June 2013 with Vertec for 1.5 million in exchange for a 30% shareholding. 12 July 2013 for 350.000 euros in exchange for a 25% shareholding and 14 August 2013 for 500,000 euros with Compotape for 27.5% of the share capital. After this first investment round, the fund was unable to meet its further commitments in 2014. Floor M. has been an unpaid interim director through his company FM Diensten since 24 February 2014. On 13 March 2014, Perycom resigned from the board, after which AlgaeSpring and Vertec had Feist conservatorily attached in June 2014. FM Diensten, in consultation with the RVO, terminated all agreements with advisors and managers as of 31 July 2014 and completed the sale of Bistrena and Compakboard. On 28 August 2014, Communitize also resigned. From that moment on, Floor M. of FM Diensten was the sole director. On October 15, 2014, FlexSol threatened to file for bankruptcy because the payment of the first two tranches had taken place too late and because the remaining 500,000 euros had not been paid at all. In November 2014, FlexSol filed for the bankruptcy of FEIST. On November 27, 2014, RVO withdrew the subsidy in full and informed FEIST of its decision to reclaim an amount of 2,375,000 euros. FEIST did not object to this decision in time. On December 24, 2014, FEIST sold its 432 shares in the capital of AlgaeSpring for € 1 per share to Limen BV (the other shareholder of AlgaeSpring). In order to prevent bankruptcy, the FlexSol shares were also sold for € 1 each to the other shareholder of FlexSol (RapSice BV) on January 7, 2015. RVO has kept the FEIST website open to this day, despite its better judgment. On 2 June 2015, RVO served a writ of execution on FEIST and subsequently levied an attachment on the shares in Compakboard, Vertec, Bistrena and Compotape on 31 August 2015. Some of the shares in Compotape had already been sold unlawfully. In December, the Compakboard shares were also liquidated. Soops protested in vain and Flexsol and Vertec were in danger of collapsing in the meantime. Soops went to court and was proven right. The Enterprise Chamber instructed The Hague lawyer Bruno Tideman of Wessel, Tideman & Sassen Advocaten to investigate the matter. The founders were said to have deposited the required initial capital, but the money was immediately returned to the fund as a loan to the founders after it was established. They were unable to return those deposits.On 13 March 2014, Perycom resigned from the board, after which AlgaeSpring and Vertec had Feist conservatorily attached in June 2014. FM Diensten, in consultation with the RVO, terminated all agreements with advisors and managers as of 31 July 2014 and completed the sale of Bistrena and Compakboard. Communitize also resigned on 28 August 2014. From that moment on, Floor M. of FM Diensten was the sole director. On 15 October 2014, FlexSol threatened to file for bankruptcy because the payment of the first two tranches had taken place too late and because the remaining 500,000 euros had not been paid at all. In November 2014, FlexSol filed for FEIST’s bankruptcy. On 27 November 2014, RVO withdrew the subsidy in full and informed FEIST of its decision to reclaim an amount of 2,375,000 euros. FEIST failed to lodge a timely objection to this decision. On 24 December 2014, FEIST sold its 432 shares in the capital of AlgaeSpring for €1 per share to Limen BV (the other shareholder of AlgaeSpring). In order to prevent bankruptcy, the FlexSol shares were also sold for €1 each to the other shareholder of FlexSol (RapSice BV) on 7 January 2015. RVO has, to this day, kept the FEIST website open against its better judgment. On 2 June 2015, RVO served a writ of execution on FEIST and subsequently levied an execution on the shares in Compakboard, Vertec, Bistrena and Compotape on 31 August 2015. Some of the shares in Compotape had already been sold unlawfully. In December, the Compakboard shares were also liquidated. Soops protested in vain and Flexsol and Vertec were in danger of collapsing in the meantime. Soops went to court and was proven right. The Enterprise Chamber instructed The Hague lawyer Bruno Tideman of Wessel, Tideman & Sassen Advocaten to investigate the matter. The founders had deposited the required initial capital, but the money was immediately returned to the fund as a loan to the founders after the foundation. They were unable to return those deposits.On 13 March 2014, Perycom resigned from the board, after which AlgaeSpring and Vertec had Feist conservatorily attached in June 2014. FM Diensten, in consultation with the RVO, terminated all agreements with advisors and managers as of 31 July 2014 and completed the sale of Bistrena and Compakboard. Communitize also resigned on 28 August 2014. From that moment on, Floor M. of FM Diensten was the sole director. On 15 October 2014, FlexSol threatened to file for bankruptcy because the payment of the first two tranches had taken place too late and because the remaining 500,000 euros had not been paid at all. In November 2014, FlexSol filed for FEIST’s bankruptcy. On 27 November 2014, RVO withdrew the subsidy in full and informed FEIST of its decision to reclaim an amount of 2,375,000 euros. FEIST failed to lodge a timely objection to this decision. On 24 December 2014, FEIST sold its 432 shares in the capital of AlgaeSpring for €1 per share to Limen BV (the other shareholder of AlgaeSpring). In order to prevent bankruptcy, the FlexSol shares were also sold for €1 each to the other shareholder of FlexSol (RapSice BV) on 7 January 2015. RVO has, to this day, kept the FEIST website open against its better judgment. On 2 June 2015, RVO served a writ of execution on FEIST and subsequently levied an execution on the shares in Compakboard, Vertec, Bistrena and Compotape on 31 August 2015. Some of the shares in Compotape had already been sold unlawfully. In December, the Compakboard shares were also liquidated. Soops protested in vain and Flexsol and Vertec were in danger of collapsing in the meantime. Soops went to court and was proven right. The Enterprise Chamber instructed The Hague lawyer Bruno Tideman of Wessel, Tideman & Sassen Advocaten to investigate the matter. The founders had deposited the required initial capital, but the money was immediately returned to the fund as a loan to the founders after the foundation. They were unable to return those deposits.On 24 December 2014, FEIST sold its 432 shares in the capital of AlgaeSpring for €1 per share to Limen BV (the other shareholder of AlgaeSpring). In order to prevent bankruptcy, the FlexSol shares were also sold for €1 each to the other shareholder of FlexSol (RapSice BV) on 7 January 2015. RVO has kept the FEIST website open to this day, against its better judgment. On 2 June 2015, RVO served a writ of execution on FEIST and subsequently levied an execution on the shares in Compakboard, Vertec, Bistrena and Compotape on 31 August 2015. Some of the shares in Compotape had already been sold unlawfully. In December, the Compakboard shares were also liquidated. Soops protested in vain and Flexsol and Vertec were in danger of collapsing in the meantime. Soops went to court and was proven right. The Enterprise Chamber has instructed The Hague lawyer Bruno Tideman of Wessel, Tideman & Sassen Advocaten to investigate the matter. The founders would have deposited the required initial capital, but the money was immediately returned to the fund as a loan to the founders after the foundation. They were unable to return those deposits.On 24 December 2014, FEIST sold its 432 shares in the capital of AlgaeSpring for €1 per share to Limen BV (the other shareholder of AlgaeSpring). In order to prevent bankruptcy, the FlexSol shares were also sold for €1 each to the other shareholder of FlexSol (RapSice BV) on 7 January 2015. RVO has kept the FEIST website open to this day, against its better judgment. On 2 June 2015, RVO served a writ of execution on FEIST and subsequently levied an execution on the shares in Compakboard, Vertec, Bistrena and Compotape on 31 August 2015. Some of the shares in Compotape had already been sold unlawfully. In December, the Compakboard shares were also liquidated. Soops protested in vain and Flexsol and Vertec were in danger of collapsing in the meantime. Soops went to court and was proven right. The Enterprise Chamber has instructed The Hague lawyer Bruno Tideman of Wessel, Tideman & Sassen Advocaten to investigate the matter. The founders would have deposited the required initial capital, but the money was immediately returned to the fund as a loan to the founders after the foundation. They were unable to return those deposits.
Glencore International AG
Under the supervision of the Public Prosecution Service (OM), the Anti-Corruption Centre of the FIOD started a criminal investigation in early 2018 into, among others, Glencore International AG, established in Baar (Switzerland). This investigation focused on possible bribery of high-ranking officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to obtain mining licenses in cobalt and copper mines. At the same time, the Swiss Public Prosecution Service also conducted a criminal investigation into possible official bribery in the Democratic Republic of Congo in connection with the acquisition of these mining licenses. On 5 August 2024, the Swiss Public Prosecution Service imposed a penalty order on Glencore International AG for failing to take the necessary measures to prevent bribery in the acquisition of mining licenses in Congo through the purchase of shares in two mining companies in 2011.
During the investigations, there was particularly good cooperation between the Netherlands and Switzerland, with information being exchanged on the basis of mutual legal assistance. Because Glencore is a Swiss company, both countries prefer criminal prosecution in Switzerland. Due to the penalty imposed in Switzerland, Glencore International AG will no longer be summoned in the Netherlands and the Public Prosecution Service will drop the case. The investigation into the co-suspects will continue. The investigation, which lasted four years, resulted in a summary penalty order based on social responsibility for the fact that Glencore did not take all necessary and reasonable organizational measures with regard to the bribery of foreign officials by a business partner in connection with the acquisition of minority interests in two mining companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2011. The OAG ordered Glencore to pay a fine of CHF 2 million and damages of USD 150 million. With regard to some of the other facts investigated by the OAG, which relate to Glencore’s business activities in the DRC between 2007 and 2017, the OAG has issued a cessation order. Glencore also paid around €1.3 billion in settlements and fines in 2022 for widespread corruption practices. The group had to pay over €1.1 billion to the US justice department for, among other things, bribery on an ‘appalling scale’ of officials in countries in Africa and South America. ABP has invested tens of millions in Glencore. In 2011, a business partner of Glencore bribed a Congolese high-ranking official. In return, he received minority shares in the state mining company for less than their value. Glencore benefited from the advantages of that deal. Moreover, according to the Swiss authorities, the company did too little to prevent corruption. Alex Beard, who led Glencore’s oil division from 2007 until his retirement in 2019, will be replaced by former Glencore CEOdirectors Andrew Gibson, Paul Hopkirk, Ramon Labiaga and Martin Wakefield have been charged in the United Kingdom. The Italian fiscal police had already arrested the former director of the Port of Genoa, Paola Emilio Signorini, in May on suspicion of corruption. In addition to Signorini, the President of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti and the entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli, owner of the Spinelli GPT Genoa Port Terminal terminal, were also arrested. They have been placed under house arrest pending the investigation and are now facing trial. Iren has dismissed CEO Paolo Emilio Signorini for legitimate reasons following his arrest for corruption on 7 May. The decision was taken during the Board of Directors meeting of the multi-utility. The dismissal was motivated by the “objective incompatibility of Signorini’s work performance, as top manager of Iren, with the contingent situation that had arisen”. The manager has been under house arrest since 7 May, following the judicial earthquake in Liguria in which the President of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti, was also involved. The precautionary measures were confirmed despite the objections of his defense, creating “an impossibility, now irreversible and no longer merely temporary, to exercise his functions as top manager,” the multi-utility explained in a note.
Golf Plaza
The 53-year-old accountant Edwin Dirne of Notarishuys in Veldhoven embezzled around 13.1 million euros from a third-party account in 14 years (2008 to 2022). He owned Golfplaza, the branches of which in Eindhoven, Rijswijk, Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel and Vianen had to close after his malpractices were discovered by Rabobank. The bankruptcy was requested by the fraudster and owner Edwin Dirne himself. His home in Nuenen has now been sold subject to conditions. Dirne drove Porsches with the embezzled money and he took over the Golfplaza foundation. In the summer of 2022, Rabobank raised the alarm because of a suspicious transaction. Dirne had tried to transfer money to his own business account, but had stated ’the Tax Authorities’ as the recipient, in the hope of concealing where the money would actually go. However, the account number turned out to be that of one of his companies. Het Notarishuys is now demanding almost 3.7 million in damages from the man. The man’s wife also worked at the notary’s office. The notaries were later reprimanded for poor control and supervision. In addition to his position at the notary’s office, Dirne had his own financial SME consultancy AB+ in Eindhoven. The embezzlement went so smoothly that the man became overconfident and embezzled a lot of money, especially in 2020; in that year he took over the chain of golf shops Golfplaza. That chain was declared bankrupt earlier this month because Het Notarishuys is trying to recover the missing millions via Golfplaza. For example, the stock of golf bags and clothing was seized, after which the accountant filed for bankruptcy. 44 people lost their jobs. Two notaries were reprimanded for insufficient supervision. The accountant and the BFT also did not smell a rat. For his work, the accountant had bank cards with their own PIN code. This gave him access to the office’s third-party accounts and allowed him to prepare payments from these accounts. The two notaries then authorised and executed the prepared payments using their own bank cards and PIN codes. For years, the bookkeeper was able to transfer amounts to himself using the bank card and PIN code of one of the notaries. The notaries, the accountant and the Financial Supervision Office (BFT) did not detect these payments. The bookkeeper was able to continue doing so for years, because he had allegedly received the PIN code from the notaries to authorise (urgent) payments. However, the notary involved emphatically disputed this. After investigating the fraud, the BFT ultimately filed a complaint with the Chamber for the Notarial Profession. The two notaries were accused of not having adequately supervised their third-party accounts. Due to the custody deficit that arose in the accounts, third parties who had entrusted their money to the notary in good faith ran the risk of losing everything.The Chamber will consider the complaint and finds that the notaries were careless. They put their bank cards from the third-party accounts in a cupboard in the financial department that was not locked during the day. In doing so, they took the risk, according to the Chamber, that others could use the cards if their PIN code became known. The Chamber emphasises that the notaries themselves were in no way involved in the fraud. They themselves are also victims of the fraudulent business and that does not go unnoticed by the notaries and their employees. After discovering the fraud, the notaries did everything in their power to limit the consequences of the fraud where possible and to improve and optimise the way in which payments were made. The Chamber finds that the notaries could not have been expected to be aware of the sophisticated way in which the accountant operated. The accountant used forged payment orders to surreptitiously transfer amounts to himself and to cleverly conceal them in the administration. The Chamber is concerned about the fact that the notaries, the BFT and the accountant have for years assumed data that had been manipulated by the bookkeeper. In order to prevent such large-scale fraud in the future, the Chamber would have expected the BFT to have made clear what lessons could be learned from this. The Chamber for the Notary Profession does not consider dismissal from office or an unconditional suspension from the exercise of the office appropriate. The notaries have spared no effort or expense to limit the consequences of the fraud where possible and to optimise their (payment) organisation. According to the Chamber, a conditional suspension would be the most appropriate, but the Wna – unlike the Advocatenwet – does not provide for this possibility. That is why the Chamber is content with imposing a reprimand on both notaries and they are ordered to pay the legal costs. Former lawyer and presenter of NPO Khalid Kasem was suspected of bribing a civil servant. Sound recordings were published on Geen Stijl in which he admits to the bribery, but that would have been an excuse to make his client pay. The Dean acquitted him of this and gave him a reprimand. The bribery has therefore not been established “and is also very unlikely and of little use given the underlying structures and processes of the Dutch Prison and Probation Service (DJI)”, according to Dean Barbara Rumora-Scheltema. Another client of Khalid Kasem has also claimed that he was offered to bribe an official in order to get him out of prison sooner. This would appear from another recorded conversation on 28 January 2019. Kasem initially asked for an amount of 10,000 euros. In a later agreement, this would have increased to 12,000 euros. The Dean also re-examined the alleged leaking of confidential documents by Kasem to Taghi’s criminal organisation.Kasem is said to have shared documents from the file during his time as a lawyer, while restrictions were still in place, but he has not been able to find any evidence for this either. Khalid Kasem, as the audio recordings show, was in direct contact withcriminal Ridouan Taghi , presumably at the time when he was still at large. In 2020, suspicions arose that Kasem had actively leaked to Taghi’s organization. Khalid denied all allegations. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal will hear Taghi’s appeal on April 8, 2024 (read more). The hearings will be held at the Schiphol Judicial Complex. On February 27, 2024, the verdict in this criminal case was pronounced by the Amsterdam District Court. 3 suspects were sentenced to life imprisonment, including Ridouan T. A total of 6 life sentences were demanded. 17 people were tried on suspicion of participating in a criminal organization and involvement in (attempted) murders and liquidation preparations. After discovering the fraud, the notaries made every effort to limit the consequences of the fraud where possible and to improve and optimize the method of making payments. The Chamber finds that the notaries could not have been expected to anticipate the sophisticated manner in which the accountant operated. The accountant used forged payment orders to surreptitiously transfer amounts to himself and cleverly conceal them in the administration. The Chamber is concerned about the fact that the notaries, the BFT and the accountant have for years assumed the data that had been manipulated by the accountant. In order to prevent such large-scale fraud in the future, the Chamber would have expected the BFT to have made clear what lessons could be learned from this. The Chamber for the Notarial Profession does not consider dismissal from office or unconditional suspension from the exercise of office appropriate. The notaries have spared no expense or effort to limit the consequences of the fraud where possible and to optimise their (payment) organisation. According to the Chamber, a conditional suspension would be the most appropriate, but the Wna – unlike the Advocatenwet – does not provide for this possibility. Therefore, the chamber is satisfied with imposing a reprimand on both notaries and they are ordered to pay the legal costs. Golf Plaza went bankrupt and several stores were taken over by Jumbo Sports/Jumbo Golf in March 2023.
Greenfield
John Arthur F. van V. (1939) is a businessman from the travel industry with a capital of approximately 9.2 billion in BCD Holdings NV. He founded the investment company ‘Noro Group of Companies’ with funds and investments in Europe and North America. In 1986 he founded BCD and in 1987 he bought WorldTravel Advisors. In 1999 WorldTravel Advisors merged with BTI Americas and since then the company was called WorldTravel BTI until they were taken over by the German BCD Travel. In 1995 investment fund Noro sold its venture capital funds. The funds, which had a size of approximately half a billion guilders, were then managed by the company Greenfield Capital Partners. The Noro Group of Companies in Zeist, has released a report with incriminating information about Fentener van V. and about the investment policy of Noro-Properties in 1989, one of the umbrella funds of Noro Group, under duress. John F. van V. withdrew, but retained a minority interest in the new company. The CEO of Noro was JK van K. and the director was Floor M. Noro had been trying to dismantle its own organization for some time. In 1991, shareholders accused F. of personal enrichment and conflict of interest. New capital could hardly be attracted after that, because the Noro name had become tainted. It was then decided to dismantle the organization. First, the real estate would be sold off and then the venture capital would be made independent. Noro failed to reach an agreement with the real estate fund VIB, which had shown interest in Noro’s real estate portfolio. After a mutual audit, in which Noro also examined VIB’s American portfolio, Noro decided not to proceed with the sale. Noro then sold Nuts-Noro Groei Rendement, in which private individuals had invested 36 million, to VSB Mix Fund. The new Greenfield, whose management remained in the hands of Floor M. and R. van den H., emphasized that the company no longer had anything to do with the old Noro. However, John F. van V. still had a minority interest of approximately 20 percent in Greenfield. He currently has shares in the management company, which manages the funds, through his company NMAS. The securities bank Kempen became a shareholder in Greenfield. Previously, Kempen and Noro jointly managed the investment company Tolsteeg and Noro had been a shareholder in the securities bank for a long time. The shareholders were not yet aware of the sale. In 1995, Greenfield Capital Partners was created through a Management Buy-Out. After becoming independent, Greenfield Capital Partners focused on private equity. The shareholders want to use a report on Fentener by V. to start proceedings. They claim damages of 59 million dollars. In the report, Van V. is accused of abusing inside information.He is also said to have shifted interests between Noro components and collected extra commissions in the process. Until then, the compilers of the report were facing a penalty of 5 million guilders if they breached their confidentiality obligation. Floor M., the former director of Greenfield Capital Partners, had to repay 30 million euros in the aftermath of Marcel Boekhoorn’s Telfort deal. In June 2005, Telfort announced that they had been sold to KPN for over €1 billion. Marcel B. bought Nethave from Telfort for €157 million in November 2003 and the Greenfield fund took a stake of over 23% in the investment vehicle with which Boekhoorn is involved in Telfort. Clemens V. and Peter V. were involved in Nethave from the start. Nevertheless, Vehmijer and Vervest are seizing €130 million from the Telfort deal with their investment vehicle D-Age. Vehmeijer and Vervest believed that they were entitled to a share of the proceeds from the lucrative Nethave participations, because they had a so-called co-investment agreement with Floor M. A judge agreed with this at the end of 2007 and awarded D-Age €18.2 million as a profit share from the sale of Canal+. Both Nethave and D-Age appealed, after which the amount increased to €30 million in a settlement. Nethave transferred the amount, but discovered at the beginning of 2009 that Vehmijer transferred €300,000 to Floor M.’s account on the day that the co-investment agreement was recorded at the notary and later another €300,000. The Nethave lawyer reported that Floor M. had at least been influenced as a witness. Nethave then annulled the settlement and claimed the €30 million back from V., V. and Floor MV and V. did not have to pay anything back to Nethave, according to the judge, but Floor M. did. while the money had not gone to him but to D-Age.after which the amount increased to €30 million in a settlement. Nethave transferred the amount, but discovered in early 2009 that Vehmijer transferred €300,000 to Floor M.’s account on the day the co-investment agreement was recorded at the notary and later another €300,000. The Nethave lawyer reported that Floor M. had at least been influenced as a witness. Nethave then annulled the settlement and claimed the €30 million back from V., V. and Floor MV and V. did not have to pay anything back to Nethave according to the judge, Floor M. did. while the money had not gone to him but to D-Age.after which the amount increased to €30 million in a settlement. Nethave transferred the amount, but discovered in early 2009 that Vehmijer transferred €300,000 to Floor M.’s account on the day the co-investment agreement was recorded at the notary and later another €300,000. The Nethave lawyer reported that Floor M. had at least been influenced as a witness. Nethave then annulled the settlement and claimed the €30 million back from V., V. and Floor MV and V. did not have to pay anything back to Nethave according to the judge, Floor M. did. while the money had not gone to him but to D-Age.
In August 2010, Henk K. borrowed over a million from George Banken, Leo van Doorne and Jan Renders. Because Henk K. did not pay them back, various procedures, seizures and bankruptcies followed. On October 5, 2012, his RIG Investments hodn North European Capital Fund was declared bankrupt with 55.5 million euros in creditors on its books and on October 16, AMJ Jamie BVard was also declared bankrupt. There is a residual debt of almost 40 million euros and it is unclear whether the shady financial assets that represent those debts in RIG can actually be converted into cash. On February 18, 2014, Dragon’s D Holding BV was declared bankrupt, on March 18, Intowuzz BV and on May 24, his holding company Acintya BV. On July 10, 2015, Henk K. was finally also declared bankrupt as a private individual. In 2009, Henk K. was the initiator of the website “Stop the Crisis”.
IT
Energy company Hollandse Energie Maatschappij (HEM) is said to have abused the price cap for “many millions”. This year, energy suppliers received compensation in connection with the price cap that the government had set for consumers. If the energy price was higher than that cap, suppliers were paid the difference. De Volkskrant writes that HEM charged rates that were twice as high as the market average. Because of the price cap, customers did not notice this. HEM has several thousand households and companies as customers. At the end of 2021, when energy prices were very high, several energy suppliers went bankrupt. Since then, ACM has been checking whether suppliers have purchased sufficient electricity and gas for the winter to be able to supply all consumers with energy. Last year, ten suppliers came under increased supervision, including HEM, which was also fined 1.1 million by the ACM for misleading and aggressively approaching consumers. Acquired customers were faced with high termination fees after they switched to HEM after much insistence.
Kisean Anderson/Kingston
Artist Sean Kingston and his mother have been found guilty of fraud worth almost 1 million euros. Kingston and his mother Janice Turner defrauded several companies to obtain luxury watches and jewelry, among other things. Kingston, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, broke through in 2007 with the song Beautiful Girls. He has worked with Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown. According to the jury, the 35-year-old artist abused his fame to persuade companies to deliver their goods. Payment would then follow later, but the companies waited in vain for their money. Kingston and his mother showed false bank transfers and tried to keep the goods. For example, a victim stated in court that he gave Kingston a watch worth more than 250,000 euros in exchange for the promise of gaining access to the artist world. Instead, the victim said he received something that looked like a payment confirmation, which the bank said was fake. Prosecutors called the pair “masters of deception and fraud”. After the verdict, Kingston’s mother was immediately detained, because according to the jury she is the mastermind behind the fraud case. She has already served a prison sentence for fraud. Kingston has been placed under house arrest. In July 2025, the two will hear their sentences. The artist and his mother can both receive a prison sentence of up to twenty years.
Nidera
Rotterdam-based Nidera was bought by the Chinese state-owned company COFCO. In 2014, COFCO paid $1.3 billion for 51% of the shares in Nidera, and another $450 million was later transferred for the remaining interest. But Nidera was not doing too well financially after that, and the Chinese discovered that extensive accounting fraud had been committed within Nidera Brazil. This had led to years of legal wrangling between COFCO, Nidera and EY. EY Netherlands and EY Brazil were the auditors of Nidera Capital (the top holding of the Nidera group) and Nidera Brazil respectively. The Rotterdam court has made four important rulings in the mega case. Within the Brazilian branch of Nidera, the CEO committed fraud over a long period of time. “At Nidera Brazil, He was assisted in this by the country controller of Nidera Brazil”. “Other management members did not or insufficiently interfere with the CEO and let him do his thing.” The fraud mainly concerned the valuation of the raw material contracts of Nidera Brazil (the so-called MtM valuation, valuation at the current market value). The court notes that the parties involved essentially agree that there was a large-scale fraud at Nidera Brazil in which the highest management of Nidera Brazil was involved. “It is not disputed between the parties that he had a very dominant role within Nidera Brazil, surrounded himself with confidants and encountered little to no resistance when he determined at his own discretion how certain items should be processed in the accounts. The documents show that there was inadequate internal control within the Nidera group and that accountant EY NL had already warned about the resulting risks before 2013 and afterwards. The CEO completely derailed and came in smelling of drink when the MtM spreadsheets had to be viewed. He was very dominant and changed everything. The main issue at the Rotterdam District Court was whether EY Nederland and EY Brazil, as former accountants of Nidera Capital and Nidera Brazil, are liable for the consequences of the accounting fraud, because COFCO, as the buyer of the Nidera group, was allegedly misled because the annual accounts of the Nidera group gave an incorrect picture of the financial situation of the group. In an earlier interim judgment, it was already ruled that Dutch law applies. The court rules that EY Brazil is indeed liable: “EY Brazil made errors in its audit work for the 2013 consolidated financial statements by overlooking irregularities in the MtM1 valuation related to that fraud. To the extent that COFCO Coöp suffered damage as a result of those errors, EY Brazil is liable for them.Errors were also made in the audit work of EY Brazil for the consolidated annual accounts of 2015 and EY Brazil is liable to COFCO Coöp if COFCO Coöp suffered damage as a result. EY Netherlands also made a professional error with regard to the audit of the consolidated annual accounts of 2015, the court ruled. This is also the provisional opinion for the consolidated annual accounts for 2013, but the accounting firm will still be given the opportunity to refute this with regard to that year: “EY NL is not liable for any risk under Article 6:171 of the Dutch Civil Code for errors made by EY Brazil. However, the court is provisionally of the opinion that EY NL also made a professional error in its audit task with regard to the consolidated annual accounts for 2013. EY NL failed to set up and carry out the audit in such a way that it had sufficient and suitable audit information in accordance with the regulations in the NV COS to be able to form an opinion on the correctness of those annual accounts. EY NL will be admitted to provide evidence to the contrary. With regard to the consolidated annual accounts for 2015, it has been established that EY NL made a professional error in its audit task. The court finds that the possibility that damage has been or will be suffered (at COFCO) due to EY’s professional errors is plausible. This will still have to be judged in a damage assessment procedure. In an indemnity case that EY then brought against Nidera, the accounting firm managed to get the Rotterdam trading house to pay for any damage suffered by EY:In an indemnity case that EY brought against Nidera, the accounting firm managed to get the Rotterdam trading house to pay for any damages suffered by EY:In an indemnity case that EY brought against Nidera, the accounting firm managed to get the Rotterdam trading house to pay for any damages suffered by EY:
“As a result of this accounting fraud, manipulated data was provided to EY NL, via EY Brazil, in the context of the audit by EY NL of the consolidated annual accounts of 2013. EY NL approved the consolidated annual accounts of 2013 while they contained a material inaccuracy as a result of the aforementioned fraud. If the preliminary evidence provided is substantially […] upheld, EY NL is liable to COFCO Coöp for the consequences thereof, because EY NL has insufficiently fulfilled its audit task and has thus breached a duty of care towards COFCO Coöp. Nidera Brazil is liable in the given circumstances on the grounds of tort for the damage that EY NL in turn (possibly) suffers or will suffer as a result. […] Nidera Brazil is not liable to EY NL for the consequences of EY NL’s liability to COFCO Coöp for the inaccuracy of the consolidated annual accounts of 2015. That inaccuracy is not the result of the accounting fraud at Nidera Brazil but of an accounting choice of Nidera Brazil that is inadmissible according to accountancy standards but permitted by EY Brazil, which was not noticed by EY NL due to insufficient attention and/or expertise in its audit work.” In two other indemnity cases that EY initiated, no judgment has yet been made, pending the final judgment in the main case. In the main case, EY will now first be given the opportunity to provide counter-evidence against the judgment that it made a professional error in the audit task with regard to the consolidated annual accounts of 2013. ( source AV accountancy ). Exam fraud was discovered at EY, the accounting firm reports in the transparency report for 2023 and 2024.
Public Interest Lawyers.
Former British human rights lawyer Phil Shiner has pleaded guilty to a fraud case relating to allegations against Iraq War veterans. Shiner pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud. Shiner was a principal lawyer at law firm Public Interest Lawyers. In 2007, he applied to the Legal Services Commission for up to £200,000 in legal aid funding to represent clients including Khuder Al-Sweady in judicial review proceedings. According to the NCA, Shiner received around £3 million from the contract, while the subsequent Al-Sweady investigation cost the British taxpayer £24 million. Shiner failed to disclose that an agent on his behalf, with his knowledge, made unsolicited approaches to potential clients in Iraq. He also paid referral fees, which were not permitted as part of obtaining a legal aid contract, the NCA said. He was also convicted of submitting a witness statement, obtained through unsolicited approaches, in support of his application for legal aid. Andy Kelly, head of the NCA’s international corruption unit, said the conviction marked a significant turning point in a complex domestic and international case. “Shiner’s actions placed members of the British Armed Forces under enormous pressure and stress, with legal proceedings funded by dishonest practices.
Schiphol taxi
They fled around the turn of the century. In Afghanistan they were students, businessmen, engineers or fighter pilots and eventually became taxi drivers at Schiphol. They are ‘fillers’, the drivers who have to wait longer for their turn. Sometimes they have a Moroccan, Turkish or Egyptian background. In the buffer, a dimly lit parking lot, hidden under the fly-over behind the Hilton, there is a wall, high fences, security cameras and barriers. ‘Guantanamo’, they call it here. On the taxi lane, 14 spaces at 70 meters, the airport built a difficult to fathom structure of concessions, contributions and fines. It is private land, so that is possible. In 2014, three companies won the best position on the lane: the BIOS Group, the Willemsen De Koning Group and later SchipholTaxi. Their drivers are allowed to fill most of the spaces from the buffer. The concession costs the companies more than 1.3 tons per space per year, to be paid to Schiphol. In turn, they weave their own system of rules, payments and mutually divided tasks, right through that of Schiphol. Dozens of drivers had to pay SchipholTaxi large sums to be allowed to drive from the airport. Sometimes in cash, via a front man on the street, sometimes with an invoice. Not once, but over several years. Others told how they had to pay underhand to be allowed to drive at BIOS at the airport – remarkably enough via people with ties to the third company, Schiphol Service. No one did anything. Not even Schiphol, where one man has determined, implemented and monitored taxi policy for more than twenty years. 5,000 euros in cash for “candidate driver for concession transport”, Gamis el Bouakili, was at the time an Amsterdam police officer and director of the taxi companies SchipholTaxi and TCS. Decide quickly. Be prepared to buy a new Tesla Model S and pay in cash The drivers of Moroccan descent report to a Moroccan front man, those of Turkish descent to a Turkish front man. The vast majority pay a one-off 5,000 euros, some more, a few nothing. It all depends on who you enter through and when. Payments take place in Amsterdam Nieuw-West.
El Bouakili, born in 1975 in Beni Touzine in Morocco and raised in Osdorp, had been working in a dual career for years. He had risen from driver to director at taxi company BBF, until in 2007, with the help of controversial TCA accountant Erik Bos, he ousted the old owners and became the boss. He also started working for the Amsterdam police, from February 2010. An officer is not allowed to have a secondary position in the taxi world, El Bouakili kept up the combination for six years. He made it to chief officer at the Lijnbaansgracht police station in the centre of Amsterdam and had his taxis operating in the same city under the name ‘TCS’. In April 2014, when he won the concession, some 300 drivers were affiliated with him. The contract with SchipholTaxi is signed in groups of ten. They sign for three years, while the concession is for four years, with a maximum extension of four years. Drivers paid cash, signed for a new Tesla of around 100,000 euros, which they have to pay off. They paid 3,630 euros in ‘goodwill’ and 847 euros in monthly contributions. All to be allowed to drive at the airport. The rules come from the Stichting Taxi Controle (STC), the organization that is responsible for taxi transport on behalf of Schiphol. Ferry Jongkind is not only a coordinator, but also the secretary of the foundation. He is also ‘service owner transport’ for Schiphol. He once worked for the airport police, helped write the concession and assessed the bids. At Schiphol, they supposedly know nothing about 12,000 euros ‘boarding fee’. Schiphol wants to maintain the taxi system ‘at least until June 2022′. The three concession holders also deny the cash payments. On November 16, 2016, a driver filed a complaint with the police in Amsterdam for ’threats and fraud’. After criticizing El Bouakili, he was allegedly threatened by his henchmen in the garage of his house. “One of the conditions for joining BBF, Schipholtaxi, was that you had to pay a one-off amount of 5,000 euros,” the report also states. The police, the municipality, but also the Tax Authorities know about it. Not only SchipholTaxi drivers pay cash. In 2018, BIOS Groep wants to get rid of eighteen somewhat older blue Volkswagen taxi buses. Drivers tell how they heard about it in September last year. That they could share such a bus of their choice with one, two or three drivers. Costs: 15,000 euros to 25,000 euros per bus, in cash. The three concessionaires appear to have been intertwined for years. Owner Marc Bolderman of Schiphol Service explains on the phone that his wife provides the buses at Schiphol for his competitor BIOS Groep. She also does this for El Bouakili. El Bouakili manages this via a foundation that Marc Bolderman’s company won and then outsources it to the company of his wife. In 2017, the drivers will pay Schiphol Taxi another thousand euros to be allowed to drive in the final, fourth concession year on top of their three-year contract.And if the concession is extended a year later, they have to pay El Bouakili again. More than double now: 12,000 euros. Now they can transfer it. It is called ‘entry fee’ and serves no other purpose than to gain access to rides at Schiphol via him.
Steinhoff
Voice of Europe
The Czech secret service revealed that Russia used the Prague-based news site Voice of Europe, run by Ukrainian-Israeli Artem Marchevsky, to pay hundreds of thousands of euros to politicians in exchange for pro-Russia, anti-Ukraine and EU positions. The aim of the bribery was to influence the upcoming European elections. The news site regularly interviewed right-wing euro-sceptic politicians. Thierry Baudet and FvD MEP Marcel de Graaff, Geert Wilders from the Netherlands, Filip Dewinter (Vlaams Belang) from Belgium and Maximilian Krah of Alternative für Deutschland from Germany. Politicians from France, Poland and Hungary were also reportedly approached, and some of them financed for their campaigns. Names and shirt numbers were not shared in the article, but were filled in by the media. Baudet has always categorically denied donations. However, large sums of up to hundreds of thousands of euros are said to have been paid to unnamed politicians. Voice of Europe was funded and run by the Kremlin. Until 2019, it turned out that no Russians, but three Dutch entrepreneurs were behind the website. They sold the website to a Czech media company, after which it ended up in the hands of a Ukrainian pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk in 2020. He was detained shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine after accusations of financing terrorism. He was later exchanged with Moscow for Ukrainian prisoners of war. Wilders and Omtzigt wanted to get to the bottom of things and asked for names. However, the Czech Republic did not want to confirm the report and was therefore unable to provide any names. Voice of Europe itself denies the accusations and states that the ‘revelations’ are only intended to influence the elections and silence the news site. Caretaker minister Hugo de Jonge wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives that mentioning names ‘circulating in the reporting is contrary to the task of the AIVD and would not serve national security’. Moreover, this does not fit in with the legal obligation to maintain confidentiality regarding the service’s working methods. De Jonge confirmed in his letter to the Lower House that not a single name of a Dutch politician is mentioned. But that does not mean that the Czechs do not know any names. Nor did De Jonge want to say whether or not the claim that Dutch politicians in our parliament have been bribed is true. However, he did let slip during the debate requested by Wilders that the AIVD had already been informed before publication, which means that there was a Dutch interest in knowing that Dutch politicians were influencing the EU parliamentary elections of 6 June. Thierry Baudet was the only one not present at the debate. The Czech authorities have imposed sanctions on the two managers of Voice of Europe,including Viktor Medvedchuk, a long-time friend of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a Ukrainian oligarch. In 50 videos on Voice of Europe’s YouTube channel, it emerged that 16 members of the European Parliament – all from the far right to the extreme right – had spoken positively about Russia in the Ukraine conflict. Since last August, Voice of Europe has organised four debates and one-on-one interviews with the following MEPs: German Krah and Joachim Kuhs, French Patricia Chagnon, Thierry Mariani and Hervé Juvin, Dutch Marcel de Graaff, Italian Matteo Gazzini and Francesca Donato, Slovakian Miroslav Radačovský and Milan Uhrík, Estonian Jaak Madison, Spanish Hermann Tertsch and Jorge Buxadé, Croatian Ladislav Ilčić, Danish Anders Vistisen and Belgian Tom Vandendriessche. Several lawmakers opposed the prospect of Ukraine joining the EU, blaming Ukraine for starting the war, speaking about the level of corruption in Ukraine and the difficulties Ukraine faces on the front lines, and calling for urgent peace talks.
Zed
Dutch lawyer Peter Wakkie was arrested in 2017 upon arrival at Barajas airport (Madrid) in Spain, in connection with the payment of millions of euros in bribes to relatives of Russian ministers. The bribery is said to have been arranged via Zed Worldwide, a technology company that is part of the Dutch holding company Zed+, and in which, among others, the Spanish bank Santander and publisher Grupo Planeta have an interest together with the Russian magnate Michail Fridman. Wakkie is a director of the Dutch holding company Z+ and, according to El Confidencial, is considered Fridman’s right-hand man. Wakkie was suspected of frustrating an investigation into Russian bribes. He is also said to be affiliated with billionaire Mikhail Fridman, a man who is associated with the hacking of the mail servers of the American Democratic Party. The lawyer is known, among other things, as a former director of supermarket group Ahold. He joined the company in 2003, in the aftermath of the accounting fraud at the parent company of Albert Heijn. After his retirement at the end of 2009, he remained active as a commissioner at various well-known companies, such as ABN AMRO, TomTom and Wolters Kluwer. At the end of March 2015, Wakkie left ABN AMRO, due to the commotion about the ultimately reversed salary increase for the bank’s directors. He was vice-chairman of the supervisory board and chairman of the committee that dealt with remuneration and appointments. The case was dismissed on appeal on 29 December 2023. Wakkie, who had been appointed by the business mogul to manage Strukton and Centric, had a conflict with Sanderink in 2023 about an 80 million euro loan that Sanderink Investments had taken out from Centric. Wakkie seized Sanderink’s shares and enforced repayment through the courts.
International corruption investigation into NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA)
An international corruption investigation has been underway since May 2025 into the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), on Leopold III-laan in Evere, Brussels. The agency that arranges defense purchases for the 32 NATO countries is said to be corrupt and several arrests have already been made. Secretary General Mark Rutte emphasizes that NATO is fully cooperating and that “all the facts must be addressed.”
The NSPA itself also reports cooperation with the investigation, but details about the size or companies involved remain vague. The investigation focuses on irregularities in the awarding of contracts for military equipment, such as ammunition and drones. NSPA employees are said to have passed on confidential information to defense companies, which gave them an unfair advantage in tenders. In addition, money laundering via bogus constructions, such as consultancy firms, is being investigated. Amounts of hundreds of thousands of euros are said to be involved.
In Belgium, one suspect was arrested and a second was released after questioning. In the Netherlands, three people were arrested, including a 58-year-old former Defense civil servant, Hans de J., who was involved in ammunition contracts as a chief purchaser. A suspect was also arrested in Spain. The investigation is taking place in six countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy and the US, coordinated by Eurojust. The case began in 2024 after a tip from abroad, followed by house searches in May 2025, including in Bredene (Belgium) and at Schiphol (the Netherlands).
At Schiphol, halfway through 2025, Hans de J., a former employee of Defense, was arrested for fiddling with NATO tenders. Until recently, the man was the chief purchaser at the ammunition company of the Dutch armed forces. Hans de J. was responsible for filling the Dutch ammunition depots for years and is suspected of having accepted bribes from defense companies in 2023 when entering into military contracts. People from abroad are also said to have been involved and to have accepted money. Three more people in the Netherlands and two in Belgium were subsequently arrested in the case. House searches were also carried out at various locations. The two other Dutch people arrested by the police were not employed by Defense. All three Dutch suspects have now been brought before the court. They are in restricted custody, which means that they are only allowed to have contact with their lawyer.
On the same day as the Dutch arrests, the Belgian police also arrested two people. One of them has since been released. The Belgian police say that the suspects were guilty of irregularities in the purchase of, for example, ammunition and drones. The money they pocketed was laundered. In addition to the arrests here and in Belgium, investigations are also being conducted in Spain and Luxembourg.
The scandal fuels distrust, especially given the large defense budgets since the war in Ukraine. Transparency International previously warned of a lack of transparency in NATO procurement. Some sources speculate about broader corruption within NATO, but hard evidence is lacking.
NATO presents itself as a bastion of democracy and transparency, but this investigation exposes structural weaknesses in the control of billion-dollar contracts. The involvement of senior officials and the international reach suggest that this may be just the tip of the iceberg. The investigation is ongoing.
Uber files lawsuits over insurance fraud
Uber has filed lawsuits against several law firms, medical centers, and pain management clinics, primarily in New York and Florida. At the heart of these lawsuits is the allegation of insurance fraud. This involves an alleged large-scale scheme that involves staging fake car accidents or exaggerating minor collisions and sending injured passengers to specific medical providers. These medical providers bill for unnecessary treatments, sometimes even performing invasive and painful surgeries (such as spinal fusions). The costs for these (unnecessary or fabricated) treatments and the associated legal claims are then submitted to Uber’s insurance companies in order to maximize payouts.
Uber alleges the practices have been going on since at least 2019 and have cost it millions of dollars in defense fees and settlements. The company alleges this is a systematic exploitation of both its riders and the insurance system, and is seeking to address fraudulent activity that is affecting its business. The lawsuits seek to prove conspiracy to profit from “no-fault” insurance policies, which allow for quick recovery regardless of who is at fault.Indirect Damages and Causation:
Higher fraudulent payouts inevitably lead to higher premiums for Uber and/or its drivers. Uber pays a portion of these premiums directly or indirectly (think of the Partner Protection Program that they fully fund, or facilitating insurance for drivers who then receive higher premiums, making it less attractive to drive for Uber). This is a direct financial loss that Uber suffers.
Managing fraudulent claims, cooperating with investigations, and defending false claims costs Uber significant internal resources (personnel, legal departments). These are tangible costs. While harder to quantify, a widespread fraud problem could damage trust in the platform, both among drivers (who worry about rising costs) and riders (who wonder if the system is trustworthy). This could lead to loss of market share or growth.
In US law (where many of these cases play out), there are often specific doctrines for “civil conspiracy” or “racketeering” (e.g. RICO actions). This involves a conspiracy to achieve an unlawful purpose (fraud), where the injured party does not necessarily have to be the primary recipient of the damages, as long as there is a direct connection to their own interests. While the insurer is the direct payer, Uber can position itself as a “victim” of the fraudulent scheme, because the system is being abused through their platform and this ultimately affects their business.
Worldline covered up fraud by online stores for years
The French payment company Worldline, which processes more than 500 billion euros in transactions annually and is also a major player in the Netherlands, structurally covered up fraud by customers for years.
Worldline is one of the largest payment processors in the world, comparable to competitors such as the Dutch Adyen and the Swedish Klarna. The company ensures that consumers can pay in webshops with bank cards, credit cards or platforms such as PayPal, and also processes PIN transactions in physical stores. In the Netherlands, Worldline operates through its subsidiary Global Collect Services Solutions. With a market capitalization of billions of euros and activities in dozens of countries, Worldline is a crucial link in the global financial infrastructure.
By law, payment companies such as Worldline must prevent fraudulent transactions and combat money laundering. Worldline repeatedly turned a blind eye when customers were linked to suspicious practices. This was done, among other things, to avoid sanctions imposed by credit card company Visa, such as placing the company under administration. Only when more than 15% of a customer’s transactions were deemed fraudulent did Worldline intervene – and even then it did not do so consistently.
A striking case is that of an Indian customer who sold dubious software via telephone sales. This company used misleading pop-ups that made users believe that their computer was infected with a virus, in order to then sell them unnecessary software. While Adyen severed all ties with this customer a few years ago, Worldline’s subsidiary Global Collect Services continued to facilitate payments for this fraudulent company. This allowed the Indian company to continue accepting payments via credit cards, despite the clear signs of malpractice.
Facilitating these clients was “good business”, especially for Global Collect Services. A culture that put profit before ethics and regulatory compliance. The fact that Worldline got away with these practices for years may also point to a lack of oversight in the sector.
In 2022, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) launched an investigation into Global Collect Services, specifically focusing on the way the company screens its customers. DNB has serious concerns about compliance with anti-fraud and anti-money laundering regulations. This investigation could have far-reaching consequences for Worldline, ranging from fines to stricter supervisory measures.
The Worldline case is not an isolated incident. The payment industry is under increasing pressure to combat fraud and money laundering more effectively. In 2023, the European Union published new guidelines for payment service providers, requiring stricter screening of customers and transactions. Worldline’s failure to comply underlines the need for better compliance and more robust internal controls. In addition, this scandal raises questions about the role of major credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard. Although Visa threatened sanctions, it seems that Worldline was able to operate under the radar for a long time.
For Worldline, the coming years will be all about damage control. The company will not only have to review its internal processes, but also regain the trust of consumers, regulators and business partners. Potential sanctions, such as fines or restrictions on activities, could further put pressure on the company’s financial position. In October 2023, Worldline already reported a 10% drop in share value after publishing disappointing quarterly figures, highlighting the company’s vulnerability. Consumers should remain vigilant when making online payments. Using reliable payment platforms and checking the reputation of webshops can help minimize risks.
The Worldline scandal exposes a worrying reality: even large, respected companies can become involved in facilitating fraud when financial incentives prevail. This investigation is a wake-up call for the payment industry, regulators and consumers. Stricter regulations, better supervision and a change in culture within companies are essential to prevent fraudsters from getting free rein. For Worldline, the road to recovery is long, but necessary to prevent further damage.
Long Island Yachts sold non-existent yachts
Lobster Boats Holland BV/ DDG Holding BV and Long Island Yachts, led by Dave de Groot, were declared bankrupt in October 2024. A young entrepreneur who financed a yacht yard through crowdfunding ended up with a financial debacle with an estimated damage of 4 million euros. Customers who ordered luxury yachts turned out to be victims of deception: their boats were never built, down payments disappeared, and the shipyard in Poland where the construction supposedly took place knew nothing about it. In 2016, Dave de Groot, then 27 years old, took over Long Island Yachts for several hundred thousand euros. The brand, founded in 2005, was known for its luxury day boats with a classic design, inspired by American lobster boats. De Groot managed to give the company a reliable reputation, partly due to the well-known trade name and his enthusiastic entrepreneurial story. In 2020, he bought the historic Jachtwerf Allemansgeest in Voorschoten for 1.9 million euros, financed through a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised 1.4 million euros within five days. This increased the trust of customers and investors in the company.
Customers ordered luxury yachts with starting prices of 200,000 euros, under the impression that they were built in Poland. They received photos of the alleged construction process, which increased their trust. However, one customer became suspicious when a photo showed the wrong engine. A group of buyers decided to visit the shipyard in Poland, where it turned out that no one there was aware of any orders or yacht construction for Long Island Yachts. The shipyard had no boats under construction for the company, and customers had been misled for six months. A total of 2.1 million euros in down payments were collected from customers without any boats being built. In addition, De Groot managed to extract 500,000 euros from an investor for a so-called “restart” of the shipyard, but this money has also disappeared without a trace. Shortly before the bankruptcy, the company changed its name to Lobster Boats Holland BV, which may have been a strategic move to transfer the assets and the shipyard for a low price.
Dave de Groot’s stepfather took over the shipyard and the trade name Long Island Yachts after the bankruptcy, for a relatively low amount. Dave himself has accepted a position in this new company, which operates under the same name. A lawyer called this “very remarkable” and warned that Dave may continue the same practices under the new corporate structure. Annual accounts showed that Long Island Yachts had been in financial trouble for years. The equity was deep in the red, and debts were piling up. De Groot tried to plug the financial gaps with loans, but this proved insufficient to keep the company afloat. In October 2024, both Lobster Boats Holland BV and the shareholder DDG Holding BV were declared bankrupt, with Mr. BJ Tideman as trustee. The assets, such as the brand name and know-how, are currently being put up for sale.
The Dutch yacht building industry reacted with disappointment to the bankruptcy of Long Island Yachts, which was seen as a brand with beautiful models. Industry media such as BootAanBoot expressed the hope for a restart, but the revelations about the fraud have seriously damaged the confidence in the brand.
The successful crowdfunding campaign in 2020, which raised €1.4 million in just five days, was presented as a sign of confidence in De Groot’s vision. The well-known trade name Long Island Yachts, which had existed since 2005, played a crucial role in gaining trust. The involvement of Dave’s stepfather in the takeover and Dave’s continued role in the company raise questions about the integrity of the restart. Although the sources do not provide direct evidence of fraud (such as court rulings), the pattern of missing deposits, misleading photos, and the quick takeover by a family member point to possible fraudulent practices. The bankruptcy of Long Island Yachts and the subsequent revelations about deception and missing funds have severely damaged the reputation of the company and Dave de Groot. The case shows how trust in a well-known brand name and an inspiring entrepreneurial story can be abused. The trustee is currently investigating the sale of assets, but this offers little comfort to affected customers and investors. The television program ‘Bureau Onrecht’ by Dennis van der Geest (49) treats this case as one of the biggest cases in the program so far. At least seven victims made tons of down payments for boats that were never delivered.
Scottish tea from Asia
Thomas Robinson sold his tea as a purely Scottish product, became a darling of the media and supplied luxury hotels. But the story of the Scot was largely made up. The tea did not come from Scottish fields, but from an English wholesaler. The court sentenced Robinson to 3.5 years in prison.
Robinson’s plantations, he claimed, braved the harsh Scottish climate. He said he had developed special varieties that could withstand cold, rain and little sun. His tea was said to come from plantations in the misty hills of Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway. Foodlog also fell for it. In reality, it was imported tea, probably from India or Sri Lanka, bought from a wholesaler in Oxford.
For five years he sold so-called Scottish tea under the label The Wee Tea Plantation to renowned hotels, various tea shops and the London department store Fortnum & Mason. He even claimed that the tea was “the Queen’s favourite”.
Robinson was able to deceive not only hotels and distributors, but also novice growers. He sold them supposedly ‘selectively bred’ plants for the Scottish climate for £12.50 each. In reality, they came from Italy and cost less than £2. Many plants died. Robinson made around £550,000 from the fraud. The fraud came to light when genuine Scottish tea growers were shown the tea menu of the posh Balmoral hotel. It contained teas from plantations that did not yet produce tea. Tea writer Richard Ross, himself a former customer of Robinson, suspected something was wrong and decided to investigate. He discovered that none of the growers named knew their names were on the menu, let alone that they had supplied tea. When it also emerged that Robinson did not have a food processing licence, local authorities called in Food Standards Scotland.
Robinson presented himself as an inventor. One of his most remarkable claims was a biodegradable polymer that would make tea plants grow faster. Where real growers toil for years for a few kilos, he claimed to harvest tons. During the trial it turned out that this ‘innovation’ was in reality nothing more than a black garbage bag. The court qualified his actions as ‘persistent and carefully planned deception’ that caused considerable financial and reputational damage.