The tax investigation service FIOD raided the home of Kommer Damen, the chairman and founder of Damen Shipyards, on Tuesday morning. Local news channel Rijnmond reports this. The home of 81-year-old Kommer Damen is in Noordeloos, not far from the shipyards and head office of the shipbuilder in Gorinchem. A spokesperson for the FIOD confirms the action, but does not want to say whether other locations have also been raided. The Public Prosecution Service refers to the FIOD.
The timing of the raid is extremely striking. Almost nine years ago, the investigation service also raided the largest shipbuilder in the Netherlands, also an important defense supplier. That happened at the time with a great show of force. After years of delay, that action resulted in a lawsuit that started last Monday in the court in Zwolle.
Court case
Damen is on trial for bribery and forgery in the sale of ships in several countries. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the company, led by its top executives, committed forgery to conceal the fact that it paid intermediaries excessive amounts of commission. This was the case with Damen deals worth hundreds of millions of euros in Brazil, Sierra Leone, Curaçao, Togo, Ghana, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and Indonesia.
Kommer Damen’s son, chairman Arnout Damen, is also on trial, as is former chairman René Berkvens. On the first day of the hearing it turned out that two suspects, a marketing director of Damen and the former director of the Port Authority of Curaçao, had accepted a criminal order from the Public Prosecution Service.
Damen must also answer in court for supplying a number of parts for so-called crab catching ships to Russia, despite sanctions. TV program News hour revealed exactly a year ago that despite Western sanctions, shipyards in Russia still had crucial Damen parts available for the construction of fishing vessels, through foreign companies.
The FIOD does not want to say what the suspicion is that led to this raid. Damen does not respond to questions.
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