Research by Deloitte would show that there was nothing crazy about his much-discussed mouth mask deal with the government, Sywert van Lienden has repeatedly claimed in the past year. The fact that he and his associates Bernd Damme and Camille van Gestel carried out the transaction worth 100 million euros through a commercial company instead of through their non-profit foundation Hulptroepen Alliantie, was because the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) insisted on “regular commercial delivery”.
This made them more or less forced to become millionaires, according to Van Lienden. In total, the trio left 27.3 million euros from the deal, Deloitte wrote in the report that appeared on Friday afternoon. According to Van Lienden, the ministry was always aware of that potential profit: “It is not that we have misled the government,” he said in court last June. The Deloitte report would completely exonerate him and his business partners.
But the report, which Deloitte worked on for more than a year on behalf of VWS and which cost 1.3 million euros, led to a different reaction in The Hague on Friday. During the negotiations there was indeed a “misrepresentation” and Van Lienden and his partners kept ambiguity about the relationship between their foundation and the company “consciously,” wrote Minister Conny Helder (Long-term Care and Sport, VVD) on Friday. in response to the report. The minister says he is considering “legal steps”.
The report shows that some of those directly involved in VWS and the national purchasing consortium LCH indeed knew that Van Lienden and his partners could make a profit from the supply of 40 million mouth caps. But, according to Deloitte, “a number of those involved” remained unclear about the relationship between the foundation and, for example, the minister responsible at the time, Martin van Rijn, who stated that he knew nothing about Van Lienden’s commercial motives.
According to Deloitte, the lack of clarity arose, among other things, because Van Lienden, Damme and Van Gestel submitted various proposals between 12 and 17 April 2020, in which they switched from ‘contracting entity’. One time it was the non-profit Auxiliary Forces Alliance, the other the commercial Relief Goods Alliance.
A proposal from the Auxiliary Troops Foundation at VWS was last tabled on 17 April. But five days earlier, according to Deloitte, Van Lienden and his associates had already discussed internally how they could become “screaming” or “crackling” rich. They talked about making “dirty profits” and “becoming a millionaire,” according to Deloitte, relying on sound recordings. Van Lienden and his partners threatened this commercial course because VWS did not allow them to set up their own sales channel to the national consortium LCH, according to the report.
According to Bernd Damme, the fact that they sent presentations to VWS in exactly the same style as that of the Auxiliary Troops Foundation on behalf of RGA bv was ‘the intention’, as Deloitte quotes a recorded conversation.
The researchers note that after the deal was concluded, Van Lienden made statements about “profit appropriation with a social character”, including to his bank, which asked questions about the hefty dividend payments he received.
Declaration by companies
He also continued to claim to the outside world for a year that he did everything “for nothing”. Even employees of the Auxiliary Troops Foundation had no idea of the commercial activities. Neither are the companies Coolblue and Randstad involved in the foundation. They filed a report for that reason, after revelations of de Volkskrantand Follow the Moneybrought to light the million-dollar profit last year. The Public Prosecution Service is investigating suspicions of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.
In a response to the report, Van Lienden and his partners say they are “relieved” that the results are now known. They reiterate that it was preferable to operate on a non-profit basis, but that the government forced them to work through the commercial RGA. They also call the “get rich dirty” conversation from which Deloitte quotes “in retrospect not appropriate”. The trio deny that it was a premeditated plan to secure a commercial deal with the government while posing as foremen of a foundation.
Mmv from Sjoerd Klumpenaar
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of September 17, 2022