In a major investigation by the police, the Public Prosecution Service and the Tax Authorities, thirty people have been arrested in recent years for money laundering, fraud and tax evasion. This concerns residents of Den Bosch, Erp, Molenschot, Sint-Michielsgestel, Tilburg, Veghel and the Gelderland municipality of Maasdriel. Ten of them now have to appear in court.
In recent years, a group of residents from the municipalities of Meierijstad and Maasdriel were investigated because they were allegedly involved in criminal activities.
In the autumn of 2021, the police and tax authorities eventually conducted several raids. Seven suspects were arrested. Hundreds of kilos of silver bars were discovered underground in a garden. The police also found weapons and confiscated a lot of paperwork.
Other suspects were also arrested later. This concerns thirty people in total. Not everyone was prosecuted. The cases against the fourteen people who played a minor role have been dismissed.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) will take action against the other suspects. Six of these have now received a punishment in the form of community service or a fine. The other ten suspects must appear in court.
Criminal organization
According to the Public Prosecution Service, six of these suspects form a criminal organization that was involved in money laundering, forgery and tax evasion. They used several companies for this. The suspects were in charge of the management, accounting and administration of those companies.
The other suspects are suspected of various forms of forgery.
Forgery of safety certificates
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the investigation revealed various forms of fraud. The companies in which the suspects worked were mainly active in ground work, such as pulling fiber optic cables. The Public Prosecution Service suspects that the safety certificates required for such a company were forged. In addition, false invoices are allegedly paid out on a large scale. This way, the company was able to report less profit to the tax authorities and therefore had to pay less tax.
The research also revealed that the companies probably made extensive use of migrant workers. They would wrongly be recorded as self-employed in the accounts or have worked more hours than they were on the payroll. This also falls under tax evasion.
Direction hearing
The first case is Friday, January 17. This is a preliminary hearing. This means that it concerns preparation for the substantive hearing of the lawsuit.