Sywert van Lienden and Bernd Damme are fired as directors of the Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie (SHA). The court of Amsterdam has that on Thursday determined. The pair may also not become a director or supervisory director of a foundation for the next five years. According to the court, Van Lienden and Damme founded SHA competitor Relief Goods Alliance BV (RGA) against the foundation’s articles of association for commercial reasons.
Damme and Camille van Gestel founded SHA in March 2020, with the aim of importing mouth caps to the Netherlands for healthcare institutions without a profit motive, Van Lienden joined later. Shortly afterwards, the trio founded RGA, with which they concluded a mask deal of 40 million euros with the government. Van Gestel stepped down as director in September 2020.
Although the deal with the government was made through RGA, the directors pretended that the deal was made with the non-commercial SHA. For example, the three left more than 20 million euros on the deal while it seemed as if they did it, in the words of Van Lienden, “for nothing”. The court speaks of ‘conflicting interests’ because SHA has not benefited from the creation of a competitor.
money laundering
In April, Van Lienden and Damme were already suspended as directors of the foundation, at the request of the Public Prosecution Service. According to justice, the entrepreneurs used the organization’s network to obtain orders for their commercial company. In addition, reported NRC last June that the Public Prosecution Service suspects Van Lienden, Damme and Van Gestel of money laundering. The trio paid themselves millions of euros in dividend from RGA. According to the judiciary, this concerns money laundering, because the three received money that may have resulted from a crime.
Van Lienden and Damme said in June that they would oppose dismissal. According to them, it was clear from the outset that they were running a commercial enterprise in addition to their foundation. “The whole umfeld knew that,” said Van Lienden. According to him, small customers in the care sector received an invoice from the foundation and the commercial BV was used for ‘large business orders’ from companies such as ABN Amro, Esso and BMW.