The mouth mask entrepreneurs Sywert van Lienden and Bernd Damme refuse to hand over their telephones and three computer hard drives to the judiciary in the criminal investigation that has been going on for them for a year. Both the examining magistrate and the Rotterdam District Court have ruled that they must hand over these items to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), with the exception of information that falls under legal privilege.
To prevent access to their data, Van Lienden’s lawyer has now approached the Supreme Court, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court confirms. NRC. A hearing date has not yet been announced.
Phone taps
From the verdict of the Rotterdam court, published on Tuesday evening after questions from NRC, it appears that Van Lienden and his partners – Camille van Gestel is the third suspect – were tapped by the judiciary when the criminal investigation against the trio was announced.
That day, February 28, 2022, Van Lienden called co-suspect Van Gestel at 9:26 a.m. to, according to the judiciary, make a “heads up to indicate that a press release will be issued from the Public Prosecution Service at twelve o’clock that we are suspected of fraud and that they will investigate the report of [uitzendbureau Randstad] and at the same time will also mention that a civil investigation has been ongoing for some time.”
Van Lienden to Van Gestel: “So you are suspected of fraud together with us from twelve o’clock this afternoon. And it also means that you can expect that real investigations and investigative resources can be used from twelve o’clock, and if they do, it will usually be quite shortly after this is announced.”
Van Lienden warned Van Gestel to get rid of all sensitive information as quickly as possible: “So if you are talking about computers, mobile phones, disks, get your shit in order. We are going to drop off laptops, telephones, drives ourselves [hun advocaat]. Let’s see what happens now, maybe nothing will happen at all, but at least preventatively make sure that we don’t have a problem in the first two days. knockout to have.”
Van Gestel then: “Okay, I will check all my discs and set everything up encrypted and then I continue to empty my disks.”
Van Lienden: “Yes, and also think about your mobile, where you put it. Maybe use another phone temporarily, or something. Just don’t put it in plain sight.”
He also immediately took the necessary measures, said Van Lienden: “I’m going to take him away now and I’m going to buy a Nokiaa and then I’ll wait a week or two weeks.”
Phones at the desk
Shortly afterwards, according to the verdict, an employee of Van Lienden and Damme brought their mobile phones and three external hard drives to the counter of the law firm of Van Lienden’s lawyer, Han Jahae.
They have since claimed that all information on these data carriers falls under the legal privilege (the confidentiality between clients and their lawyer), and therefore does not have to be handed over to the judicial authorities.
They also state that they have been sharing documents with their lawyers since July 2021 in the context of a possible criminal investigation. In the months before, it had come to light that the trio had saved millions by having a face mask deal with the government not run through their non-profit foundation Hulptroepen Alliantie, but through a commercial company, Relief Goods Alliance.
The Public Prosecution Service seized the telephones and drives in May last year. Since then, procedures have been ongoing about whether or not the sensitive material should be shared with the Public Prosecution Service. During the hearing in Rotterdam last September, the court decided that the items that had been rushed to the law firm shortly before their arrest did not fall under the legal privilege.
The verdict: ‘The method of delivery of the relevant data carriers by an employee of Van Lienden en Damme, namely the unannounced and unpackaged deposit of three loose hard disks and two mobile telephones on the desk of the complainant’s office, without any accompanying letter from which [de inhoud] could appear, can hardly be regarded as a customary way of exchanging (confidential) documents between client and lawyer in the context of legal assistance.”
Until the Supreme Court has made a final decision in this matter, the items are in a safe in the cabinet of the examining magistrate in Rotterdam.
‘All confidence’
In public statements, Van Lienden has so far claimed that he and his partners cooperated with any investigation into their activities “so that it becomes clear that honesty and integrity have been acted”. Last Monday, he called on the House of Representatives via Twitter to organize “a public parliamentary questioning under oath” “with an appearance obligation for those directly involved. All confidence.”
Earlier it also appeared that Van Lienden and his partners cooperated only to a limited extent in an investigation by accountants from Deloitte into their million-dollar transaction with the government. For example, Deloitte says it was not allowed to inspect the financial administration, Van Lienden and partners refused to provide sound recordings “despite repeated requests” and Deloitte was also not allowed to make copies of “ICT systems, laptops, telephones or other data carriers”, it was said. read in the final report.
Sywert van Lienden, Bernd Damme and lawyer Han Jahae have not yet responded to requests for comment. The third suspect, Camille van Gestel, says in a telephone response that he recognizes the content of the tapped telephone conversation: “I could have said something like that.” Van Gestel himself says that he will fully cooperate with the criminal investigation. Nor has he placed any data carriers with lawyers.