The Functional Public Prosecutor’s Office reported this in a press release on Friday afternoon. Sywert himself says in a response to the news that he was not informed by the Public Prosecution Service about the seizure of his bank account. “I’ll wait for that,” he says when asked.
The criminal investigation into the board members of SHA, who were suspended by the court this week (in addition to Sywert, Bernd Damme and Camille van Gestel) have now also been expanded to include the suspicion of embezzlement by the three. Last February, when the three men were arrested, the Public Prosecution Service reported that it was conducting an investigation following the report of fraud by Randstad. The temporary employment agency lent staff to Sywert in the spring of 2020, without charging any costs because he announced everywhere that it was about charity.
According to a spokeswoman for the Public Prosecution Service, the criminal attachment of more than €11.5 million that has now been placed on the Dutch bank accounts of the suspects is related to the amount found in the bank accounts of the three ex-directors. The homes of the ex-drivers were not seized on Friday afternoon, according to De Telegraaf’s inquiries at the Land Registry. According to the OM, the three would have put a total of more than thirty million euros in profits into their own pockets.
Suspension
Since August 2021, the Public Prosecution Service has also been conducting a civil investigation into the ex-board of SHA. This task has been assigned to the Public Prosecution Service in addition to its task as a public prosecutor in criminal proceedings. Earlier this month, the Public Prosecution Service filed a petition with the Amsterdam District Court as part of its civil duty to suspend and dismiss the directors of SHA. On Thursday, the court decided to suspend the drivers from their directorship with immediate effect.
The new director of the foundation, appointed by the court, the lawyer and curator Wouter Jongepier (New Amsterdam Legal), will be the first to investigate whether the three founders of SHA can be held personally liable for the millions of dollars in damages incurred by the foundation.