Reporter Saskia Belleman is present at the trial. Follow the case via her tweets at the bottom of this article (from approximately 12.45 pm).
The ‘robber’ was allowed to keep the loot. The plan was that the diamond dealer would collect the insurance money and thus have cash available instead of stocks to be sold.
The man now finds his plan “incomprehensible.” But at the end of 2016, 55-year-old Mischa van G. saw no other way out of financial problems. During an earlier session, for example, he explained the reason for staging the robbery at the office of his company Diamond Point in Amstelveen.
In February, Van G. was sentenced to two years in prison, of which six months were suspended for, among other things, fraud and making a false report. Against one of the fake robbers, Danny S., the Public Prosecution Service demanded a year and a half in prison, of which half a year was suspended. Two other robbers are still missing.
The suspected diamond dealer is also being prosecuted for laundering 3.5 million euros, paid out by the insurer. The trader, who was in charge of Van Gelder Diamonds for more than ten years, admitted his lie about the nepproof during an earlier hearing in the criminal case. The business belonged to his family. After the man was arrested, his father took over again.