A three-year prison sentence has been demanded against an employee of the Tax and Customs Administration, one year of which is conditional. The man looked up data via his work account that had nothing to do with his field of activity, according to the Public Prosecution Service. In addition, more than nine tons in cash was found at the suspect’s home.
The 53-year-old suspect has worked for the Tax and Customs Administration since 2007, where he checked SMEs for fraud, the OM said in a press release. The man had reported sick in 2020. In 2022, the National Investigation Department launched an investigation after three photos were shared in encrypted messages from telecom service Sky, originating from the computer screen of an employee of the Tax and Customs Administration. “It turned out to be data from a system in which it can be found who owns a certain license plate, and who the family members are,” says the OM.
The accompanying texts have now been released. They are ‘significant’, according to the Public Prosecution Service. The user of a Sky account writes another:
“we checked that guy by license plate, look” – followed by 3 photos;
“we can trace everyone worldwide via social security number, where he or children and parents live”;
“[we] have [een] official”;
“10k for worldwide viewing () is nothing, people pay 50k”.
920 thousand euros under kitchen unit
Enough evidence
That is enough evidence for the public prosecutor of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office: “They have a corrupt official who can provide all the information they want for 10,000 euros. Investigation into the provenance of the photos pointed in the direction of the suspect. Because the searches he had done were outside his field of work, he was arrested in July 2022. A search of his home in Amsterdam resulted in a startling find: behind a loose plinth of the kitchen block were five cash boxes in which a total of € 920,000 was found, in denominations of € 50, € 100 and € 200.
In a statement, the suspect says that he had no knowledge of the money that was in his home, according to the Public Prosecution Service. He wouldn’t even know how all that bills got there. “There is no other way than that the money has a criminal origin. No one has claimed the money. There is therefore money laundering, “said the OM, who points out that a resident is supposed to know what is in his house.
The Public Prosecution Service hopes that the sentence will have a ‘deterrent effect’. “Anyone who violates this confidentiality for their own or someone else’s benefit must be able to face a severe punishment.”
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