Stories had been around for years among the staff of Utrecht Holdings. About remarkable financial transactions of this subsidiary of Utrecht University and the UMC hospital.
Utrecht Holdings must raise money by selling discoveries from the university through spin-off companies. “But stories were already circulating in 2016 that things were not going well with the governance,” says an investment manager NRC. He worked there a few years ago.
The investment manager – who wishes to remain anonymous for privacy reasons – hears in meetings how the then director funnels money to a BV where he sits on the board. “That didn’t seem possible to me, so I made that known. The answer was that he always did it that way and there was no problem.”
It would take until November 2021 before signals about possible irregularities surrounding investments in some spin-off companies are recognized and action is taken. Utrecht Holdings engages Deloitte Forensic & Dispute Services and that agency investigates. Books are checked, money flows are traced, dozens of people involved are heard. The agency will release its report a year later, November 2022.
It turns out to be wrong.
Reporting fraud and bribery
Yet it will take months before it is publicized. On March 12, 2023 reports Utrecht Holdings in a press release reporting fraud and bribery has been done. Two employees and a former employee are involved. Names and functions are not mentioned.
From documents of Utrecht Holdings, which NRC it turned out on Saturday that Gom van Strien is the former employee involved. He was a director of Utrecht Holdings until mid-2009. He has been a senator for the PVV since 2011 and this Monday he will work as a scout in The Hague at the request of PVV leader Geert Wilders. Wilders has now announced that the complaint against Van Strien does not hinder his functioning as a scout. In return for RTL News he said: “There is no prosecution, let alone conviction.”
Deloitte’s investigation contains indications that Van Strien and his successor have enriched themselves at the expense of Utrecht Holdings. Deloitte discovered how the duo did business with themselves and set up a structure through which approximately two million euros of public money ultimately flowed to a company in which they and their wives were involved.
Details about how the duo worked are also contained in a summary judgment judgment from the Gelderland court of July 27 this year. Utrecht Holdings had filed civil proceedings to claim potentially incriminating documents from the man who succeeded Van Strien as director of Utrecht Holdings in 2009. This successor to Van Strien has also been reported.
In the anonymized verdict – in which Utrecht Holdings is assigned the documents – describes how Van Strien and his successor jointly founded investment company Hereswint Investments BV in 2006. That will do business with Utrecht Holdings.
The duo does everything they can to conceal their interest in that company Hereswint Investment. This is evident, among other things, from an email that Van Strien sent to a friend (and former neighbor) on February 13, 2006. Hereswint must set this up on his behalf. Van Strien writes: “You are a director and major shareholder (…) Later you sell shares.” They agree that the friend will sell on a 32 percent interest to Van Strien after incorporation. But the shares must not be in Van Strien’s name, but in that of his wife. Van Strien’s successor also has his 32 percent transferred to his wife’s name, according to the judgment.
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University filed a report against PVV senator Van Strien for fraud
Zilvervloot comes in
Just a few days after Hereswint was founded in 2006, it was able to buy a majority (55.6 percent) of the shares of a spinoff company from Utrecht Holdings, Nodens BV. Responsible for that decision is Gom van Strien, director and statutory director.
Hereswint pays 125,000 euros for the shares, but after that the silver fleet comes in for (the wives of) Van Strien and his employee, according to the judgment. While Utrecht Holdings only has a minority of the shares, Van Strien has Utrecht Holdings transfer 200,000 euros to Nodens. They are loans. In 2010 – Van Strien was succeeded as director by his co-investor – the share capital of Hereswint in Nodens grew to 64 percent. Nodens again receives a loan (50,000 euros) from Utrecht Holdings.
From 2014, Nodens has paid dividends to shareholders. When Hereswint becomes a 100 percent shareholder of Nodens in 2015, a dividend payment of 600,000 euros will follow within two weeks. In the years that follow, this will rise to more than two million euros. Gom van Strien’s wife is entitled to 32 percent.
Utrecht Holdings concludes on the basis of the Deloitte investigation that the duo sold shares on behalf of Utrecht Holdings for too low prices without an objective valuation. Loans were also allegedly granted without valid reasons and subsequently written down or waived. Moreover, Van Strien and his successor never reported their personal involvement and that of their wives to the supervisory board of Utrecht Holdings, Deloitte notes.
University refutes Van Strien
Van Strien, who denies the accusations to NRC, says that after the report was filed this spring, he asked for clarification from the university, but never received an answer: “A letter did arrive from the university with a number of obvious inaccuracies. I wrote back a letter completely refuting everything. After that I didn’t hear anything anymore. I assumed this matter was off the table.”
Marcel Evers, lawyer for Utrecht Holdings, says that his clients dispute the suggestion that the case is off the table. Evers: “After a careful process, those involved have been held liable for the damage suffered. The response from those involved has been responded to in detail and liability has been maintained in full. They have also been informed of the report to the Public Prosecution Service.”
In a press statement, Van Strien said on Sunday: “I have now been in contact with Geert Wilders and the chairman of the House of Representatives, who, in consultation with all elected party leaders, appointed me as a scout and will continue with my work as a scout.”