The board of the Young Socialists has reported (involvement in) fraud against six former board members. Initially, two former treasurers were linked to financial malpractice at the political youth association of the PvdA, where NRC reported at the beginning of this year.
The case also appears to be much bigger in financial terms. While the current board previously accused the two former treasurers of irresponsible expenditure of more than €100,000, the financial damage they have caused is now estimated at €260,000.
The current chairman and secretary of the Young Socialists (JS), Iris Vrolijks and Rolf Hidding, confirm this. Insofar as they had not canceled their membership themselves, the six former board members involved have been suspended with immediate effect by the current board.
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Major irregularities
According to the declaration filed early last week, in the hands of NRC, under the administration of one of the accused treasurers in the period October 2020-October 2022, there were “major irregularities in the financial administration of the JS”. During his time as treasurer, he “independently made many payments from the credit card and bank account of the JS, without these payments being justified by any means of proof (invoices, receipts).”
His successor as treasurer, who was in office for only two months at the end of last year, has, according to the report, “allowed the financial situation of the JS to deteriorate further.”
The four other former board members, including a former chairman, are accused of complicity. They each “could and should have been aware of the problems” in their own role, but “nevertheless failed to intervene.” In addition, they have also benefited themselves “by not returning duplicated declarations received to the JS.” This concerns amounts from 326 to 842 euros per person.
Cryptocurrency
The current board of the JS suspects that the two treasurers, who were already exposed internally last year, may have enriched themselves to a considerable extent. That runs into tens of thousands of euros. There were invoices that were not accounted for in the administration to companies that were not a regular supplier of the JS. In addition, there were payments made with the JS credit card for unexplained travel and accommodation expenses, cryptocurrency, petrol, supermarket groceries and restaurant visits.
According to the current board of the JS, the unexplained payments to one of the former treasurers amount to 93,000 euros. Current secretary Rolf Hidding does not want to discuss it in detail, but says that these types of payments by his predecessors “quite deviate from our terms of reference and the activities of the JS.”
In the report, the board’s lawyer writes that the JS wants to take action against the malpractice found after more than a year of (external) investigation. “It is a serious situation that, as far as the JS is concerned, should not remain without consequences.” The six former board members “simply cannot get away with their actions.”
Refund
Due to the irresponsible withdrawals of funds in the years 2020-2022, the JS has run into major financial problems. The equity shrank from 200,000 to 50,000 euros. As the parent party, the PvdA took over 60,000 euros in acute debts and de facto placed the JS under guardianship at the end of last year. Hidding: “If the PvdA had not intervened then, we would have been bankrupt now.”
According to Hidding, the financial health of the Young Socialists is now back in order. “In principle, we are now solvent and we can again draw up a normal budget for 2024.” The flow of subsidies from the Ministry of the Interior has started again this year.
For 2022, the current JS board has not been able to justify some of the subsidies received at that time. For this reason, the JS will have to repay around 20,000 euros to the ministry. In addition, there are the costs of the investigation into the fraudulent treasurers and legal fees, which according to Hidding do not fall under normal “subsidy expenses”. For this too, he says, the JS was able to turn to “the great mother party PvdA”. “That amounts to approximately 60,000 euros and we will eventually repay that properly.”
In a response, four of the six defendants said they were surprised by the report, of which they had not been formally informed. One of them says it is good that a report has been filed and looks forward to any criminal investigation with confidence. “We know that we are innocent, so it is good that this is clarified.”