2023-10-19 21:15:39
The Dutch State starts a lawsuit against the company Relief Goods Alliance (RGA) of Sywert van Lienden. The civil proceedings revolve around the controversial face mask deal.
Outgoing Minister Conny Helder (Long-Term Care) decided to do this after advice from the State Attorney, she writes in a letter to Parliament.
With the civil procedure, Helder wants to safeguard the rights of the State. The outgoing minister says he cannot comment on the contents of the summons in the interest of the process.
Helder previously called the profit on the face mask deal “undesirable and irresponsible”. The minister stated in a letter to Parliament in June that she would prefer to recover the damage that the State has suffered from Van Lienden.
The State Attorney has now advised Helder “to issue a summons on behalf of the State with regard to the transactions with RGA”. It is currently being examined whether other providers will also be taken to court.
The civil proceedings against RGA are separate from a criminal investigation by the Public Prosecution Service (OM) into Van Lienden and his business partners.
What was that again?
Van Lienden signed a deal with the government in April 2020. In exchange for 100 million euros, he would supply tens of millions of face masks. There was a major lack of this at the beginning of the corona pandemic.
Although Van Lienden had promised not to make a profit from the sale of the face masks, he and his business partners earned about 30 million euros from them. The deal was later investigated by two research firms.
These research agencies concluded, among other things, that the Ministry of Health knew that Van Lienden and his business partners would make a profit from the face mask deal. The National Aids Consortium, which provides protective equipment, was also aware of this.
At the same time, “they exerted pressure on the ministry, misrepresented facts and deliberately played parties against each other,” the September 2022 investigation report states.
The ministry said in a response that Van Lienden and his business partners deliberately sowed confusion about the relationship between their foundation and their company. “There was clearly a question of mixing,” Helder wrote in a letter to Parliament last year.
Van Lienden suspected of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering
The Public Prosecution Service suspects Van Lienden and his business partners of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. They allegedly channeled customers from the face mask foundation to his company, which was separate from the foundation. “The foundation had its own interest right from birth,” the justice department said.
In tape recordings that the Public Prosecution Service has in its possession, Van Lienden is said to have said that he wanted to become “screaming rich” with the face mask deal. “In any case, one demand is that all four of us become filthy rich, because it is one big middle finger from the government. I am seriously not going to do this voluntarily for anything,” he said in April 2020.
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