Man held in gold bar theft worth millions released; Still under investigation

A person of interest arrested as part of an investigation into a massive amount of missing gold was released from custody, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said. Gold bars worth millions of euros went missing earlier this year, which authorities revealed as they raided a safety deposit box business in the heart of Rotterdam.

The person who filed the criminal complaint “had ordered a gold trading company to trade their gold, and was told by that company that there was a problem. His gold was no longer present in the vault,” the OM explained.

The man who was detained is Ron S., director of Tov Hazel, a company with close ties to Safe Deposit Nederland in Rotterdam, according to newspaper AD. Sources told the newspaper it would have been very difficult for one person to take the gold on their own due to security features at the vault. Another source said that S. himself may have had the most inside knowledge of the security features at the location.

The 61-year-old man is still considered a subject of interest for the case's detectives, the OM said. Another suspect was also detained, brought in by police during a search of several properties around the country.

That person was also released, the OM said. It was not clear if they were still suspected of wrongdoing.