PVV senator Van Strien linked to fraud, Utrecht University files report

Gom van Strien, who is a member of the Senate for the PVV, has been linked to fraud at his former employer Utrecht Holdings, a subsidiary of Utrecht University and the UMC Utrecht hospital, NRC reports. PVV leader Geert Wilders has not been informed of his case.

Van Strien said in a response that he is aware of the issue but denies the allegations when asked by the newspaper: "If this comes out, I will take action against the university, because then it's all about damaging my name," he said in NRC. According to him, he has never received any clarification on the allegations.

The PVV politician will start working as a formation scout on Monday. He must spend the next two weeks looking at what options there are to form a coalition.

In March, Utrecht Holdings filed charges against two employees and a former employee for "suspected fraud and bribery in connection with share transactions of two former shareholdings of Utrecht Holdings in the period 2006-2018".

The documents available to NRC show that the former employee is Van Strien, who was a director of Utrecht Holdings until 2009. The company functions as the knowledge transfer office of Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht.

According to a report by research agency Deloitte, Van Strien and his successor placed the shares of companies that emerged from the university or the UMC in the hands of an external company called Hereswint BV, in which their wives each held 32 percent. The other shareholders were a former neighbor and friend of Van Strien and his sister.

They are said to have earned Hereswint around two million euros in dividend payments between 2006 and 2018, the newspaper wrote. The supervisory board of Utrecht Holdings, however, did not know about the shareholders of the external company, mainly because Van Strien and his successor allegedly concealed this, Deloitte stated.

UMC Utrecht, Utrecht University and Utrecht Holdings will not make any further substantive announcements while the legal procedures are ongoing, it was stated in a press release.