Authorities raid Amersfoort villa with nearly 400 businesses registered to address

The authorities raided a suspicious villa in Amersfoort on Tuesday. Nearly 400 businesses and foundations are registered at the villa’s address, Follow the Money reported.

The villa at Utrechtseweg 341 is part of the estate of a bankrupt foundation. For many years, it was home to former trust director Vadim Blaustein, although he was registered as living elsewhere, according to FTM. In June last year, the court sentenced him to three years in prison for tax fraud, fraud, and money laundering.

Blaustein fled the Netherlands and is currently living in Dubai. FTM received a tip that the man was still active, advertising on various sites that he could set up a company in a series of countries - including the Netherlands - with postal address, bank account, and registration with the Chamber of Commerce. Letters sent to the postal address will be scanned and emailed. He’ll even organize an operator to answer the phone on behalf of the business.

FTM went to check the address of his former villa at the Chamber of Commerce and found 374 businesses registered to Utrechtseweg 341 at the start of February 2024. Including defunct companies, the total comes to 444. That is a very large number, given that the building is zoned for residential use, not commercial.

FTM tipped off the authorities, and on Tuesday, municipal officials, the police, the Tax Authority, and the Regional Information and Expertise Center, which focuses on combating undermining crime, searched the villa. They found mountains of unopened letters and junkmail. The investigation is ongoing.

According to Moody’s Analytics, this type of “mass registration” - registering many companies at the same address - is a red flag for shell companies. These companies, often also referred to as letterbox firms, consist of no more than a postal address and are often used for financial crimes like money laundering or tax evasion.

In a recent report, Moody’s identified 380,000 companies in the Netherlands with red flags indicating something dodgy might be going on. “The Netherlands stands out especially in mass registration, as number four in the EU and ninth worldwide,” Moody’s Analytics director Francis Marinier said. “It can be a way to hide illegal activities - by spreading assets and transactions across multiple entities, making it harder for authorities to track the flow of money.”