Dutch pol told to return €200k subsidy

Former 50Plus leader Henk Krol has been told to reimburse the state with more than €200,000 in subsidies within two months, after it was discovered that this money was misused, the Algemeen Dagblad reports. On the basis of documents obtained by the AD, an amount of €206,833 was received by the Friends of the Gay Paper Foundation (SVGK) was used for other aims than stated. The abuse of this money is blamed on Krol, who was president of the foundation for 30 years and signed all subsidy requests. Krol is refusing to pay for this out of his own pocket. The SVGK has no money in the kitty to make up for this either. Current leadership of the foundation made Krol personally responsible to pay the money back. According to the AD, the politician used the money to pay outstanding accounts of his companies, including sex shop GayTel. These companies were floating on tax money before going bankrupt. According to the subsidy request, the money was supposed to be used for a 'digital meeting place' for underage homosexuals. Krol's lawyer says that the ex-politico was not planning to pay the damages out of his own pocket. He believes instead that the foundation first has to prove Krol's hand in the 'improper management', claiming that no evidence of this has come to light. Current leadership of the SVGK foundation don't want to go to court against Krol, as previous settlements have left little money for an expensive court case.