Tax official gets community service for data leak; €920,000 found in his kitchen

A tax official got 180 hours of community service for leaking information that ended up with criminals. The police found 920,000 euros hidden in his kitchen when they raided his home, according to an Amsterdam court ruling published this week.

The 53-year-old man has worked as a civil servant at the Tax Authority since 2007. The police raided his home in July last year after an investigation showed that he searched the tax systems for data investigators found on criminals in another investigation. The police found 920,000 euros in cash hidden behind the plinths of his kitchen cupboards.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) charged the man with money laundering and computer intrusion. The OM demanded 36 months in prison - 12 of which conditionally suspended - against him.

The tax official admitted that he occasionally searched for information in the tax systems to help people with tax questions. But he claimed that he was completely unaware of the cash hidden in his kitchen.

The court convicted the man of computer intrusion but acquitted him of money laundering. According to the court, there is not enough evidence to show that the man knew about the money.

The court stressed that the man’s crime was very serious. “Despite his strict duty of confidentiality, he did targeted searches in the Tax Authority’s system accessible to him by virtue of his position. He used the information he consulted and shared it with others,” the court said. That information ended up in the hands of people deep in the criminal environment, the court said.

According to the court, by committing this crime, the official “seriously damaged” society’s trust that tax officials handle their information with the utmost care. “The court holds the defendant very much to account for this.”

Because this is the tax official’s first offense, the court gave him community service. The Tax Authority announced that he would be fired. The cash the police discovered will remain confiscated.