History of questionable business transactions following Vitesse's potential savior
Vitesse considers Guus Franke its potential savior, but the businessman has a history of questionable transactions behind him, Omroep Gelderland and Follow the Money reported. They found accusations of mortgage fraud, a 2 million euro loan that isn’t getting repaid, a questionable deal in Russia, and signs that his current business empire -Axiom Partners—doesn't generate the billions in turnover Franke promises.
In May 2014, Guus Franke’s girlfriend wanted to buy a home in Vleuten for over 400,000 euros. Franke, also her boss, helped her submit the necessary documents to mortgage provider Obvion - an employer statement, salary slips, and bank statements. The bank statements provided showed she earned 6,200 euros. Her bank, ABN Amro, reported that she only received a gross monthly salary of 4,000 euros.
Franke was never prosecuted for mortgage fraud, but the incident did get his girlfriend blacklisted with mortgage providers. In 2022, she wanted to buy land to build a villa in Vleuten. Because she still can’t get a mortgage, Franke, through Axiom Partners, gave her a loan of 2.5 million euros.
“This is a business transaction relating to the financing of a real estate project,” Franke told Omroep Gelderland and FTM about the 2.5 million euros. “Given our interest in this, we started Elsios Real Estate. This fits in our investment policy and, like all our investments, has been discussed with the right people in our company.” According to the media, the list of investments on Axiom’s website doesn’t include the 2.5 million euros loan to Franke’s girlfriend or Elsois Real Estate. The Land Registry also reported that Elsiois owns no real estate.
Omroep Gelderland and FTM also found a questionable deal in Russia linked to Franke. In October 2010, he founded the company LL Conhort with Russian Sergey Stankevich with the aim of developing horticultural greenhouses in Russia. Stankevich was Moscow’s deputy mayor and good friends with Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first president after the fall of the Soviet Union. He is now on Ukraine and Latvia’s sanction lists for spreading propaganda on the war in Ukraine. Franke says he doesn’t know Stankevich but did work in St. Petersburg from 2004 to 2012.
Franke approached the Dutch horticultural company Arend-Sosef to supply the necessary technology for the greenhouses. According to owner Bart Sosef, Franke never contributed a cent to the joint venture. “I don’t even know to what extent he really was wealthy. He presented as such: he drove Porsches and wore expensive clothes. But in practice, he never contributed anything.” The Russian adventure left a bad taste in Sosef’s mouth. “It all looked fantastic, but the land was a swamp whose drainage had not been maintained for 15 years. It was a mess.”
Paul Veltman had a similar experience when he joined another of Franke’s companies, Reldair. “Franke always had great stories, but nothing ever became concrete. We never saw any money.” Reldair went bankrupt in 2017, and Franke’s house was auctioned off because he was behind on his mortgage. According to Franke, all debts have now been repaid except for one, which he disputes.
A year later, in 2018, Franke seemed to finally strike gold, the media reported. He started Axiom Partners in Switzerland and bought company after company. He now owns companies in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany. “When asked where he got that money from, Franke sometimes refers to ‘some major investors,’ other times he says he earned the money though share sales and consultancy work,” Omroep Gelderland wrote.
Franke now says that Axiom Partners has a turnover of 1.1 billion euros. Swiss companies don’t have to publish annual accounts, so the media couldn’t check them directly. But they did add up the most recent balance sheet totals of the companies acquired by Axiom and arrived at a total amount of 213 million euros. That excludes the Swiss company Swisslinx because FTM and Omroep Gelderland could not find figures for that company.
The media also found that Axiom Partners has been sued by the former owners of FixedToday, a secondment agency that hires professionals for other companies. When Franke acquired FixedToday, they loaned him 2 million euros, which he refused to take back. That is the debt he is litigating against, Franke said, refusing to comment further.
In the meantime, Franke is negotiating his takeover of Vitesse. Last week, the KNVB gave the football club another week - until July 22 - to issue an “unconditional guarantee” that it will have enough money for the entire football season next year. Franke set the condition that he becomes a shareholder of Vitesse before he gives money to the club.